Is Your Commercial Cleaning Company All Promises But No Action?

Finding people that will TELL you they are going to do great work and deliver on their promises to you is easy. Finding people that will actually DO great work and in fact, DELIVER on their promises is quite another story. Were business more accountable in the past or do we just like to imagine the past a more idyllic, simpler time? So many commercial cleaning companies will make promises about their service in order to secure your business. However, like in any business, promises can be easy to make and hard to keep. So, ask yourself as a Facility Manager, is your current office cleaning company actually doing what they said they would? Are they living up to what they promised you and your facility? Are they living up to what you hoped? Are they delivering a reasonable level of service in your facility? And if not, how can you as Facility Manager sort through the promise breakers to find a reliable office cleaning company that will consistently do their best to deliver on their promises to you?

Don’t Let Your Cleaning Service Give You Little More Than Lip Service

No matter how well priced a service may seem, if you have to chase down your cleaning staff to get it completed, it isn’t worth the money. Getting less service than you need is never really a bargain at any price. As a Facility Manager in a demanding position, you need your office cleaning to get done without you having to be constantly on top of it, after all, isn’t that one reason you outsourced your building cleaning? Incredibly enough, in the building services industry, sometimes just doing what you say you’re going to do goes a long way with customers. So it’s so disappointing to find your cleaning teams continually failing to meet your expectations and deliver on their promises. Worse yet, when you finally take the time to complain and let your commercial cleaning company know you aren’t happy with the level of service and they still don’t fix the issues, it can be down right frustrating. You are likely inundated with other things that need to get done aside from trying to manage your supposedly professional office cleaning company. Not only that, but with tighter budgets and more responsibility, you’ll find that if you focus on your office cleaning service you won’t have time for other important tasks that really need your attention. After all, there are some things only you can really do, making sure your commercial cleaning company is getting their jobs done really shouldn’t have to be one of them. What you and every Facility Manager need is a janitorial company that will do what they said they would in terms of services, without being repeatedly reminded.

Shopping Locally Has Some Major Upsides

As the Facility Manager of a large facility or multiple facilities, it can be easy to think that perhaps we need to work with a large, national commercial cleaning company in order to get out needs met. What few fail to recognize is that there are very few instance in which you need a national janitorial company to clean and maintain your building. In fact, often these very large national janitorial companies can make it harder not easier to get customized, responsive, consistent cleaning services. Think about it, to such a giant company, providing connected and customized service is a pretty big ask. For most facilities, a large local Michigan commercial cleaning service can offer nearly all of the benefits of the national janitorial company with all of the benefits of a local Michigan janitorial company. Not only does it help keep tax revenue right here in Michigan, you’ll find that these larger, local commercial cleaning companies have all the benefits of the “big national guys” without any of the drawbacks of those very small cleaning operations. Not only do they have the manpower and buying power to service larger facilities at a reduced price, they aren’t so large that you’ll be lost among other contracts allowing you to get a customized cleaning experience tailored for your facility. It’s not unlike Goldilocks and the three bears, when it comes to janitorial companies, often the national companies are “too big”, the smaller operations are “just too small” and the mid to large size established, professional companies are “just right.”

People Are the Cornerstone of Any Service Company

Any responsive, professional service company has an understanding that their staff are their single most important resource. Think about it, it is the front line office cleaners, custodians, day porters, medical office cleaners and such that come in and out of your facility each day. It is these people who are in the field, in your facility, moving about your building doing the care, leaning and maintenance. As such, the frontline staff need to be well trained, and above all, a good fit for your facility in order to ensure success. So when talking to prospective commercial janitorial companies, make sure to ask about their people services and processes to get an idea of how any prospective cleaning company sees and treats the people who will be providing services in your facility. A company that takes time to recruit, screen, and hire employees correctly will have a lower janitorial turnover rate and subsequently provide a better service. So ask any prospective cleaning company, how do you recruit employees, how do you screen them, do you do comprehensive background checks? What does your employee training look like? How do you manage and motivate your teams to do their best work? Companies that take these steps will almost always want to show you what sets their teams apart.

Find The Company That Has It All

Your facility is likely not only in need of basic cleaning and often it can be difficult to coordinate multiple contractors to get things like repairs, floor care, carpet care, construction cleaning, handyman services, window cleaning, preventative maintenance and other types of janitorial services done in your facility. However, this can all be avoided if you contract with a single Maintenance company that offers a wide menu of related services. This will not only save you time but also money because working through a single company allows you to negotiate with the same point person. It is easier and more affordable to offload needed tasks to a company you already trust and have a relationship with.

The Clearest Pricing Is The Best Pricing

When you go to the grocery store, would you buy something that didn’t have a price tag that you could understand? Most of us wouldn’t so why would you settle for a commercial cleaning company that does the same thing? A transparent price point allows you to easily compare janitorial bids apples to apples style so that you can determine what is truly best for your building. Second, an unclear bid is often a sign that your prospective cleaning company is either inexperienced or that they are intentionally trying to obscure fees and other charges. Don’t partner with a janitorial and commercial cleaning company that won’t or can’t give you a clear, accurate building quote, your planning and budgets require it.

Does Your Professional Cleaning Service Understand Cleaning For Health?

A solid office cleaning service doesn't just clean to make things look good, they clean using the science of bacterial and viral spread to make sure that what looks clean actually is clean. The best of these companies understand touch points, how to effectively reduce infection and disease, cleaning for health, proper restroom cleaning, Smart Cleaning, and Green Cleaning processes as well as which chemicals to use where. If you are partnered with a company that isn’t cleaning with health in mind, you are putting yourself and your employees at risk, especially during cold and flu season. Well-trained office cleaners will not only keep your building sparkling they will help you maintain a clean, healthy work environment.

Referrals And Certifications Are Powerful Tools For Finding Your Next Partner

The best way to find a solid commercial cleaning company is through the recommendation of another trusted industry professional. Similarly, you can also use relevant industry certifications like the ISSA’s CIMS (that is, the Cleaning Industry Management Standard) to help you determine which companies have demonstrated their ability to provide a superior standard of service. CIMS certification measures a number of areas that translate directly into better service for you the customer. While there are no quick tricks to finding the right commercial cleaning company for your building, this certification can help you narrow down your list of prospective office cleaners, and, with a little research, you can find a partner that will service your facility at the highest level for a long time to come. You deserve better service, fewer headaches and a commercial cleaning services that will keep the promises they make to you.

Here at Stathakis, we combine state-of-the-art innovations in office cleaning and care with proven training and industry practices to give you the service your facility requires. If you need office cleaning services, connect with Stathakis. For more information on how you can get offices cleaner than they have ever been, please contact us at #800-278-1884.

Is Your To-Do List Threatening To Topple Your Desk?

