Innovation Drives Success at More Clean of Texas

In an industry slow to adopt change, More Clean of Texas is breaking the mold.

Since 2004, owner Steve Watts had been serving the Abilene, TX area as an exterior commercial maintenance provider. During the day, Steve would mow lawns in the area and then at night take his Tymco out to take care of their sweeping needs. 

In 2011, Steve’s son Cole joined the business and began to grow a service area around their commercial contracts. They added more landscaping services and two more sweepers. 

“In Abilene, we were the only sweeping company within 100 miles so we knew in order to grow, we had to expand everything,” Cole Watts says. “We focused on word of mouth and old fashioned relationship building to get our services out there.”

Between 2011 and 2016, the company outgrew their Abilene service area and began providing services in their surrounding communities, adding satellite locations in 2 towns on the edge of that 100 mile radius. Though only a short drive away (by Texas standards, at least) from the new locations, the Watts’ quickly found out that managing people and equipment remotely required solid processes and organization. SOPs were developed to ensure every employee was sweeping a lot with the same approach no matter what location they worked in. Pre and post trip inspections were digitized, allowing ownership to track maintenance and repairs without seeing the trucks every day. Cloud based time tracking was introduced, routing and dispatch were moved from paper to iPads, and every employee was given a company email address to facilitate communication. 

In 2016, they took a leap of faith and started a 3rd satellite location in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex- a stark contrast to the more suburban and rural towns that Steve and Cole were familiar with. Cole recalls, “We really grew our company strictly on word of mouth referrals from our customers, and our 3 locations were in geographically isolated towns of around 100,000 people. Expanding to an area with over 6 million residents where we had very few connections was daunting, but we were excited about the new challenge.” The company began to also develop multiple third party partnerships to obtain larger contracts, which helped to give them a footprint in the new area. 

In 2017, the company experienced “rapid fire growth” adding 16 sweepers in six months. Along with the growth came hundreds of new sites to sweep, 30 new employees and a whole new world of opportunities for the company. 

“That year we followed an opportunity for growth and were awarded the contract to self sweep almost every location of a retail chain in Texas,- about 180 stores in total,” Cole Watts says. “This ‘overnight success’ came after 10+  years of hard work, sales, and relationship building. Everything just started to fall into place.”

Process Allows for Rapid Growth

Any business owner knows that rapid growth can cause extensive challenges. Steve and Cole knew that in order to be successful with their growth, they needed to shore up the processes and operations behind every facet of the business. 

“You need to identify the areas that you can make the most impact and focus there,” Cole says. “I realized I didn’t have to be involved in everything we were doing as long as we had the right people and process in place. We start with company identity and culture, and instill quality and service standards in all our employees beginning their first day. When we know we have the right people, we know we can be successful.”

Adding to the challenge of accelerated growth, not only was More Clean onboarding new employees, equipment, and customers at a much higher rate than ever before, the team was expanding geographically as well. Four new offices were opened in major cities in Texas to service the contracts, and the father/son duo quickly learned that they could not be everywhere at once. “In the blink of an eye, we expanded our coverage area tenfold; we couldn’t just hop in a truck and handle problems ourselves quickly or efficiently like we had in the past,” Cole explains. “Maintenance planning, procurement, payroll, accounting, and route building being easily managed by a single person was no longer an option.” Cole, Steve, and their new support staff  worked to develop a framework that allowed for centralized purchasing, accounting, and routing to increase efficiency. Their mechanics built travel schedules that kept preventative maintenance to stay on track while being able to react to urgent needs as they came about. 

“We try to rely on technology to help us get the work done as much as we can,” Cole says. “We use route mapping to get drivers to where they need to go faster and are 100% paperless in the process. Each vehicle has a GPS unit that tracks its location in real time. We know there will be a time when we have to show proof of time on site and areas cleaned and so we want to be prepared for everything that entails.”

Using Technology to Manage Change

Steve and Cole recognized that their employees were the most critical factor when it came to scaling and success. To manage a team that was spread out over an area roughly the size of Pennsylvania, several technology initiatives were adopted.

A Human Resources Information System (HRIS) was implemented that integrated hiring, onboarding, benefits, and document compliance all into one easy to access system. Hiring is done through a platform that post jobs in multiple places, can schedule interviews directly from the interface, send offer letters and seamlessly transfer new employees’ information into the HRIS. Employees then have a single point of access for updating personal information, completing onboarding documents, entering or updating payroll information, and selecting health benefits both during onboarding as well as open enrollment.

This has allowed More Clean to fully eliminate all physical documents related to employee compliance, while giving employees control over their personal information- something that is increasingly important in today’s digital age.

“Our employees quickly learn that technology is integral to all facets of our business, and by introducing this concept on day 1 and showing how we benefit from our systems, even the least tech-savvy of hires becomes comfortable using it within a very short period of time,” says Cole. 

The Future of More Clean

Sadly, Steve passed away in November of 2021 after a lengthy battle with cancer. Though a challenging and emotional transition for the entire team, Cole has stepped up to continue the legacy that Steve began building almost 20 years ago. Today, the company owns 22 sweepers, both air and broom, and completes services in areas around Abilene, San Angelo, Wichita Falls, Dallas/Fort Worth, Waco, and San Antonio.

They grew from providing basic landscaping and sweeping services, to now also offering portering, powerwashing and snow removal. The company has 1, 3 and 5 year plans with goals during each phase and diversification is continually an area of focus. 

“We can’t do it all, but we strive to do a few key things the best,” Cole says. “We are continually working to identify where our competencies are and where we can be a full provider for our customers. The goal is a diverse mix of customers in multiple industries and sectors, and we keep pushing towards that.”

More Clean of Texas knows that the key to their success has always been their ability to adapt to the needs of their customers and will continue to do so in the future.

“You have to be prepared, but you also have to sometimes take a leap of faith,” Cole says. “You always want to have your eyes open and take advantage of every opportunity presented to you.”