Catch22

One of the many often-used turns of phrase within the business community is that ‘timing is everything’ and this could accurately describe the initial contact between Enlight Group and the Catch22 charity.

We spoke to assistant head teacher Sonia Alexander, whose role includes a number of responsibilities in addition to her teaching duties, and these have brought her into contact with Enlight Group and its personnel.

“When Ahmed contacted us four years ago we had just agreed that Catch22 needed to take a more responsible approach to the running of its premises and that included the cleaning, especially from a health and safety point of view,” says Ms Alexander. With her role including the area of health and safety, it fell to her to make contact with Mr Malik to see if his promises matched the reality of his company’s service delivery.

“That was just over four years ago and we quickly established a very good relationship with everyone within the Enlight Group,” she continues. “We’ve found them to be absolutely brilliant in every way and could not have had a better first contractor for our cleaning services.”

The first meeting with Mr Malik included a pitch for the cleaning contract and his open and honest attitude resulted in Enlight Group being appointed as its first professional cleaning provider. Not only did this help Ms Alexander to improve the health and safety performance of her employer but the standards of cleaning additionally delivered on all the promises made by Mr Malik in his initial tender.

“From the health and safety perspective, I’ve approached Ahmed on a number of occasions to raise questions about the best approach and he has then provided all the documents required without any further fuss or bother, which has made my life much easier,” says Ms Alexander. “Not only do we now have very clean premises, but they are also completely compliant with all the relevant health and safety legislation, as well.”

This means that the all-important topic of compliance has been taken care of, which removes a considerable burden of responsibility from Catch22 and its staff.

She further states that the Enlight Group personnel have been “very easy to communicate with, as well as being very good cleaners”, adding further to the very positive response to the company from Ms Alexander and her colleagues.

“We’ve had two cleaners so far working on this contract and we’ve been very pleased with both of them,” Ms Alexander continues. “By a complete coincidence, I happened to know the second and current cleaner, for whom English is his second language and we had to communicate with facial expressions and body language before, but can now chat away in English and it’s been very rewarding to see him responding to his new environment so positively.”

When considering the benefits provided by Enlight Group, she initially states that the company’s consistency in delivering high standards in both communication and delivery of cleaning has provided the highest levels of support. “They have never let us down over the four years or so we have worked together, even in the initial period when they were searching for someone to provide our cleaning on a full time basis,” says Ms Alexander.

She also then compliments the efficiency of the Enlight Group and its personnel, which has seen all cleaning duties completed to an exemplary standard. “They’ve always been completely reliable and it’s always been very easy to communicate with both the managers and the cleaners, so we should also include the fact that the company regularly delivers very high standards of communication,” she says.

With the two companies enjoying a very positive professional relationship, Ms Alexander further states that she has enjoyed providing Enlight Group with a highly favourable endorsement whenever she has been asked to do so. “They always deliver and are always ready to listen to us whenever there has been an issue to resolve, then act quickly and decisively to deliver the solution that keeps everyone happy and this clearly demonstrates all the positives that come when two companies work successfully together.”

Although Catch22 has only used the Enlight Group cleaning services to date, the company was required to complete a deep clean of the Catch22 premises that brought the company to the attention of more of Ms Alexander’s colleagues. “Regardless of whether they had seen the cleaning services before, everyone was happy with the result of the Enlight Group deep cleaning and this provides further proof to support our decision to place our cleaning contract with a professional service provider,” she says.

With a number of services being provided by the Catch22 charity, Ms Alexander states that the company is frequently changing and adjusting to its trading conditions and environment, which means that it is very likely that its cleaning requirements will continue to change in the future. This is likely to require more of the Enlight Group services to be provided, especially its cleaning option.

With an expanding requirement from its long-established relationships with Catch22, this provides further proof positive of the advantage of Enlight Group’s efforts to work alongside its customers and support them with their efforts to continue to improve the high standards they have long delivered. In addition to the continued close working between the two businesses, the willingness of Ms Alexander to recommend Enlight to other businesses means the company will continue to attract more customers and meet – or even exceed – its own growth ambitions.

“I can’t speak highly enough of Enlight Group and its efforts to work with us on any and every level that we have requested,” says Ms Alexander. “We know we can rely on them to react quickly and positively to find the best way forward as rapidly as possible.”

Having received these words of praise from its client, it seems very likely that the two businesses will continue to work together for many years to come. Although the customer has only used the company’s cleaning services so far, there will no doubt be more opportunities emerging in the future for this to change, as well.

There is every chance for Enlight Group to become a front line service provider for more clients in the near future, with the many highly positive recommendations from its clients alone supporting this to the highest possible degree.