Jani-King has re-stated its firm commitment to encouraging the highest standards within its franchisee network with major enhancements to its initial training programmes, an overhaul of its franchisee support structure and the formation of franchisee groups to develop and promote best practice within the network. These groups host Jani-King's Quarterly Review Meetings (QRMs), which bring together all the franchisees and key head office staff for two days four times a year. The meetings' purpose is to facilitate the exchange of experience, transfer knowledge, encourage recommendations and start free discussions on policy.

The cadre of high-achieving franchisees that has been grouped together to host the next QRM are distinguishing themselves by providing the highest levels of customer service - so much so that they are achieving a 98.5 per cent customer retention rate across their entire businesses. The message they plan to deliver is the importance of cultivating strong relationships - with customers, staff, Area Managers and the head office team.

"The QRMs provide a great sounding board," comments Norwich & Ipswich franchisee Colin Payne (pictured). "I'll be lecturing in communications skills at the next one, and each of the other members of our group will be giving their own slant on a different aspect of running the business. The feedback we've had so far is very positive."

Colin came to Jani-King from a background in the retail trade and financial consultancy, having spent his last 12 years with Lloyds TSB. "I took early retirement three years ago and decided to work for myself," he reveals. "When I was introduced to Jani-King I was immediately attracted to it because it is a management concept. I met co-founder Paul Haworth and some of the head office staff and they are pretty switched on, so I felt confident going forward and signing with the franchise."

Colin took over the franchise as a going concern, with the previous franchisee selling it because of ill-health. "The business had not been built for a while and I virtually started from scratch," Colin comments. "I took on my first four accounts in March 2004, then six months later added another eight - which was ideal. After the first 12 months the business was bringing in a turnover of £30,000 per month."

Colin's emphasis on communication skills comes from his background in financial sales, and he emphasises the importance of the day-to-day relationship with the customer. "I make sure I am very visible and visit the customer very, very regularly - even if it's just for two or three minutes," he remarks. "The core of Jani-King's systems involves building relationships with customers."

"Your relationship with your staff is also important in an industry in which the biggest potential problem is the high level of staff turnover. It takes constant monitoring, rotation of accounts to instil variety, and a gently persuading attitude - my philosophy is to repair, not replace. For the first 12 months I had no staff turnover, which really helped get the business off the ground."

With his personal aim to put staff in place to run the business for him as he nears retirement, Colin places vital importance on his relationship with his Area Manager: "His interview lasted nine hours! He takes care of the day-to-day running of the business and I'm grooming him to take over the business.

Maintaining a good relationship with head office is also important, and I'd say I've made some very good friends there now."

A successful pedigree in franchising has helped Joe McGuigan bring his own expertise in customer relations to his Jani-King franchise. Formerly a franchisee in a different industry sector, he sold the business on and wanted to plough his capital into building a management business - Jani-King fitted the bill.

"When I left employment to start my own business, I took a career break because I wanted a safety net," he recalls. "Within a few months I knew I wasn't going back. Once I'd taken the business as far as I could, I sold it on and enquired about Jani-King. I was very impressed with the list of blue chip clients Jani-King serves (see box, right), and I now have the confidence to deal with them. They're where the big money is."

Joe already has an established turnover of £17,500 per month since starting in September 2005, and is concentrating on upselling his existing clients as well as bringing in new contracts.

"Jani-King recently won another new contract for me and will get me up to a guaranteed £22,000 per month level of sales shortly, but my aim is to go out and win business for myself as well," he reflects. "I've just secured a good size contract, and plan to win a new client every three months."

Joe's approach to customer relations is a combination of building a rapport and over-delivering. "You want to know a wee bit about their life and what interests them," he recommends. "I also believe in the power of the gift. For example, a cinema client mentioned they wanted the floors to look good so I got my cleaners to do a big job on them for free - it shows you care about making their business look good."

Equally important for Joe is building good relationships with staff, who must be relied upon to build their own relationships with the clients. "It's important that they feel comfortable in approaching you," he reflects. "They need to trust you because they are the tools of the business. I speak to everyone on a level, give them feedback from clients, and remember it's the little things that count - noticing birthdays, giving them a run home, a present at Christmas, thanking them for doing the work."

Preston franchisee Ray Finch (pictured, bottom right) echoes this commitment to staff relations, pointing out: "A bad workman blames his tools, and in this business the cleaning staff are the tools. If you look after your staff, they'll work better for you. We put in a lot of time and effort to build relationships with staff, getting to know them personally and making sure they know they're important to the business.

"My wife Karoline trains the staff at the start of each new job. We are on first name terms with them, keep a log of birthdays and treat them as equals. As a result, they are prepared to go the extra mile for us."

