For Lisa Sablan, cleanliness is good business

Since she was a young girl, she has been particular with details. She was never her mother’s headache when it came to fixing her things. She would make her own bed, clean her room, and fix her things. And this she loved doing.

“I remember my sister would pay me to do her house chore. I don’t know but I always wanted to have a clean surrounding. I loved staying in the house and cleaning,” recalled a cheerful Lisa P. Sablan in an interview on Labor Day at her office on Beach Road Garapan.

While “cleanliness” has become her lifestyle, she never thought that it would actually give her a big business break. It was, however, only logical that such obsession with cleanliness would push her to put up her own cleaning team in 2000, which she proudly called “Sablan Topline Cleaning Agency.”

At the urging of her businessman nephew, Juan S. Tenorio, she dared to accept the household cleaning contract at Coral Ocean Point.

“When they [Coral Ocean] privatized their housekeeping, I took the challenge and did the laundry for them,” she said.

It was a first test that she successfully passed with flying colors. Lisa then fully understood that she actually has a knack for the cleaning business.

In the same year, 2000, she also received another client, the Hyatt Regency Hotel Saipan.

She said her agency initially handled the cleaning of Hyatt’s public area like the lobby and restaurant area. Impressed by her staff’s quality work, Hyatt Regency asked her to extend the cleaning to the kitchen.

The area assignment was further extended to include a wing of the hotel, then another wing, until Sablan took over the entire hotel, including hotel rooms and housekeeping.

“I’m just very grateful for the trust of the Hyatt management headed by its GM, Michael Von Siebenthal. It inspires us to do more,” she said.

Her entrepreneurship continued to expand with the entry of another big client, the Commonwealth Health Center. About three months ago, she said Sablan Topline started cleaning the CHCs patient’s room. As part of her company’s service, Sablan Topline also cleans CHC’s peripheral clinics for free. These included the clinics in San Roque, Garapan, San Antonio, CDAC, and a clinic on Navy Hill.

“It’s our way of doing service,” she said.

Sablan said it has been her philosophy to give “beyond the call of duty.”

“We are here with a mission to deliver a quality service. We want our clients to be satisfied. We want their customers to feel safe and confident as they go to their places. We think about the people,” she said.

To ensure consistency in the delivery of top service, she said that she personally inspects the hotels and the clinics to see if her people are doing their job.

“I’m very particular. I go out there. I’m always out to check it myself. They know I’m doing it so my staff are really careful and you know, I trust them to be the best employees,” she said.

She said her confidence is boosted when she gets positive feedback from hotel guests and hospital people for “a job well done.”

“They are happy about our service,” she said.

Sablan Topline has about 100 staff stationed at Coral Ocean Point and Hyatt Regency Hotel as well as CHC. Sablan said she has 10 supervisors who oversee these functions.

“I need more employees. I need to hire more because of our many work,” she said.

Lisa has been known to be “very generous” to her employees even in terms of overtime and other favors. To keep a balance on her generosity, Sablan is checked by her immediate family members.

“My daughter Cathy is here in my office. She would remind me, okay mom, that’s it. I need that sometimes,” she said smiling.

Lisa is also assisted in the office by her two daughters-in-law: Cora, married to her second son Joe Ada; and Pearl, who is married to her youngest son, John.

“They are my angels. I get my children involved in the business,” she said.

Lisa was born and raised on Saipan to parents Emilia Pangelinan and Vicente Sablan. “I think I got that habit of keeping things clean and in order from my mother’s side,” she quipped.

Lisa has six children: Frankie, who is currently on training in Hawaii for deployment to Iraq; Joe, who is the enforcement director at the Department of Labor; Cathy; Raymond (deceased); John; and Antonia.

“I trained all my children in household work. All of them experienced my discipline while they were growing up. If I didn’t like their work, I’d ask them to redo it,” she chuckled.

Lisa said she still has much to offer in the coming months and years. Personally, she said she would want to branch out to the restaurant business because “I love cooking!”

She said she has been planning to introduce a Vietnamese restaurant on Saipan.

And for sure, she wants to offer “only the best kind of service.”

A tip from the master for people who frequent restaurants and dining halls: “When you go to a restaurant, check the restroom. If it’s clean, their kitchen is clean. If it’s not, I can guarantee you that their kitchen is not clean.”