Even experienced Facility Managers occasionally get swamped by the amount of work they have piling up in their inboxes and on their desks. And with so many other responsibilities, it doesn't take much before things feel like they are threatening to spin out of control. A little unplanned maintenance issue here, a little hiring problem there and you have yourself a recipe for overload. These pile ups are bound to happen from time to time, especially if you don’t have regular preventative maintenance in place. So, if you are falling behind and in a perpetual game of catch up, one of the best ways to keep yourself from getting bogged down is by enlisting the help of a professional commercial handyman service. Not only can a handyman service attend to day-to-day problems before they ever reach your desk, but they can also manage preventative maintenance and work on projects that you have been putting off for more pressing issues. Now of course, you are probably thinking “Of course I would love some help, but there is no way that I have enough money in the budget to afford that?”

Is The Price Of Commercial Handyman Services Getting You Down?

Sure you want to tackle your expanding to do list, but you don’t want to topple your carefully planned budgets in the process. There are a couple of important things to consider when deciding if you can afford a handyman service for your facility. First, when you partner with a solid commercial handyman service, you are creating a partnership that benefits you both. Your maintenance company gets ongoing work and you get to move to the front of the line paying less than you would with a steady stream of new, individual contractors. Second, you have to balance the long-term benefits of having a handyman service with the pain of short term costs. Things are going to go wrong in your facility and invariably it is going to cost you more to get a last minute repairman out to your facility than to have a regular, established relationship with a handyman performing regular inspections and preventative maintenance. Think about it, if your HVAC system break in the middle of summer it is going to cost a small fortune to have someone drive out and fix it as opposed to having your contracted handyman service fix the problem or have made sure that the problem never happens in the first place. Third, having a partnership with a professional handyman service rather than hiring a handyman or team is always going to be less time consuming. Having to deal with wages, benefits, overtime costs, healthcare and other associated costs will take your time away from managing your building. Outsourcing your handyman service is a good way to save you time and money.

Don’t Start From The Beginning Every Time Your Facility Needs Maintenance 

If every time a maintenance issue comes up you have to find a new contractor to fix it, it is little wonder that you have so much work piling up. Finding a contractor often involves lengthy appointments to assess the problem and suggest remedies, price negotiations, scheduling and often waiting ridiculous amounts of time to get simple services completed. On the other hand, a solid, professional commercial handyman service is always ready to go whenever you need them. Even better, your commercial handyman service already has knowledge of the ins and outs of your facility and how to diagnose, price and complete work while causing minimal disruptions to normal traffic flow. What if every time you needed carpet cleaning you didn’t have to scour the marketplace to find a reasonable quote. Or when you needed electrical done you already had a contractor that you trusted could do the job? Having commercial handyman services is a cheaper, faster, more effective way to handle maintenance when compared to dealing with multiple contractors or trying to go it alone.

What Should You Expect From A Handyman Service?

If you are on the fence about outsourcing your building maintenance to an experienced professional, it can be helpful to get a sense of what services they can offer you. While not every service provider will offer the same thing, generally, larger maintenance companies have a vast network of industry professionals and technicians that are all skilled in a variety of maintenance tasks. Here are some services that many commercial handyman services can provide you: 

• Lock and Door Repairs
• Carpet Cleaning
• Water Clean Up
• Floor Restoration
• Wall Repair
• Electrical Repairs
• Window Cleaning
• Caulking and Glazing
• Painting & touch-ups
• Ballast Replacement
• Door/Hinge/Hardware Repair
• Light bulb changes/Light fixture installations
• Construction Cleanup
• 24/7 Emergency Repairs
• Roof Inspections
• Exterior Power Washing
• Comprehensive building inspection
• Carpet/Tile Repairs, Restoration & Replacement
• Office Furniture Moving & Assembly
• HVAC preventative maintenance & repairs
• Painting/Wallpapering
• Plumbing Repairs
• Ceiling Tile Repair/Replacement
• Life/Safety Audits
• Remodels/Alterations
• Group Relamping

Outsourcing Is The Way To Go In More Ways Than One

With an established, reputable, experienced building maintenance company, you can get quick fixes to your maintenance issues, go straight to the front of the line, extend the life of your property’s assets, forecast better, cut maintenance expenses and even plan work around your needs. If you are in a long term contract with a commercial handyman service, it means you can get the help you need at anytime without having to put in all of the leg work every time you need help. Don’t go through the time consuming, beyond frustrating process of looking for a contractor every time you need help, contract with a professional handyman service to save yourself some time and money and keep your facility running without fail.

How Customization & Experience Affects Service 

You may have an exact of idea of what you want done in your facility but think that you simply don’t have enough work to necessitate ongoing service. Or, perhaps you have the work that needs to be done but you don’t think your budget can support a professional handyman service provider. Fortunately for you, most professional handyman services can adjust and customize their services to varying levels of work and a variety of budgets. The best commercial handyman services know that there is no one-size-fits-all service and they work to find the best solution for you. So don't think that just because you are on a budget or don’t have an immense amount of work that needs to be done that you can’t have an effective, affordable handyman service.

The Direct Benefits Of Outsourcing Your Handyman Service

There are some clear upsides to outsourcing you maintenance to a professional handyman service. Not only will it help you manage your ever growing to-do list, but it can help reduce the time and money associated with finding and contracting with an independent service provider each time you need a fix in your facility. Further, it means that you don’t have to worry about buying, maintaining, fixing, replacing and storing you own equipment and other necessities, Finally, you’ll have immediate access to industry professionals that can help not only with small tasks but can take on larger, more difficult projects that you may have been putting off. Not only can you avoid the premiums of individual contractors but you have a responsive service that you already trust to do the job correctly the first time. Let your handyman service do the work so that you can focus on your business.  

Let Stathakis Help You Tackle YOUR To-Do List

If your to-do list feels out of control or you feel like your job has become you running around trying to put out maintenance fires, it may be time for you to make a decision that will benefit you and your facility for years to come. Making the choice to outsource you building’s maintenance needs can help stabilize maintenance costs and assure that you get service when you need it most. Partner with a company that has a solid reputation and over 35 years of experience. To get more information or to schedule a free consultation, call Stathakis at 1-(800) 278-1884.

Many of your fellow Facility Managers have already likely determined the solid benefits of having an effective, professional, reliable commercial office cleaning service provider. Unfortunately, there are still Facility Managers who have all but given up hope of good service settling instead for a below-standard janitorial company. Is it that they don’t want better cleaning services? Fewer complaints? A better value? Of course not, it’s likely more a function of either feeling like all commercial cleaning companies delver poor service or not having an understanding of how to tell the good cleaning companies from the bad.

Why is it worth putting in the extra time and work to hire a professional, reputable commercial office cleaning service? With ever tightening budgets, you can’t afford to throw good money out the window on a cleaning service that just isn’t delivering. With a more effective building services contractor, not only can office cleaning be affordable, if can even save you money by increasing employee productivity, morale and helping to attract new customers. Having a commercial cleaning company that you trust and that provides real value is a excellent way to save money in the long run and keep your facility looking its best. As such, being saddled with an incompetent commercial cleaning service may end up being what costs you.