Ray came across Jani-King in a copy of The Franchise Magazine at his Army resettlement centre, after a 22 year career in the forces. "Jani-King offered the opportunity to meet different people and tackle different challenges," he observes. "In fact, I can schedule my work so that no two or three days are the same!"

Ray's philosophy is to set goals of "trying to be the best and put maximum effort into making customers happy", and he works very closely with his customers to ensure they get the clean they want. "Image is a big thing in this business," he reflects, "and Jani-King's is very professional. Often contract cleaners turn up looking scruffier than the place they're cleaning, while our staff wear uniforms and name badges and arrive in a Mercedes van.

"We encourage relationships between our employees and clients so that they are happy to talk to each other. We also meet with clients regularly, and a lot of times Karoline will respond to a customer query onsite to ensure the job is done to the customer's satisfaction." Ray and Karoline have focused on building relationships with their staff and customers, secure in the knowledge that Jani-King will take care of the sales side. "Jani-King originally guaranteed to get our turnover up to £22,000 per month, and we are now up to £32,000 per month," reports Ray. "To put that in perspective, that's an annual turnover of almost £400,000 in just over a year. They're taking care of about eight more accounts in Liverpool for us, which we will take over when we have the capability in place. Beyond that, I've got every confidence in head office that when I want to expand they'll go out and win new business for me."

Coming from a background in investment banking, Enfield, Harrow & Watford franchisee Chirag Patel put his capital into a Jani-King franchise with the intention of building a valuable asset.

"I did research into various industries, and was attracted to commercial cleaning because it is pretty recession-proof," he reflects. "Jani-King's guaranteed sales programme and proven system swayed me, and I signed my franchise agreement in December 2004."

Chirag reports that business started coming in from month one, and it has grown steadily ahead of his expectations. "It's all about building relationships," he emphasises. "You must ensure that you are training your staff to do the job properly and visit the customer regularly. If you're not doing what the customer wants it's obvious you'll loose the contract. Many customers don't really worry about the clean, however, if you don't show your face on a regular basis, they feel that you just don't care!

I visit each customer at least once - preferably twice - a month. The average cleaning company doesn't even visit the customer, while with Jani-King it's all about being proactive. I'm looking to take on different contracts to increase the average value of the jobs we do. I want to build an asset which is turning over £500,000 a year."

Another franchisee targeting the half million mark is Alan Barker, (pictured, right) whose territory (Nottingham & Derby) is currently achieving sales of £20,000 per month, which is just short of a quarter million annualised. "It's all about getting the structure right and organising your staff," he reveals. "I have appointed an Area Manager who is responsible for recruiting, training and dealing with staff. It is a very important relationship because the Area Manager is an ambassador for your business. You have to be clear on what you expect from him and what he expects from the job.

"Having an Area Manager allows me to focus on customer service - I contact every client every fortnight, and visit once a month. The bigger accounts get a weekly visit, all aiming to build the relationship and keep it strong. It is also important to develop relationships with all the customer's staff - after all, someone who is an assistant today could be a manager tomorrow. The relationship with your own staff is very important too, as is positive communication with head office. It's a circle of relationships that need to be joined."

Alan is currently restructuring the business to target higher value clients, such as offices and schools, which are tasks which require a five-day working week. "Organising staffing is much easier on this basis," he explains. "It also brings in greater margins. My target is to start building the business in these segments, and within 12 months I'd like to be at £500,000 worth of annualised turnover."

Jani-King's vision is to build a network of franchisees with turnover exceeding £1 million per annum each with average net margins of 10-15 per cent, reports Director Paul Haworth. "I feel confident on the turnover side, as our largest franchise owner currently turns over more than £2 million per year, and historically our previous largest franchise owner sold out at a turnover of almost £1.5 million."

We believe the vision is genuinely achievable, but obviously it all depends on franchise owners implementing our proven systems. If you don't implement the systems you're going nowhere fast!

"In summary, the Jani-King system is built on two components. One: strong financial management, and two: strong customer management skills. The 'real deal' are franchise owners that perform very well against both system components."

Jani-King's group of high margin achieving franchisees are leading the growth of the commercial cleaning franchise's business as they seek to become 'Janillionaires' - generating seven-figure annualised turnovers. Alan Barker, Anita & Raj Rauli, Naz Hosany, Ket Patel & Sandip Chauhan, and Ian Fick have all charted margins for their businesses in excess of the standard 10 per cent, with some contracts reportedly earning as high as 22 per cent profit.

"My margins have been very good, through careful planning, structuring the business and winning extra work from existing customers," comments Alan Barker. "In this respect it is essential to follow the system."