The following may help when ordering stock for clients.

There are 2 kinds of stock

a, What cleaner uses for cleaning: these include cleaning solutions, cloths and so on.

b, Consumables: What the clients use themselves such as toilet rolls, hand towels etc.

1, Check what stock is needed

For example, if you need to order toilet rolls for an office it will help to know how many people work in the office. Therefore, you can work out how many toilet rolls need to be ordered monthly.

2, Purchasing

Find the most price competitive supplier, so will need to shop around.

Most supply companies can offer better than website prices to attract and keep your custom. Always negotiate the price, never accept the first offer. This is because most stock supply companies have purchased their stock at cost price and the prices on their websites are marked up to make a significant profit. As you may be selling the stock to your own clients at a profit, the prices you buy the stock for will also need to be competitive.

3, Delivery

Once you have agreed a price on the products you can then order the stock to either be delivered directly to your clients, or delivered to your own company address, if you prefer to hold the stock yourself.

It is best to have a company that will deliver directly to your clients, for this they need to have good delivery drivers that will take them directly to the cleaning storage cupboard and not just dump them on the client.

It is best because then you:

• Do not have the cost of buying stock before you sell it
• Do not need your own delivery operation
• Do not need to store the stock yourself, with the cost of doing this and stock control

However of course then you do need to manage the stock at the client’s site so you know when to re order for them.

The supply company should email an invoice for the purchased stock. Always check this is correct before the delivery of the stock.

4, Quality Control

It sometimes may be necessary to do quality control checks on the products, especially on consumable products such as paper hand towels.

If you have a high-end client that has a very posh office, then basic paper towels might not be suitable for them. Depending on their budget, each client may require different products supplied to them.

As you cannot see the quality of the products from the supplier’s website, it may be best to have certain products delivered to your office first for a quality control check before sending to the relevant client.

5, Delivery of Stock

Once the stock arrives at the client’s address, the stock will need to be checked to ensure everything has been delivered correctly. It is very important that this is checked on the day of the delivery as any missing stock, that has been noticed after the delivery date, will unlikely be refunded and you may incur the cost of the missing items.

The items should then be stored in a cupboard for easy access.

6, Stocktaking

It is important to do regular stocktaking to ensure that stock is replenished before they run out. This can be performed by a supervisor or stock controller.

S Dickson