Don’t Try to Give Your Employees Cleaning Duties

If you are already running on tight budgets, it can be tempting to delegate some cleaning to your staff. This eliminates the need for a commercial cleaning company, right? Especially in smaller offices, far too many managers will try to enlist help from certain employees to keep the facility cleaner. As it turns out, your receptionist won’t be particularly happy to have to clean up the toilets after colleagues use them. Now cleaning isn’t any more or less important than any other job, but for an employee that was hired specifically for one set of tasks, it may feel that way. On top of this, cleaning tasks are always going to be put on the back burner for the work that your staff was hired to do. This leaves most building cleaning and maintenance poorly done or abandoned all together. Often this will lead to an unclean work environment that stems from a lack of proper cleaning causing higher absenteeism, lower job satisfaction and generally more problems between employees.

An In-House Cleaning Service Gives You More Work Without Tangible Improvements

You may also be thinking that it would be a better idea to hire your own cleaning team for your facility. At least then you have some control over it right? Sure, if you really prepared to wholeheartedly take on another full time job of cleaning management, background checks, training, firing, as well as all of the administrative work that goes into managing cleaning staff? More often than not, you will be certainly be better off devoting this time and energy into improving your own chosen business and bottom. Between healthcare costs and the money and time involved in administration of more employees, there are significant costs associated with employing over contracting. Similarly, running a cleaning service is going to have some very different skill sets and responsibilities than your chosen industry. Even if you understand what it takes, it is likely better to devote your limited time towards other important areas.

Find the Right Commercial Cleaning Company & Let Them Do What They Were Hired To Do

Successful business people understand that there are major advantages to hiring an expert. The more experience a business accumulates, the more they know. It is as simple as this. When you partner with a professional, effective cleaning service, you will get professional, effective cleaning in your building. As an added bonus, such cleaning might even be cheaper than you think it is. As it turns out, more experienced companies know how to more accurately price their service and have had years to work with other Facility Managers on a budget.. As such, they have honed their service to be effective even when your cleaning budget is less than optimal. Similarly, through scale they get cost saving measures you would not running a smaller in-house cleaning operation. Another important aspect to consider is that a professional, experienced commercial cleaning companies have a more clear understanding of federal and state regulations that govern them. While it may seem obvious, this means that you don’t have to waste time familiarizing yourself with these various regulations.

Commercial Cleaning Equipment Presents a Cost You Don’t Need

When a company is primarily focused on cleaning as their core business, they have likely spent the time and energy needed to secure the best prices on the quality supplies and equipment to keep your offices sparkling clean. As such, you can avoid expensive chemicals and cleaning equipment that can cost you thousands for even the most basic models and let your commercial cleaning company handle it. Even better, it means that you are not responsible for servicing, repairing and storing said equipment. Of course, you are going to need to work with your commercial cleaning company at first to get things running smoothly and work out any kinks. However, the most professional cleaning companies will quickly get on their feet and do their best work in your facility. On top of this, many of these companies will have added services that can be really useful. For instance, carpet cleaning, hard floor stripping and resurfacing, drywall repair, painting, carpet cleaning and more. It can be very helpful and efficient as you have a one-stop-shop for the bulk of your building maintenance needs. 

Your Time And Effort Belongs To Your Facility

For many Facility Managers, running a commercial cleaning company isn’t a lifelong dream just waiting to be realized. Let a solid, professional commercial cleaning company meet the maintenance and cleaning needs of your facility. Having your own cleaning staff is time consuming and requires a lot of resources that are better directed towards your facility. Hiring a commercial office cleaning company will give you and your employees more time to focus on tasks and issues central to your business and the bottom line.

Finding the right office cleaning company to partner with in your facility can be a big ask. CIMS can help clear a path that while not making the process easy, at least makes it easier. Here at Stathakis, we have spent over thirty years developing a standard of service delivery. We have worked hard to create lasting relationships with our customers and offer the businesses of southeastern Michigan the service they deserve. We are proudly CIMS certified and committed to the continual improvement that has made us a valued partner to the businesses of southeastern Michigan.

If you are a Facility Manager in Ann Arbor, Detroit, Royal Oak, Farmington Hills, Farmington, Dearborn, Livonia, Troy, Auburn Hills, Novi, Plymouth, Downriver or surrounding areas and you are looking for commercial cleaning services, office cleaning, school cleaning, industrial cleaning, medical cleaning or other building services, please contact us to learn more about how we can help make your job at least a little easier and make your facility shine. To find an office company in your area ISSA CIMS-GB certified, visit the ISSA here.

Is a Constant Influx Of Complaints Piling Up?

When your inbox is bombarded by complaints about cleaning, cleaning that has not been finished and restrooms that haven’t been cleaned properly, it’s a pretty good indication that you have a problem with your commercial office cleaning company. As Facility Manager, you likely outsourced your cleaning to what you thought was a professional office cleaning company so that you wouldn’t have to deal with such problems, not to make them more frequent. If it seems like your office cleaning company has been asleep at the wheel, and your inbox is a steady stream of grievances against your office cleaning company, it is time to find a real solution.

How To Tell If Your Commercial Cleaning Company Is A Mess In Itself

Are unclean restrooms and low performance noticeably reducing the quality of service in your facility? The problem could be related to the turnover rate of your professional cleaning service provider. If your commercial office cleaning services have a constant influx of new staff replacing more experienced staff, you’ll find that the quality of your office cleaning is reduced significantly. It takes time to train new employees and even longer for them to become acquainted with your facility and its specific needs. The most effective commercial cleaning company is proactive rather than reactive. A proactive office cleaning service will perform inspections regularly to keep an eye on their own people. Further, if they see a trend of poor service as a result of high turnover, poor training or poor fit, they will take steps to address the problem before it becomes an ongoing issue. The most effective cleaning companies in the industry have solid communication skills to address problems.

Where Office Cleaning Companies Go Off Track

Some Detroit office cleaning companies are just after your money with little thought to excelling at service, but typically, the common problems of cleaning come down to a lack of systems in place to assure quality rather than a lack of good intentions. Being a professional in the office cleaning industry is no easier than any other business and as such should never be left to the inexperienced. Still, startup costs of office cleaning can be on the lower end, creating the overcrowded marketplace you are bound to see when looking for such a company. Still, office cleaning requires no less skill or care. Partnering with inexperienced office cleaning companies will almost always yield the same result. You will get unclear pricing as they are still learning to accurately price their services, inconsistent results, high turnover, poorly trained employees and a lack of communication. Every cleaning company has been there but the more experienced among them have already worked these kinks out.

Finding the Office Cleaning Company That Really Stacks Up

When company after commercial cleaning company delivers consistently poor levels of service, it can feel like they are all the same. In reality, however, they are not. In fact, there are a number of quality commercial cleaning companies that consistently deliver the highest levels of service. So, what is the trick to finding office janitorial service that measure up to what your facility needs? First, you have to look for value over cost. Naturally, you don’t want to over pay for your cleaning service and you have budgets to meet, however, no amount of cost savings can make up for a company that simply isn’t doing the job. Second, the most effective and most professional Michigan office cleaning services should have procedures, processes and systems in place to assure effective, consistent, responsive office cleaning service, including:

• Regular inspections of janitorial and commercial cleaning services in your facility
• A thorough understanding of the security needs of your facility as well as a clear, well documented employee screening and training system
• A comprehensive Green cleaning solution that fits in your facility
• A complete system and set of procedures to make sure your cleaning service is meeting its commitments
• The ISSA’s CIMS certification or another relevant industry accreditation to demonstrate a commitment to a high level of service
• The manpower to meet your changing needs
• Solid communication skills to address problems and changes as they come up

When Is It Time to Sack Your Office Cleaning Company & Start Over?

