What Quality Control Really Means
Start with the Hiring Process
Start with the hiring process
When any of our employees makes it through the hiring process, the first step is going through a 120 hour training process. that covers everything from customer service to technical washing. Even after that they are continually mentored by their lead technician until they are ready to run their own crew. We pay our technicians above industry standard because we believe happy technicians will take care of your home like it is their own.
It would be great if your employees could start their first day on the job with grade A work after all that training but a good employee takes a constant effort from management building confidence, helping them learn new tricks, and making sure they are taken care of, physically, mentally, and financially. Your job as an employer is to allocate your time to the employees in whom you see the greatest potential for growth.
“Who is doing the job?” — it’s the first question you should ask in any business where quality control is essential. That is if you care about quality control. So how do you make sure you are hiring the right people to do the right work?
We started with the job listing. You won’t attract excited, motivated workers by simply saying you want them—you have to show that your company is worth getting excited about. For example, this is the listing that originally brought us our marketing manager:
Marketing ManagerSEO • Paid Ads • Campaigns • Pipelines • Real Ownership • Real Growth Let’s be real. Most marketing jobs have you executing someone else’s playbook inside a bloated team where your work disappears into a committee. This isn’t that. Mt. Baker Window Cleaning Co. is one of the fastest-growing exterior cleaning companies in the Pacific Northwest. We’ve earned nearly one thousand five-star reviews, built a culture people actually want to be part of, and grown to become the dominant player in Whatcom and Skagit County. Now we’re bringing marketing in-house — and we’re looking for the person who’s going to own it. This isn’t a coordinator role. This isn’t a “post on social media and write some blogs” role. This is a full-stack marketing position where your fingerprints are on everything — and where the right person has a direct path to growing into a Director-level role as we expand. . . etc . . .
Work Hard Play Hard
When an employee commits to high quality work, their life outside of work has to be balanced accordingly. For many of our employees, this means getting outside and playing. When a technician comes back after having a great weekend, they’re ready to give it their all during their work week. This passion comes from what our company has stood for since the beginning—Mount Baker.
The difficult part of building a good team is helping all of these strangers, who come from all different backgrounds, with different interests, and lifestyles feel like their coworkers are family. That process ties directly into the how much effort we put directly towards the culture. But “culture” is a word thrown around with not much backing. What about our culture cultivates such strong bonds?
Here’s a couple out of work activities we’ve put time into fostering connection:
- Paintball A perfect way to break the ice is to break skin together—we’re sort of joking. It’s a great way to blow off steam and share laughs.
- Company Day/Weekend Trips Taking the team around our favorite places. Whether it’s spending time in a cabin, hanging out by a lake, or saving up for a trip to Mexico.
- Skiing/Snowboarding A passion most of our employees love that naturally brought many of our workers together and sparked a passion in others.
- Sports Games With a shared interest in sports, going to baseball and hockey games is a surefire way we get quality time in.
- Rafting There are ways to get outside all year round, and we take full advantage. Once you get your adrenaline levels rising, most barriers fly out the window. A very clean window.
The Process
We charge more because we do good work. It’s as simple as that. That’s why our reviews are better and our clients happier, tip more, and refer to their friends. The process of figuring out what good work is, involves: research, resilience, and feedback loops. You will not succeed the first time around, or the second, or the third, but by the fourth you may find the exact chem ratio that’s just right for removing moss for all different roofing materials.
Conclusion - A Work in Progress
Quality control means learning. It means no matter how much you’ve grown; shaken off the moss, wiped away the suds, or cleared out the gutters, being master of any craft means never losing the part of you that is still a student. That is how all of our employees go about their work because we give them the grace and motivation to do so.
Quality control means learning. It means no matter how much you’ve grown; shaken off the moss, wiped away the suds, or cleared out the gutters, being master of any craft means never losing the part of you that is still a student. That is how all of our employees go about their work because we give them the grace and motivation to do so.
