Home ›› 08 Jul 2022 ›› Back
Very recently a newly-married couple Sujon Ahamed along with his wife has moved into a house of Gulshan from Dhanmondi in the capital.
Both of them are well established in the job market. But they have no time to clean their house and so they, through website, called professional cleaners for deep cleaning.
Like this family many families of the country prefer services for cleaning their houses. The platforms are providing an on-demand services and this has now turned a lucrative business.
By the time the country has already some 1000 service providers. This service is thriving because of increasing awareness of hygiene at home and workplaces.
Over the years, the country has witnessed a rise in middle-income households with several members of a family having jobs making people busier than ever.
On the other hand, many of the dwellers consider cleaning as a hassle and consequently they are depending on cleaning platforms.
Similarly, the commercial businesses need more frequent cleaning to maintain a safe and healthy environment for customers and employees as well.
They are not only cleaning their places but they are also seeking proper way of cleaning with modern equipment and necessary chemicals to maintain a healthy environment.
As a result, different service platforms have been developed over the years in the country with the demand for cleaning jobs growing.
Business insiders said the cleaning industry of the country is enjoying 20 per cent of annual growth and hoping to see robust growth in future as it contributes some TK9, 000 crore to the GDP of the country.
Most of the demands for cleaning come from residential buildings and corporate business houses. Besides, such demand at offices, schools, universities, hospitals, health centres, large and small retail outlets is no less.
Business people came up with different kinds of innovations, packages and on-demand services inspiring customers.
The platforms provide some 20 types of services such as home deep cleaning, toilet cleaning, sofa cleaning, kitchen cleaning, sofa and carpet wash, building glass cleaning, water tank cleaning, pest control service, disinfection service and furniture cleaning.
Astha Cleaning Service provides full home deep cleaning at TK6, 000 for a 1600-2000 square-foot space, 10-seat sofa cleaning for TK1, 800, two washrooms cleaning for TK1, 650 and kitchen cleaning for TK950.
Ilmul Haque Sajib, one of the co-founders of country’s leading service industry Sheba Platform Ltd, said they found in a survey that a person every day mostly needs three kinds of services - food, laundry and cleaning - with people’s growing consciousness of health hygiene.
Gradually, the country is witnessing a decline in the number of domestic helps. The housemaid will not be the same as it is now and it will not be cost effective in near future paving the way for a robust growth of the cleaning industry, he explained.
Currently, the washroom cleaning is one of the most demanded services as the housemaid cannot clean washroom properly.
As people are busy with their job responsibilities the demand will surge in future, he thinks.
Ahasanul Kabir Apon, category specialist of the Cleaning Department at Handy Mama said citizens feel cleaning as a hassle. As a result, they are depending on cleaning service platforms to have an immediate service.
“We are providing more than 200 services per day on average. We are witnessing 50 to 60 per cent annual growth in the sector,” he added.
Sabuj Mahmud, proprietor of BD Enterprise, said with the developing of the country the demand for cleaning is surging and so is business.
The foreign clients like neat and clean office while visiting commercial places. Consequently, they are focusing on keeping their places clean.
Besides, cleaning service is much in demand at hotel, hospital and garment factory as hygienic sense is growing for commercial purposes, he pointed out.
Again both commercial places and households focused on cleanliness during the Covid-19 pandemic due to health and hygiene guidelines pushing the demand of such services up.
Pandemic came as a blessing in disguise for such platforms, he said.
Cleaning now just a matter of click
With the development of technology, the days to wait for cleaners are gone. Now, the dwellers can have cleaners for 24 hours with just one click.
Entrepreneurs of cleaning industry have utilized the facilities of technology and come up with the services with website, app and social media platform reaching the service to the doors of customers.
As a result, the customers can order for cleaning their home anytime with just a phone call over hotline numbers of the platforms or on apps providing a hassle-free service to customers.
Sahadat Al Nayeam, Assistant Manager of Sheba.xyz, said: “Cleaning is nothing but just a matter of click now as we are having the services on app, website and social media platforms.”
The business is growing thanks to technological development as people can enjoy the service with just a click or phone call, he added.
Why professional cleaners?
Professional cleaners not only clean but they also do it in proper way. The cleaning is performed properly when the professional cleaners are involved in cleaning.
But if it is cleaned by unprofessional people valuable products of office and home may get damaged.
Besides, the professional cleaners clean with scrubbing machine, vacuum cleaner, floor scrubber, polishing machine, steam vapour machine, different types of brushes, hygienic machine, PowerDash carpet cleaner and upright vacuum.
Many platforms are providing training to cleaners where they teach how to clean, how to clean with modern machines, how they have to use apps and how to behave with the clients.
The cleaners who are trained up under the platforms they call them smart cleaners and they also have to pay more for their quality of cleaning.
Sahadat Al Nayeam said the professional cleaners know how to clean and how to kill bacteria which the homemade servants don’t know. Besides, the professionals have necessary tools and chemicals which ensure proper cleaning, he opined.
Service to grow across country
The cleaning services are now mostly available in the capital. Besides, the service has reached in some of the divisional cities including Chittagong and Sylhet.
But there is demand for cleaning across the country. The platforms are gradually expanding the business across the country.
They said requirements for cleaning differ from area to area. The platforms are implementing projects depending on the need of regional demand.
Ilmul Haque Sajib said the requirement mostly needed in the capital may not be the same outside the capital.
“Outside Dhaka, we are carrying out similar operations in two major cities - Sylhet and Chattogram - and a town of Bogura.”
He hoped that the demand would see a surge in divisional cities
in two years and 64 districts in 10 years and business would accordingly expand.
Challenges remain in the industry
Despite the growth of the industry in the country there are challenges for it to face lack of human resource, quality service and experts and lack of proper awareness.
Sahadat Al Nayeam said the human resource is one of the main challenges for the industry to expand. Besides, the educated people deny entering the industry.
The industry will not see professionalism and quality service if educated people will not come to the sector and fail to make any collaboration of the industry with the academia.