If your office cleaning service isn’t meeting their commitments or just generally causing headaches in your facility, it is time to make a choice. One path you could follow is to sit down with your current service provider and rework your contract so that you can get your cleaning plan back where it is supposed to be. This usually works best with companies that started with a quality service and slowly went off track. However, if you have been unsatisfied with the performance of your office cleaning company for some time now and you have already communicated that with little or no change in service, it is time to find a new company. Finding the right company for your facility to ensure a consistent level of service is probably the smartest decision you can make for your facility.

Finding an Office Cleaning Company That Will Deliver

If you have gotten this far then you have decided it is time to start from the top and partner with a new commercial cleaning company. As such, you must be wondering, “how do I find an office cleaning company that fits the needs of my facility, my budget and will help me avoid frequent complaints I am getting about facility cleaning?” The process of finding a new cleaning company can be daunting, especially because there are so many cleaning companies that come in all different types and sizes. You have everything from your national janitorial companies to your mom and pop cleaning services, and everyone in between. Sure, you can ask around, check references and do the due diligence it takes to weed out the fakers but that all takes time, the one thing we are pretty sure you don’t have enough of. If you are anticipating a changing of the guard with your office cleaners, you should know about the ISSA’s CIMS or Certified Industry Management Standard. The CIMS accreditation is an industry specific certification wherein the research needed to vet prospective cleaning companies has been done for you. Looking for this certification can help you find the partner that will provide a high level of service in your facility and help cut down on the number of complaints that you have been getting.

The best way to make sure that your office cleaning delivers is to have a professional, effective, and most importantly responsive Detroit office cleaning and janitorial company. Here at Stathakis, we work with all types of businesses to keep their workplaces clean and healthy. We utilize industry best practices to offer our customers an exceptional level of service. We also understand that the people that clean your facility are as important as how they clean your facility. As such, we go well beyond industry requirements when it comes to screening, hiring and training our teams. Can we help you? If you would like to learn how we help Facility Managers just like you with effective janitorial services all while staying on budget, please contact us at (800) 278-1884.

Stathakis proudly serves the Southeastern businesses of Ann Arbor, including Detroit, Royal Oak, Farmington Hills, Downriver, Farmington, Dearborn, Livonia, Troy, Auburn Hills, Novi, and Plymouth.

How Michigan’s Rising Minimum Wage Will Change Janitorial Pricing

In the state of Michigan, legislation has pushed up the minimum wage resulting in the small but impactful raise from $8.15 in 2015 to $8.50 in 2016 to $8.90 in 2017 to $9.25 which went into effect January of 2018, and now again $9.45 for 2019 starting in late March. This is all while the federal minimum wage is just $7.25 an hour. As an industry that is largely pinioned on its employee base, pricing can be severely impacted by an increase in such costs. While we can try to absorb these changes to limit the impact on your business, it is easy to see how challenging manage operational cost increases without passing along some of this price to you, the customer. That being said, you as the Facility Manager are still under pressure to keep your janitorial budgets under control. Let's look at a couple of ways that commercial cleaning companies are responding to higher labor costs to make sure that your cleaning budget isn’t further impacted while maintaining an effective level of service. For many of the most experienced, consistent, effective cleaning companies, it is a combination of some of the industry's best practices like:

• Smart Cleaning
• Open Book Pricing
• Time Saving Cleaning Equipment
• Team Cleaning
• Employee Retention Practices

The Difference Between Team Cleaning & Zone Cleaning

Team cleaning has been demonstrated again and again to be strictly more efficient than the traditional zone cleaning. To zone clean is to divide a building up into areas, assigning a specific cleaner or cleaning team to each respective area. While this may seem like a common sense approach to cleaning it can present a couple of problems, namely duplication and specialization. Take for example the process of cleaning one floor, it must be vacuumed or mopped (or both), dusted, surfaces cleaned, trashes emptied, and restrooms cleaned. This requires a large amount of equipment, consumables, and other products for each cleaner to do their job. Further, to properly complete these tasks, each cleaner must be familiar with the specifics of each task that goes into cleaning a whole section of a building. This is a challenging task and can often lead to incorrectly completed work. Team cleaning instead sends a group of people, each with assigned tasks to do throughout a facility. Each person is a specialist in their own right working on one specific item or process for each room. This way, each individual is better trained in their task and doesn't have to move large amounts of equipment from room to room helping to increase efficiency and decrease overall cost. Similarly, if you have a vacuum specialist, a floor cleaning specialist and a restroom specialist, for example, you do not have to outfit each individual cleaner with the equipment and supplies to do a variety of tasks. It is cheaper and far more efficient.

Industry Innovation Can Help Keep Prices Low

Like every industry, the janitorial industry has gone through a number of technological advances in the past few years. As a result, commercial cleaning has become increasingly more effective and more cost efficient. As an example of, the Clarke’s Boost floor cleaning machine, through case studies, has been shown to reduce labor costs by over 80%. While investing in this technology has a high associated cost, the efficiency it offers and reduction in hours can help keep janitorial and commercial cleaning prices down despite a rising minimum wage. Another technology that drastically changed the industry is HEPA filtration backpack vacuums, which allow cleaning staff to cover more than twice the area in a facility in the same amount of time as before. Additionally, the HEPA backpack vacuums also helped reduce repetitive motion injuries as well as improve indoor air quality compared to traditional vacuums. As you can see, not only does innovation in the commercial cleaning industry reduce labor hours, it also improves the health of your building by implementing greener, more sustainable technologies.

How to Use Smart Cleaning to Keep Prices in Check Without Letting Go of Quality

Implementing Smart Cleaning in your facility can help you keep costs down while living with the rising cost of labor in Michigan. To Smart Clean is to strategically target certain services while reducing others to help reduce the overall cost of cleaning while maintaining a similar, livable level of quality. Strategicallyis of course the key word. If your level of service suddenly drops off you are sure to be flooded with complaints and numerous other ancillary problems. The key to effective Smart Cleaning is two things: first, use a cleaning company that is experienced enough to know what can be cut back on and what cannot. Second, find a company that is willing to take the time to understand the ins and outs of your building as well as your specific needs so as to best implement Smart Cleaning in a way that works well for you and your facility. Smart Cleaning isn’t just a phrase that you can throw at your commercial cleaning company and expect results, it requires forethought, innovation, customization and above all, commitment. By cutting tasks that can go undone intermittently, you can significantly reduce your cleaning costs. When applied by an experienced company, you'll find you can reduce your cleaning hours and cost without drastically lowering the quality of your cleaning.

