Ask Not What You Can Do For Your Day Porter Service, But What Your Day Porter Service Can Do For You?

Your scheduled night cleaning service was at your office late last night and everything- the glass entry doors, the restrooms, the reception area, the cubicles- were left looking immaculate. But like most days, the day begins and people start to stream in to your facility. The day’s work begins and you notice that not even halfway through the day, all the work that was done the prior night has begun to unravel.

Trying to keep you building looking at its best between your regular cleaning times can be challenging at  best, especially in populated, large, busy facilities. What many Facility Managers have found to be a good solution to this all too common problem is a combination of a night cleaning service that can operate when your building is empty and quiet, and a Day Porter Service that can keep your facilities morning glow as the day progresses. A Day Porter Service is a person or team that attends to your building to make sure that it always looks fresh , clean and inviting. While they cannot perform as deep a cleaning as the night service might be able to in off hours, a Day Porter can be a valuable addition to your efforts to keep your facility looking presentable all day.

So What Does A Day Porter Actually Do?

“What exactly does a Day Porter do?” and “How is it different than what a night cleaning service does?” might be some questions that you have about this valuable service and how it might fit in in your facility. Here are some of the most common responsibilities a Day Porter Service has:

• Clean and ready conference rooms before and after meetings
• Monitoring and servicing restrooms
• Maintaining & refreshing common areas like kitchens, lunchrooms & patios
• Lobby maintenance
• Superintendent coverage
• Respond to spills and other urgent cleaning requests
• Trash and debris removal
• Restocking of restroom supplies
• Minor maintenance tasks
• Tidy all common areas
• Arranging and scheduling other maintenance tasks with your building services contractor
• Clear litter and debris from entryways and parking lots
• Meeting setup/tear down
• Keeping reception and patio areas clean

These are just a few of the many services that a Day Porter Service can provide. The beauty of having such a service is that it is flexible and customizable to your needs, problem areas and pain points

Day Porter Setup And Communication

While a Daytime cleaning service is designed to reduce the amount of work you have to do, it does require some planning and communication to get set up for success. The most important thing to talk about with your Day Porter Service is how to minimize the disruption in your facility when providing said service. Because your facility is likely filled with employees and customers alike, extra precautions need to be taken when cleaning. For instance, quiet vacuums must be used to reduce noise, disruptive tasks must be planned to minimize their impact, cords and other equipment must be kept safely out of the way, and consistent and clear signage must be used wherever necessary. Further, your Day Porter should use green, low odor cleaning products to improve indoor air quality as well as protect employees with allergies to stronger chemical solutions. After such precautions are established, keep in touch with the occupants in your building so that you can monitor and improve the service that your Day Porter provides so that your employees view your Day Porter as a helpful addition to your team rather than an unnecessary interruption.

Fitting Your Day Porter To Your Facility

Not everyone can be a Day Porter, or rather, not everyone can be a good Day Porter. The person fitting your day porter role should ideally be a person that is naturally helpful, friendly and an intuitive learner who derives satisfaction from helping others. Similarly, they need to be able to see a task through to the end, even if it's just routine cleaning, as well as be able to tackle new and difficult challenges that your facility may present. Even further, they need to be flexible so that they can easily accommodate your facilities needs as they change so as to provide the best possible service. Now, it isn’t your responsibility to find this one in a million person, that job is left to your commercial cleaning company. As long as your janitorial service provider uses extensive screening and training before installing a Day Porter in your facility, you can be sure that they will become an integral part of your operations.  

Communication, As They Say, Is Key

As we’ve said before, the best way to make sure that your Day Porter service is successful is to have the right person for the job. Even if you find this person, however, you need to communicate to make sure that everything goes smoothly. Being able to communicate your expectations and the specific needs of your facility is the key to making this all come together and take your office cleaning straight to the top! Without clear direction, your Day Porter service may get overwhelmed with requests from your staff, or they may not do all of the tasks that are integral to the function of your facility, pushing the work to your nighttime cleaner. When there is clear communication of expectations between you and your Day Porter, you can ensure that you receive an effective, useful service that will help keep you facility clean and well maintained.

Want to Get Started?

Facility Managers so often tell us that their Day Porters become an integral part of their facilities operations and cleaning. Even more often, they lament not getting a Day Porter sooner because of the significant, positive impact that they have. If you want your building looking its best around the clock, contact Stathakis at (800)278-1884 and let our team assist you in designing Day Porter services custom tailored to your facility.