Housing Industry Association (HIA)

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Client: Housing Industry Association (HIA)

Industry: Professional association, corporate office

Location: Cremorne, Victoria

Service: Ongoing commercial office cleaning

Relationship: 2018 to 2022, resumed 2025

ACS Commercial Cleaning began cleaning the Housing Industry Association’s Jolimont office in 2018, maintaining the workplace through an ongoing program built on consistent standards, responsive communication and a team that knew the site.

In 2022 HIA relocated to leased premises in Burnley. The building arrangement required tenants to use the incumbent cleaning contractor, so HIA had no choice but to end the relationship with ACS. It was a decision made by the lease, not by the client.

Three years later HIA moved into its own permanent office in Cremorne and regained control over that decision. The organisation appointed ACS again.

That is what makes this case study worth publishing. Plenty of cleaning companies can win a contract. Far fewer get one back.

WHAT HAPPENED IN BETWEEN

During its time at the Burnley premises, HIA experienced ongoing problems with the building’s cleaning service.

The recurring issues were the familiar ones: crumbs left in kitchen areas, rubbish not consistently removed, inadequate vacuuming and a general lack of attention to detail. None of it dramatic. All of it noticeable.

The real problem was not that tasks were occasionally missed. It was that HIA raised the concerns repeatedly and the standard did not improve in any lasting way. Issues would be addressed briefly, then return.

For a professional association running a corporate workplace where members and industry stakeholders visit, that pattern becomes a management burden rather than a cleaning one. Office managers should not spend their week checking kitchen benches, monitoring bins, inspecting carpets and following up the same complaints with the same provider.

By the time HIA was preparing to move to Cremorne, the organisation had three years of direct comparison between two cleaning arrangements. Rather than starting fresh with an unfamiliar company, they returned to the provider they already knew.

Before industrial cleaning at Turosi Food Solutions showing heavily soiled staff locker room floors and dust build-up above lockers

Before industrial cleaning at Turosi Food Solutions showing heavily soiled sink and stainless steel food service equipment (1)

WHY HIA CAME BACK

The distinction that matters here is why the original relationship ended.

HIA did not leave ACS because they were dissatisfied. They left because a lease condition required it. The relationship was interrupted by circumstance, not by performance.

That left ACS in an unusual position. We had already spent several years learning how HIA operated, what standards they expected and how they preferred to communicate. None of that knowledge disappeared during the Burnley period, and none of it had to be rebuilt when they returned.

HIA described coming back to ACS as “a relief.” That word is worth sitting with. Relief is what you feel when a problem you have been managing for three years stops being your problem.

ACS'S APPROACH AT CREMORNE

The priority on reappointment was making the move into the new office as uncomplicated as possible for a team already dealing with a relocation.

The same supervisor returned. ACS reassigned the supervisor who had managed the HIA account before the 2022 move. He already understood their expectations, their communication preferences and the standard required. Instead of a new provider learning a new client from scratch, that accumulated knowledge simply transferred into the Cremorne workplace.

That continuity is only possible because ACS employs its cleaning teams and supervisors directly. Companies that subcontract or rotate casual staff cannot offer it, because after three years there is nobody left who remembers the client.

The program was rebuilt for the new premises. Cremorne is a different building with a different layout, so the Scope of Works was structured around the current office rather than carried across from Jolimont. It covers routine office areas, kitchens, common spaces, floor care and rubbish management.

Flexibility was built in rather than negotiated later. Where additional cleaning is required outside the routine scope, ACS accommodates it rather than pointing at a checklist. And where a requirement falls outside general office cleaning altogether, we coordinate the right specialist while staying accountable for the outcome. Specialist external window cleaning, for example, is arranged through Altid Group when required.

That coordination role reflects how ACS approaches every commercial cleaning relationship. We do not supply a cleaner and leave the client to organise everything else. When a requirement arises, we work out the next step, arrange the appropriate response and remain responsible for the result.

SERVICES PROVIDED

Commercial office cleaning
Kitchen and common area cleaning
Rubbish removal and waste management
Vacuuming and floor care
Periodic detailed cleaning
Additional cleaning support on request
Coordination of specialist external window cleaning

THE RESULT

Most case studies measure satisfaction through a testimonial. This one has something more useful.

HIA experienced ACS for four years. They then spent approximately three years with a different arrangement, forced on them by a lease. When they regained the ability to choose, they chose ACS again with full knowledge of both options.

That is a comparison very few cleaning companies ever get subjected to, and even fewer survive.

The organisation has since praised the consistency, flexibility and professionalism of the service. Returning the original supervisor restored a working relationship that had taken years to build, which meant the Cremorne office was running to standard almost immediately rather than after months of adjustment.

ACS continues to provide ongoing commercial office cleaning at HIA’s Cremorne premises today. The relationship that began in 2018 is intact, interrupted only by a lease clause neither organisation controlled.

After industrial cleaning at Turosi Food Solutions showing restored stainless steel wash area and clean surrounding surfaces

After industrial cleaning – cleaned sink and staff locker room at Turosi Food Solutions

WHY THIS PROJECT MATTERS

Commercial cleaning relationships are not won in the first month. Almost any provider can deliver a strong initial clean, and most do, because the first clean is the sales pitch.

The difficulty is month fourteen. Holding the standard when nobody is watching, responding properly when something changes, and building enough trust that the client would choose you again if they had to.

HIA had to choose again. They chose ACS.

That outcome rests on things that are unglamorous and hard to fake: directly employed teams who stay long enough to know a client, supervisors who carry knowledge rather than reset it, and a provider who treats an issue as theirs to resolve rather than theirs to explain.

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