Janitorial Turnover Can Hurt Your Cleaning and Your Wallet

Any service businesses’ single greatest resource is their people, this is in part why rising labor costs have a big impact on Michigan cleaning companies. Employees are key to delivering quality service but the commercial cleaning industry can be notorious for its employee turnover. So, when you come across a janitorial company that actively works to reduce their turnover rate, you are very likely to benefit from their endeavors. Why is that? Mainly because the cost of bringing in new employees with any degree of frequency is a very large expense as it entails recruiting, screening, hiring, and training among other things. Add to that newer employees are more inefficient as they are learning and mastering their responsibilities. This is of course unavoidable, but if your cleaning company is a revolving door of new hires, they are really always in training mode reducing the quality and value of the cleaning services you are receiving. The higher the turnover rate is, the higher the cost is going to be to you, not to mention that the quality of your cleaning will be reduced by the constant changing of the staff that is cleaning your facility.

Use Open Book Pricing to Your Advantage

Open Book Pricing is when a janitorial company literally opens their books and shows you how they break down costs and profit. The benefit of this type open communication is that you can see exactly what it is your paying for and exactly what the hard costs are for your janitorial company. What you should be expecting to see when it comes to hard costs is the following:

• Direct Costs (often in the form of consumables like cleaners and other paper products)
• Labor
• Taxes
• Management Fees
• Employee Benefits
• Insurance
• Profits

In terms of expenditures, the highest expense will always go to staffing, and with the increase in minimum wage, this number will only go up. The best companies in the industry will look to position their business model in such a way to avoid passing on the cost to you by utilizing techniques like Smart Cleaning and by investing in efficient equipment. However, if you need fixed hours, the cost is going to go up. Taking advantage of industry innovation can help keep prices level, but understand how the rising wage impacts the price of your janitorial and commercial cleaning service provider.

Managing a Rising Minimum Wage Without Sacrificing Service

Inevitably, Michigan’s rising minimum wage will have an impact on costs in a number of industries and the janitorial industry is no exception. Still, there are things to be done with both you and your janitorial company making adjustments to try to keep costs as level as possible and still keep your facility well maintained. Are you looking for better service? Better value? More consistency? Reach out and let us show you how we can make your facility services work for you rather than against you.

Stathakis proudly serves the Southeastern businesses of Ann Arbor, including Detroit, Royal Oak, Farmington Hills, Downriver, Farmington, Dearborn, Livonia, Troy, Auburn Hills, Novi, and Plymouth.

Crystal Clear Pricing Is A Must For Any Successful Partnership

So often janitorial bids are confusing and difficult to understand when in reality cleaning prices should always be crystal clear and certainly easy to compare. We know that finding the right janitorial company to partner with can be a difficult task, especially given how many companies there are here in Michigan from which to choose. Not only are is it a crowded janitorial marketplace, there are so many different level providers and so many other factors to consider when trying to decide what company will be the best long term fit for your facility.

What Makes Up A Janitorial Bid?

No matter how much we would all love if effective commercial cleaning and janitorial services were easy to find, effective and affordable, that just isn’t the case. Deciding upon your next cleaning company doesn’t have to be a shot in the dark if you are armed with good information. First, what’s really in a bid? Every service industry, janitorial companies included, must account for hard costs like insurance, taxes, labor, benefits, cleaning supplies and more. As is with any service business, the largest hard cost is the price of labor, especially considering the changes to minimum wage here in Michigan. Aside from this, you also have your facility’s needs to consider. For instance, budgetary requirements, your building’s traffic, and maintenance needs among a host of other things. In order to provide you with the most accurate information about the cost of cleaning your facility, your prospective janitorial company is going to need to know these factors as well as information like square footage, the number of restrooms, floor type and any other details that can help them build an accurate quote. Site visits can also be an important component of accurate janitorial bids.

Too Low & Value Falls Apart

In an era of ever tightening budgets, we are all looking for a way to trim costs. Still, keep in mind when negotiating costs that there needs to be a balance between reducing the cost to you and making sure your prospective company is still turning a healthy profit. Go too low and your commercial cleaning company simply won’t be able to do the work you need. Janitorial companies have hard costs especially with regard to labor hours. They need to be able to cover their costs in labor, equipment, administration, supplies, and most importantly, net a reasonable profit margin. Without that they won’t be in business for long. So, when looking at prices for your commercial cleaning company, you have to consider what it costs your janitorial services company and what it costs you and strike a healthy balance.

Don’t Use Price As Your Only Gauge

If you are using lowest price as the sole basis for deciding on a Plymouth janitorial company, you are not likely to like the results. Getting a company that fits your bottom line but doesn't do the work promised or the work you need isn’t a good deal at any price. Getting your facility's needs met is the first priority of any potential partnership between you and an Ann Arbor cleaning service. This doesn't just mean that they sometimes provide the level of service required, it means that they consistently deliver on their promises to you and adjust according to what you need. While price will always factor into choosing a contractor, it should never be the only factor.

Beware the Very High & Very Low Prices

There is an important distinction that needs to be made between price and value. If you are receiving poor or inconsistent service at a rock bottom price, you might like the price but you aren’t getting what you need. Another way to think out about it is paying to have your facility not cleaned. No one would ever say “Hey! That is a great deal on not having my facility cleaned!” And the flip side of this is that high prices are not a guarantee of better service. You have to look beyond price t determine if you and your facility are truly getting value. All too often you will ask for a number of janitorial quotes and the prices will not actually reflect the reality of what your facility needs, value or what you will really end up paying. Many companies simply don’t know how to accurately price their services. Low prices can be a way of securing your contract and then boom, you are hit with hidden charges and fees and high prices are usually a result of inexperienced bidding. As Facility Manager, you should be looking for the company that offers a reasonable and clear price that falls within your janitorial budget. As such, you deserve to get clear bids and transparent pricing to help you make the best decision for your facility.

Why The Cheapest Price Is Not Likely The Best Value

Cheap prices are always going to be tempting, especially if your budgets are tight to begin with. Unfortunately, very low prices are often a red flag for activities like illegal hiring, subcontracting, low quality service, and pricing games. Still, it is all to often the Facility Managers convince themselves that as a result of their budget that they have to partner with a bottom of the barrel commercial cleaning company in order to make ends meet. Never settle for a company that isn’t going to provide a consistent level of quality in their work regardless of their price. The best cleaning companies in the industry understand that many Facility Managers are in the same position and actively work to come up with custom cleaning solutions to make sure that your facility gets cleaned properly without going over budget. By taking advantage of industry proven practices like Smart Cleaning and Team Cleaning, you can streamline your cleaning to only include the essentials while removing other expensive services that your facility does not really need in order to operate effectively.

