The King of Clean

Published January 1, 2010

by Brian Welch
Media producer
askMANDO.com

Any company that has been in business for 40 years must be doing something right. Jani-King, an international commercial cleaning franchise company, has customers in 20 countries. And this year, “The King of Clean” celebrates this important anniversary while boasting more than 120 regional offices in several countries.

Doug Hickfang is the Hospitality Division Director for Jani-King International. “Jani-King was founded and started in Dallas by CEO and owner Jim Cavanaugh in 1969. Mr. Cavanaugh was a night auditor of a hotel in Norman, Oklahoma, where he was attending the University of Oklahoma. That’s when he had the idea of bringing the franchise concept to the cleaning industry,” said Hickfang.

Doug tells us that some of the company’s greatest successes over four decades have been selling more than 13,000 franchise’s, servicing the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney-Australia, and the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, UT.

“We have also recently expanded our hospitality division, where we service more than 300 hotels and resorts worldwide, to include event staffing for stadiums and arenas. Jani-King now services several NFL and Major League Baseball stadiums across the United States,” Hickfang said.

Jani-King’s marketing efforts have led to services in other various sports and leisure opportunities throughout the years, including NASCAR. “And we have recently entered into an agreement to be the official cleaning company of the PGA. Jani-King was already servicing dozens of country club locations across the country, so expanding our presence in this market made sense. Jani-King is also a sponsor of PGA tour pro Chad Campbell, a Dallas area native who recently finished third in the Masters tournament,” Hickfang continued.

Some of the challenges Jani-King has faced over the years include continuing to offer franchise owners the support and training they need to service the larger and more demanding clients in today’s marketplace.

“We also concentrate on developing the infrastructure, on a local and corporate level, to provide sales, marketing and administrative services so that our franchise owners would only have to concentrate only servicing the facility in question,” Hickfang said.

Jani-King, like many other companies, has been impacted by the current economic situation. “We are concentrating on ensuring that our current customers are highly satisfied with the service they’re receiving. Having been a leader in our industry for over 40 years, Jani-King has a high amount of long-term customers that we have built close relationships with over the years. We work together with these customers during challenging times like these to try and keep them with us,” said Hickfang.

“We want Jani-King customers to say that they are receiving service to the level they expect, and that they have an open and regular flow of communication with both our franchise owner and with the local Jani-King support office. We understand that the best way to attract future business is to take care of the current customers we have. If we continue to do that, the rest will take care of itself,” Doug explained.

“Jani-King will continue to be one of the leaders in the cleaning industry in the future, and will continue to set the standard for satisfaction for customers and support for our franchise owners. We will continue to expand our international presence – we’re now in more than 13 countries – and grow in markets within the United States.”