Café propreté: meeting the tenants of Mayenne Habitat

The Onet Cleaning and Associated Services agency in Laval organizes "Cafés-Propreté" with its customer, Mayenne Habitat, to raise awareness of the importance of cleanliness.

What is the principle behind these cafés propreté? What are the benefits for both our customer and our company? Here's a look back at a win/win relationship that goes beyond the service provider/customer relationship, and establishes itself between our cleaning staff and tenants.

For several years now, the Onet Cleaning and Associated Services Laval branch has been working with its customer, Mayenne Habitat, to organize "Cafés-Propreté" in various parts of the department (Mayenne - 53), to raise tenants' awareness of the need to respect common areas and the cleanliness of their buildings by Onet maintenance staff.

Our Onet Cleaning and Associated Services branch in Laval provides building maintenance services for the department's main social landlord, Mayenne Habitat, which manages some 9,000 housing units in 200 municipalities.

To ensure that tenants always enjoy a clean living environment, Onet supports Mayenne Habitat in fine-tuning its cleaning services to meet residents' needs.

However, Mayenne Habitat's teams sometimes notice cleanliness problems due to incivilities: dirt in common areas, bulky items left around residences, etc. Convinced that prevention and dialogue can change behavior, Mayenne Habitat and Onet have decided to encourage discussion on this subject.

Café propreté: how does it work?

"Come and meet the maintenance team who look after your home all year round over a cup of coffee, This is the message we're sending out to residents to raise their awareness of the importance of cleanliness, through the organization of a Café Propreté.

Located in the heart of their neighborhoods and lasting 2 or 3 hours, these cafés bring residents and cleaners closer together.

In a friendly atmosphere, residents meet the Onet maintenance agent, the residential life mediator and the Mayenne Habitat teams.

They can ask them any questions they may have about the cleaning schedule, bulky items disposal sites, waste sorting instructions, etc.

This initiative enables tenants to gain a better understanding of the work carried out by our maintenance staff, and to show greater respect for it. 

The aim of these cafés propretés is to promote good living together, and to help people understand that, with everyone's help, we can create better environments for everyone. 

What are the benefits?

"As a landlord, cleanliness is a recurring issue for Mayenne Habitat. Our tenants' satisfaction is at the heart of our daily concerns. The cleanliness of common areas is a key factor in this satisfaction. That's why we like to remind people that, behind the cleaning service, there are human beings involved. It's important to introduce the teams and raise residents' awareness, to encourage them to adopt the right habits", explains Françoise Louveau, Manager of the Ouest Mayenne agency, Mayenne Habitat.

For Onet, these meetings are an opportunity to showcase the expertise of our businesses and recognize the work of our teams. Cleaning a stairwell is not the same as cleaning an elevator or a garbage room. We need to tailor the service to the technical nature of the premises, their occupancy and the level of satisfaction observed. But the operation goes even further: "These meetings generate interest in our professions. As well as getting to know the cleaners who clean their buildings, residents are interested in how they carry out their work. They often discover that our operatives follow specific protocols, undergo regular training to perfect their skills, and that jobs are open to change....

These exchanges enable some of our residents, who are looking for a job or additional income, to find out how we can help them, and why not join our teams in the future," emphasizes Ludovic Berteau.

Sabrina TORAA, Local Operations Agent, explains : "A simple hello, a special touch... It may seem trivial, but these are major gestures for us. We feel more considered and respected by the residents. At the end of the day, we're a team. If everyone takes care to keep their hall or stairs clean, everyone's living environment improves!"

These cleanliness cafés help to build a win/win relationship not only between Onet and Mayenne Habitat, but also between cleanliness agents and tenants through the bonds that are established during this shared moment.

A look back at a café propreté

 On Tuesday September 21, a café propreté was held from 3:30 to 5:30 pm, in front of the building located at 13 rue Drouot in Laval.

Around a hundred tenants took part in the café propreté. Tenants gathered around cleaners, local operating staff, sector managers, team leaders and the branch manager. They were able to take advantage of their presence to discover the job of cleaning agent, their work tools, but also how waste sorting is organized, how bulky items are managed, etc.

Six other cafés propreté are already scheduled for the end of 2021!