Some Janitorial Companies Understand How To Do More With Less

Experienced, professional janitorial companies know which services can be cut and which cannot in order to help you meet your bottom line numbers. They know that cutting service to areas without thought and planning will immediately cause an influx of complaints and calls that will cause all kinds of problems. Cuts have to be smart, strategic and planned. For instance, maybe the conference room can be cleaned once or twice a week, while restrooms must be cleaned every evening. The right commercial cleaning company will be able to work directly with you to make these calls to get the core areas of your building serviced without showing an appreciable loss in service to your tenants or employees. For smart cleaning to be effective, however, your cleaning company needs to have a detailed and complete understanding of the ins and outs of your facility. This means that you need to do a complete walk-through and sit down to create a plan based on traffic patterns and unique building requirements. Smart Cleaning, done correctly, will give you the tools you need to still get a high level of consistent service without going over you cleaning budget.

Don’t Settle For Overpriced Services That Don’t Deliver, You Can Do Better

It is always a balancing act between a reasonable price and a reasonable level of service when it comes to commercial cleaning. You don’t want to overpay for your cleaning service but at the same time you don’t want to accept the first unbelievably low bid you get as you likely won’t like the results. The goal of course is value, that point where price and quality meet to give you the most bang for your janitorial buck.

Here at Stathakis, we deliver janitorial services and building maintenance services to Southeastern Michigan including: Genesee County, Livingston County, Washtenaw County, Monroe County, Wayne County, Macomb County, St. Clair County. We offer effective, professional office cleaning services to the cities of Detroit, Ann Arbor, Farmington Hills, Dearborn, Farmington, Livonia, Plymouth, Downriver, Royal Oak, Southfield, Troy, Auburn Hills, Novi and more.

The Myth Of The Perfect Commercial Cleaning Company

While finding the right commercial cleaning company for your facility isn’t always going to be a fairytale with the perfect happy ending, it is certainly a worthy quest to embark upon. Still, it can feel like a futile pursuit. Maybe this is in part because many cleaning companies will offer promises of service that seem straight out of mythical stories where they are the one and only hero cleaning company that can vanquish dirt in your facility. Finding a company that not only makes promises but can actually deliver on them is quite a feat. While finding a janitorial company that can and will deliver effective, consistent, high quality service is the goal and we have a couple of tips and tricks to make sure that you can find the right company for you and your building without having to go on an epic, lifetime journey slaying monsters and dragons along the way. Don’t give up on your quest to find the best commercial cleaning company just yet.

Blind Bids & Cloudy Pricing Don’t Lead to Happy Endings

It happens all too often that a Facility Manager will accept a less than clear cleaning contract thinking. Maybe they are mesmerized and hopeful about finally getting the service they need but all too often they find that promises disappear in a poof of air or worse, that it was all a devious trap. Many cleaning companies will offer unbelievable, mythical prices, too good to be true as some would say, and it can be easy to convince ourselves this is what we need. However, these low, unclear prices are often a sign of two things. The first is inexperience, a company that lacks experience in janitorial and commercial cleaning will often not know how to properly construct a bid leading to inaccurate, unclear pricing. Second is that a cleaning company is trying to hide fees and charges in order to get your business now and get more money out of you later. By having an unclear bid, they can effectively obscure these charges. Never partner with a company that can’t or won’t produce a clear janitorial bid for your building. You deserve to know exactly what you are getting and what it is going to cost.

Communication Must Be a Part of the Story

The next critical aspect of any successful commercial cleaning service is a quick system in place to respond to problems and customer issues. Now of course, when you ask if there is such a system in place, every company will answer with a resounding yes. But, not every company can back this assertion up.  The key here is to ask to see their plan, to walk you through how they handle issues now. The best commercial cleaning services will have a clear written plan/policy on how they respond to customer requests, complaints and other issues. The truth of the situation is that not even the oracle of all cleaning companies can operate with peak performance in your facility without some feedback. After all, you know your facility the best. As such, regular communication is key to your satisfaction as well as receiving a high level of consistent cleaning service in your facility year after year.

People Are Key

The cornerstone of any successful service business is their frontline staff, as they are the people that represent them. You can’t have an epic story without the very best characters. One significant problem when it comes to the janitorial and commercial cleaning industry is the high turnover rate that often leads to an influx of new people servicing your facility. This can bring with it a couple of major problems. The first is that no matter how good a company is at training their cleaning staff, nothing can make up for experience and getting acclimated to the unique needs of your facility. So, with a constant revolving cast of characters, what you’ll find you are missing is practical experience reducing the quality of service. The second issue that will come up is that of security in your office. With new staff constantly entering and leaving it can be difficult to properly screen employees, putting you building at risk or giving tenants and employees the impression it isn’t safe.

Require A Regal Reputation

When it comes to protecting your kingdom from the dragon that is dirt and germs, you want to have the right dragon slayer for the job, right? So how do you find a this almost magical, mythical cleaning company? You don’t want the man that boasts about his skill but rather the one that has a reputation for quality dragon slaying. Finding the right commercial cleaning company for your building can really come down to who you know. Recommendations from other industry professionals and trusted Facility Managers are great if you can get them. While no one is perfect, these companies consistently provide a high level of service earning them a reputation for their solid work ethic, professionalism, easy to understand bids and quotes, open communication lines, and proven practices.

Check Certifications

In lieu of a trusted recommendation, you can use the ISSA’s CIMS and CIMS-GB certification to separate the princes from the frogs. This particular industry certification requires companies to hit a series of benchmarks in service, people, training, communication, green cleaning and other core areas to ensure that if you partner with this company, that they will deliver the highest quality cleaning service. Essentially, going with the commercial cleaning service that has secured professional certification from an industry organization is like magic to save you the time of doing all of the due diligence from the start. Of course you still will want to determine that they will be a good fit but you at least start well ahead of the game.

Getting Your Happily Ever After

Get your fairy tale ending, or at least pretty close by finding and partnering with a commercial cleaning company that will service your building most effectively for the best possible price. Any janitorial company that invests and values their staff, offers clear, easy to understand janitorial bids, and has a solid reputation is likely to keep your building looking it’s best. As an added bonus, you can quickly identify companies like this by taking advantage of the ISSA’s CIMS certification to quickly sort the pros from the nos. As long as you know where to look, there are truly professional commercial cleaning services and finding one for your facilities is possible and will make your job and life much easier in the long run getting you closer to happily ever after.

Here at Stathakis, with over 30 years in, we have carefully developed and refines our standard of service that meets or exceeds that of our closest competitors. We have achieved CIMS certification through hard work and determination and continue to meet CIMS certification year after year. We have also worked hard to create lasting relationships with our customers and offer the businesses of southeastern Michigan the service they deserve by adhering to and even expanding janitorial best practices.

Are you searching for commercial cleaning services in Ann Arbor, Detroit, Royal Oak, Farmington Hills, Farmington, Dearborn, Livonia, Troy, Auburn Hills, Novi, Plymouth, Downriver or surrounding areas? Are you looking for commercial cleaning services, office cleaning, school cleaning, industrial cleaning, medical cleaning or other building services and need more than the same old song and dance, please contact us to learn more about how we can assure you get the service you and your facility require.

