What does robot cleaning mean for professional cleaning services?

Cleaning has always been a physical process whose failure or success depends on human effort, but new cleaning technology could mean that all that is about to change. Dyson, Roomba, Diversey, and several others have all developed automated cleaning machines. Rather than spending hours vacuuming floors, people now only need to remember to turn a robot off and on. Should cleaning services be intimidated by this new technology? Or should they celebrate it?

One thing for certain is that cleaning robotics is serious stuff. This technology is forecast to make a real impact as economists predict the cleaning robots market to reach 2.6 billion dollars by 2020. This process is part of a wider change as cleaning is not the only industry where robots are making themselves known. Vlogger CGP Grey points out that automation, the process of using robots for human work, has already affected the retail industry with self checkouts replacing human checkout staff. He then argues that people in the transport industry, coffee makers, and even doctors run the risk of being replaced by automatons.

As a result, there is much the cleaning industry can learn from other industries. Chief of which is the lesson that automation is not necessarily a bad thing. Evidently, the invention of the microwave did not kill the restaurant industry. Anybody can microwave a prepackaged burrito, but it takes a proper chef to give you a real taste of Mexican cuisine. Likewise, those in the cleaning industry need to show that they deliver a better clean than their automated counterparts. Yet another lesson that the cleaning industry can learn from cooking is that robots need not be their competition at all. Chefs do not fear cooking technology. Rather, many chefs have embraced new technology, with open arms, and this has helped to develop the discipline of gastronomy.

Cleaners need to recognise not just what makes them better from automated cleaning, but what makes them different. Some experts claim that the best cleaning services focus on a niche and have a high level of customer service. These two things will become increasingly important with robot competition. Dyson’s machine may vacuum your floors, but does it know how to remove stains from a Rayburn oven without affecting the finish? This niche will separate robot cleaning from cleaning services. Roomba may be smart, but is it smart enough to do exactly what you want it to do when you want it to be done? This level of customer service will separate robot cleaning from cleaning services.

The future of cleaning is not a foregone conclusion. It may well be the case that consumers allow robots to do the jobs that, in the past, they have either done themselves or have gotten professionals to do. However, they may not. What consumers will do in the future depends entirely on cleaning businesses. If they can provide something that the robots cannot, then people will continue to use them.

Nottingham Oven Cleaners