Banker-turned-franchisee enjoys his new freedom
Richard Kemm has his vehicle and cleaning equipment checked by Jason Cheng, Crest’s Waikato/Bay of Plenty Quality Assurance Co-ordinator.
When Richard Kemm decided to quit his senior job with a major bank he had done his homework and was confident joining Crest was the right move.
Richard was a Business Banking Manager for an ANZ branch in Hamilton and a number of his clients were CrestClean franchisees. And the more he heard about Crest the more he liked, he said.
His job at the bank had become stressful and was giving him sleepless nights. He decided to look at working for himself and he soon realised that his clients who had a Crest franchise were a happy bunch.
“I had had enough of the stress and worry and it was like hitting my head against a brick wall. I decided I wanted to work for myself.”
When he looked at what type of business to go into, Crest ticked all the right boxes, he said.
“At the bank my clients had all sorts of different businesses. I looked at some of my clients with franchises and I found that Crest was the best as it seemed to offer the most for people.
“Through working at the bank with clients I knew everything about how Crest operated. Crest was the obvious choice for me,” he added.
Richard, 58, who now lives in Tauranga, has been with Crest for nearly three years. He enjoys the flexibility of being his own boss and says he likes working with his customers and the satisfaction gained from doing a good job. He operates cleaning contracts with a school and three doctors’ surgeries.
He likes the fact that Crest maintains high standards, which he said was good for his customers to know their cleaning was in safe and professional hands.
As part of Crest’s quality control and health and safety protocol, all franchisees are required to undertake vehicle and equipment audits.
Franchisees’ vehicles are audited regularly to ensure they meet compliance guidelines as part of the company’s Safety and Environmental Management System. Equipment is also checked to ensure it is clean and correctly stored.
CrestClean’s Tauranga Regional Manager Jan Lichtwark said the audit is extensive in its range of items and checks that came under scrutiny.
Regular audits helped ensure a high standard of cleanliness is maintained, he added.
“All electrical items are checked to make sure they have been tested and tagged.
“Cleaning equipment is inspected and vehicles are checked to make sure they have a current Warrant of Fitness and Vehicle Registration. We also like to see that vehicles are clean and tidy.”
Jason Cheng, Crest’s Waikato/Bay of Plenty Quality Assurance Co-ordinator, was pleased at the quality he’d seen at the audit in Tauranga.
“It was a 100 percent pass rate this year, so that was really pleasing,” he said.
“This year there were some new vehicles that had been purchased by our franchisees. It was good to see people taking care of their equipment and maintaining the high standards we expect.”