The Dirty Truth About Germs & School Cleaning

If you have children or have ever been around them, it is no surprise to you that they are very efficient spreaders of disease. Not to call anyone out but with dirty fingers, always in noses, mouths and eyes, and the ability to make objects sticky just by looking at them, kids are the ideal carrier and distributor or the flu and other common illnesses. So, when flus are making their yearly rounds, you can be sure children have a role in its spread and transmission. Ideally, we would want sick children to stay home for their sake and ours, but often children are most contagious before they even show symptoms of illness. So keeping sick kids home does only so much. And with an already tight curriculum and the increasing importance of attendance for success, attendance is more important than ever. So, what can your school cleaning company be doing to minimize and prevent illness in the classroom and to keep your students and your staff healthy?

Cleaning In Schools 101

Research on bacterial and viral spread in classroom settings is plentiful and the ISSA (International Sanitary Supply Association) has an extensive list of recommendations when it comes to school cleaning. What does this research say and what should your school cleaning company be doing to keep your school a healthy learning environment even in the middle of flu season?

1. First and foremost, it was found that elementary school classrooms were often as, if not more dirty as their respective restrooms.
2. All too often surfaces are only cleaned to appear clean, passing visual inspection but still being laden with bacteria and other disease causing pathogens.
3. Door handles, railings and any other surfaces that are touched regularly offer an ideal breeding ground and transmission point for bacteria.
4. Of all classroom surfaces, gym mats are the most likely to be contagion spreaders because they are cleaned with dirty mops that only spread dirt and bacteria.

If There Were A Test On School Cleaning How Would YOUR Cleaning Company Do?

To understand effective school cleaning, you need to understand touch points. A touch point is any surface that is regularly touched throughout the day. For instance: stair railings, computer mice, and door handles. Research confirms what common sense tells us, that the surfaces touched the most often are the dirtiest and have the highest bacterial load. On top of that, these areas are the main perpetrators when it comes to spreading disease around the classroom. Think about it, Johnny has the beginning of a cold so he wipes his hand across his runny nose, then he touches the stair railing, uses the computer lab computer that many other children will use and opens the door to the cafeteria, all the while leaving behind germs that can then hop an easy ride with the next hands they come into contact with.

So, if your school cleaning service is ignoring these touch points then the germ loads build up and make their way across your school even more efficiently. If you school cleaning service isn’t taking the time to thoroughly clean those oft touched surfaces, your school may look clean but it isn’t clean where it counts most. Proper disinfection of all surfaces, especially hotspots, is the only way to make sure that your school is both visually clean and a safe, healthy environment for students, teachers, and other staff.

Quality Education Starts With a Clean School

It can be easy to convince yourself that because your surfaces appear clean that they are, but we know this isn’t the case. There are real and measurable effects of failing to clean for health from the overall health of your students to absenteeism and even overall school performance. Many studies show a strong correlation between clean surfaces like desktops, work tables and handles and a reduced rate of absenteeism for both students and staff. With the obvious link between absenteeism and test scores that can negatively impact your school’s performance, it is essential that you take steps to insure the health of your students, educators, and staff by partnering with a school cleaning company that knows what matters most.

Is Disease Spreading On Your Campus?

Does your current school cleaning company understand the science of cleaning for health? No matter what kind of institution you are, whether it be university all the way down to pre-school, a commercial cleaning service that understands how to protect you and your students health and uphold a clean and welcoming appearance. The most effective school cleaning companies understand the distinction between the terms cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitizing and know when it is appropriate to use each. Understanding the importance of hotspots and touch points and the science of disease transmission can distinguish the run-of-the-mill cleaning companies from your committed industry professionals.

Building A Healthy Learning Environment Is Key To Successful Education

Good learning begins with a good foundation and that begins with the right tools and a healthy, clean, safe school environment. Your school cleaning company should make these lofty but necessary goals more attainable rather than out of reach. Are you happy with your current school cleaning services or is time for a change?

Here at Stathakis, we work with schools of all kinds to build cleaning programs that meet the needs of each individual customer. We know how to deal with touch points and tailor our cleaning solutions to target areas that may be unique to your school and learning environment. Don’t settle for a company that doesn't take cleaning for health seriously. Can we help you? If you would like to learn how we help schools with effective maintenance all while staying on budget, please contact us at (800) 278-1884.

At first glance it may seem like cleaning for health and green cleaning are two separate things. It even used to be the case that green cleaning solutions were less effective than your standard cleaners putting you in the position where you had to make a choice between safe but less effective cleaning products or potent but dangerous commercial cleaners. Green cleaning has come a long way since then, but it still has that negative association of less effective cleaning or much higher cost attached to it. We are here to tell you that you can have your cake and eat it too. Green cleaning has made real strides and can both help protect you from harsh cleaning chemicals while making sure that your facility is properly cleaned for the sake of your health, all at prices that won’t bust your budgets. Now you can have the benefit of better indoor air quality, environmental stewardship, and a high quality cleaning that you and your facility require.

Eco-Friendly Office Cleaning Now Versus Then

Green cleaning has significantly advanced in the last decade with advances in safety AND efficacy. By combining new advances in tools, training, and chemicals, new environmentally friendly cleaning solutions and techniques far surpass their predecessors. While you care about environmental stewardship, at the end of the day your facility needs to be cleaned at the highest level to both protect your reputation and safeguard the health of everyone who enters your facility.

The best commercial green cleaning services are going to utilize the best in green cleaning solutions like color coded microfiber rags, HEPA filtration vacuums, green cleaning chemicals, spray-and-vac equipment and other no touch cleaning systems. HEPA multi-filtration vacuums have been shown to improve air quality by up to 99% by removing allergens and other particulates. Additionally, color coded microfiber cloths are a good way to minimize cross contamination in your facility while remaining an effective way to remove dust and bacteria from surfaces. 

Another important aspect of environmental stewardship is water conservation and material conservation. There are a couple of green cleaning solutions that make this directive a reality. Low-moisture vacuum systems like the Whittaker carpet cleaning method have been designed to use less water in the cleaning process as well as improving the life expectancy of your carpets. Another good example would be flat-mopping, or a system of carefully dispensing water and cleaning solution onto surfaces to make sure it gets spread evenly and does not oversaturate specific areas while not cleaning others. Even newer mechanical hard floor cleaners are using less water than ever. Not only are these cleaning solutions effective for keeping your facility bacteria free and looking presentable but they are the best in green cleaning. As for material conservation, a cleaning company’s methods can help work to this goal. For instance, cleaning companies can opt to empty trash cans with mostly paper refuse without replacing plastic liners every time both cutting costs and plastic trash. Similarly, a cleaning company can stock restrooms with toilet paper and hand towels made with a high percentage of recyclable materials. These products, practices and equipment all add up to big green cleaning feats.

Green Cleaning Can Make Or Break Your Budget

With advances your commercial cleaning services can do more work in less time giving them adequate time to focus on cleaning for health and implementing green cleaning solutions that won’t break the bank. These professional cleaning companies are experienced in tailoring their cleaning solutions to your facility and determining how green cleaning best fits into the specific needs of your building. The fusion of all these green cleaning techniques, technology, solutions and training is what makes the best Detroit cleaning services miles ahead of the competition. By going green you not only get access to better cleaning products and cleaning equipment, but you get the benefit of better trained teams and specialized cleaning built for your facility and its unique needs. Not only will you get a superior cleaning, but it will be environmentally responsible and better for you and your staff. The right green cleaning companies use green practices, green products and green technology to drive a better, more efficient service at a better price.

Using CIMS-GB To Find The Right Green Cleaning Company

While green cleaning is top of mind for many a facility manager, is can be a challenge to find a green office cleaning company that has a serious commitment green cleaning that goes beyond marketing buzz words. More often than not, you are going to run into companies that try to use green cleaning as a way to get your business and take your money rather than giving you the effective green cleaning service you seek. Fortunately for you, there is a good way to sift through the many cleaning companies looking for the shining stars among them. CIMS certification makes that sifting process much, much easier. CIMS certification is a comprehensive industry certification done by an independent auditor and examiner that verifies that a company holds up the industries best practices. On top of this, the CIMS-GB is a sub-certification specifically for green cleaning. Starting your search for a new commercial cleaning company is much easier and more likely to net the right partner when you limit your search to companies with CIMS certification.

Is There a Trade Off Between Green Cleaning & Price?

We all want to protect the environment, but at the end of the day, we need our facilities to be cleaned properly and at a reasonable price. There is a trade off between environmental stewardship and our janitorial and commercial cleaning budget. Fortunately, with the rapid advance in cleaning technology, you can get an effective green cleaning that fits your budgetary requirements if you partner with the right Michigan commercial cleaning service.

It can be helpful during your search for janitorial service to ask prospective companies about their green cleaning programs. Do they have real practices, policies and systems behind them or are they just empty promises? If you are in search of green commercial cleaning services in Ann Arbor, Detroit, Royal Oak, Farmington Hills, Farmington, Dearborn, Livonia, Troy, Auburn Hills, Novi, Plymouth, Downriver, please reach out to us at Stathakis. With over thirty years serving the businesses of southeastern Michigan, we are a respected and trusted part of the business community.

The Monsters In The Closet Of Office Cleaning

You partner up with a office cleaning service in the hopes that they will be able to keep your facility clean without the nightmare of trying to manage each aspect of making sure it gets done. In fact, this offloading of management duties should be a significant benefit of outsourcing your commercial cleaning to an industry professional. As such, you go out and scour the janitorial marketplace for a company that meets your needs and sign a contract on the promise of responsive, effective, and professional cleaning services.

So when the office cleaning company you thought was going to be a dream turns out to be a nightmare, it’s disheartening. Perhaps this has happened more than once, the unfortunate truth is that the industry is filled with cleaning companies that just can’t deliver on their promises of service. Many of the Facility Managers that we partner with had enough bad experiences that they cane to believe that it was nearly impossible to find office cleaning services that could provide a quality service for a reasonable price. All too often we hear that every cleaning company is the same. While there are plenty of bad companies that are the stuff of nightmares, there are some quality service providers just right for your facility that will make it easier to sleep at night knowing your facility is in good hands.

Why Inexperienced Office Cleaning Companies Are the Stuff of Bad Dreams

Commercial cleaning companies will vary in size, type, and levels of experience leading to a diverse, sometimes tricky marketplace to navigate. As such, finding the right commercial cleaning service can be one of the scariest parts of the process. Many of these companies are startups, fly-by-night operations, and small companies trying to grow outside of their markets. While every business needs somewhere to start, many of these office cleaning companies simply aren’t going to be able to meet your needs in any capacity. It takes time to master skills and to adjust services in order to offer the professionalism and responsiveness customers deserve. No matter how enthusiastic startups and young companies are they just can’t make up for a lack of experience. Further, many of these cleaning companies have an idea of what it takes to run a successful office cleaning company that isn’t firmly based in the reality of the work. They will often pursue contracts thinking that they can service your facility only to find out they have bitten off more than they can chew leaving you with a cleaning service that can’t do their job. This will almost always lead to them asking for more money or them cutting down on service. Either way, their inexperience creates major problems for you.

Overly Low Janitorial Bids Should Frighten You

We have all heard the saying ‘you get what you pay for.’ Many of us discard it as anachronistic wisdom, but there is a lot of truth to it when it comes to hiring commercial cleaning companies. The largest hard cost to any service company is the cost of labor and labor hours, so when looking at a bid that seems too good to be true, think about what that might really mean:

• Illegal hiring and subcontracting that often avoids taxes and insurance
• Intentional or unintentional underestimating the number of labor hours needed to completely clean a facility to artificially deflate prices. This will usually be followed by a request for more money or a downshifting of service
• Below market pay and a lack of training or benefits that both reduces service quality and increases employee turnover.

Are Hazy Office Cleaning Quotes Giving You Bad Dreams?

While suspiciously low cleaning quotes should give you pause, high prices from a prospective office cleaning is no guarantee of dream service. On either end of the spectrum, price doesn’t always align with value. The trick is to look for good deals over great deals. The goal should be real value built into a price that fits your budget. Ask yourself, am I getting the services I need to maintain the facility at the level I need and is it priced in a way that makes sense and fits my budget? Look for clear, transparent pricing and janitorial quotes that are specific to your facility. The more specific a quote and the clearer the price point, the easier it will be to compare your quotes apples to apples style to decide what is best for your facility. Another important characteristic to look for when shopping commercial cleaning companies is company culture and employee practices.Office cleaning services that have established, proven practices for recruiting, hiring, and training are more likely to have lower janitorial turnover and better service. Not only will this help ensure a higher quality of service, but companies that actively invest in their staff are likely to be more experienced and will ultimately offer you a better cleaning.

Finding An Office Cleaning Company That Won’t Give You Nightmares

The right office cleaning company can make your life so much easier but the wrong one can be a nightmare. But finding the most professional, effective and responsive office cleaning companies can take a lot of leg work. Imagine not having to spend hours of your already busy day trying to determine whether a prospective cleaning company sufficiently screens their employees, or illegally subcontracts or has sufficient liability coverage or is going to still be in business months from now. Fortunately for you there is an easier way to do this, and better yet, it is entirely free to you. You can quickly narrow down prospective cleaning companies by looking to see which have the ISSA’s CIMS or CIMS-GB certification. This intensive industry specific accreditation is a good way to determine which companies are committed to industry best practices, innovation, responsive customer service, and offering observable systems and practices that assure a higher level of service.

At Stathakis, we work to recruit, screen, train, and properly manage our staff to provide a quality cleaning experience. We dedicate ourselves to the highest level of cleaning and customer service and continue to innovate in our industry to offer our customers continua improvements and cost savings. And, of course, we are CIMS certified because we are committed to quality. If you need office cleaning services and your business is in the Southeastern Michigan service area, please reach out at (800) 278-1884 and let us make your life easier and your facility shine. Proudly serving Genesee County, St. Clair County, Macomb County, Oakland County, Livingston County Wayne County, Washtenaw County and Monroe County.