Factors To Consider When Thinking About a Commercial Cleaning Service
Keeping a single facility or group of facilities clean and well-maintained is a challenge for any Facility Manager or owner. When it comes to ensuring a clean building, there are several factors to consider.
First, there is cost. Whether you have a razor-thin budget to stick to or you’re constantly juggling where financial resources should be allocated, money is always a consideration.
Second, there are resources beyond money: your time, energy, and stress. When your building isn’t being properly maintained, you are likely to get calls and complaints from tenants and customers. Likewise, if you handle commercial cleaning with your own people, managing day-to-day cleaning operations can eat up more time than you’d like.
Third, there are long-term costs of inadequate building maintenance and subpar commercial cleaning, such as tenant attrition and building and asset depreciation. With the economic downturn still impacting small businesses, commercial spaces are fighting hard to keep and attract a smaller pool of potential tenants. If your building is not properly cleaned and maintained, your tenants have more options than ever before.
A Commercial Cleaning Service Versus Going It Alone
In a quest to save money, many Facility Managers try to handle building maintenance in-house. While this option can work for some, it adds a great deal to an already full plate. Unless you’re interested in running a commercial cleaning business within your existing business, it’s wise to enlist the help of a professional commercial cleaning company. Bringing in the right pro allows you to focus on your business and your bottom line.
On that same note, it is often more affordable to outsource your commercial cleaning. Commercial cleaning companies buy cleaning products and paper products in bulk, resulting in significant cost savings. With a commercial cleaning service, you are also not responsible for equipment purchases, servicing, maintenance, or replacement. Your commercial cleaning company manages all of that—saving you time and money.
Changes in healthcare law have also made it more complicated for facility managers to bring additional employees into the fold. Many owners and managers find it advantageous to outsource commercial cleaning to a company already set up to handle administration, payroll, and employee benefits.
Finding the Right Commercial Cleaning Company to Save You Money & Keep Your Building Clean
So you’ve decided to enlist a professional commercial cleaning company. If you want a well-maintained building at a competitive price, you still have a bit of work ahead of you. Unfortunately, there’s a huge range in service level, trust, professionalism, responsiveness, and cost among commercial cleaning companies. Finding the right commercial cleaning service takes digging and due diligence.
While you can’t guarantee you’ll find a good one, there are steps you can take to stack the deck in your favor.
With a Commercial Cleaning Company, Size Really Matters
First, remember that size matters. Go with a colossal national commercial cleaning giant and you are likely to be one small account in a sea of states, cities, and locations. Large companies can replace accounts as quickly as they lose them. They’re a great option when you have facilities located across the country.
If you don’t, you’ll likely get more responsive service by working with a local Michigan commercial cleaning service. Yet you can go wrong here too. Size still matters, and if you go with a company that’s too small—or still working out the kinks of a new business—they may not be prepared to provide the consistent, professional commercial cleaning services you deserve.
Your best bet is a locally owned but professionally run, established, reputable commercial cleaning company. These companies often have the systems and procedures of a large national provider, paired with the responsiveness and service of a locally owned operation.
Commercial Cleaning Companies: What Matters Most?
Three factors impact the effectiveness of commercial cleaning services the most: transparent pricing, responsive service, and quality people.
Transparent pricing sets the tone for a positive working relationship. You know exactly what you’re paying for, and your cleaning company knows what you expect to be done. When everyone is on the same page, it’s easier to measure and achieve success. All too often, confusing pricing leads to miscommunication and a downgrade in service quality. A commercial janitorial company worth its salt knows open-book pricing is in everyone’s best interest.
Is Your Commercial Cleaning Service Tuned In to Your Needs?
After clear pricing, your prospective commercial cleaning service must be set up to provide timely, responsive service. No matter how great a cleaning company is, mistakes will happen. When they do, what matters is how quickly the issue is corrected and whether the solution meets your expectations. If you have to wait days for an email or call back—or manage frontline employees yourself—where is the time and resource advantage of outsourcing?
People Are the Cornerstone of Any Commercial Cleaning Company
Think about it: people are in and out of your building, often unsupervised. And while cleaning is sometimes viewed as work “anyone can do,” that simply isn’t true. It takes a special kind of personality and an eye for detail to be satisfied and successful at keeping a building clean. The best commercial cleaning services spend a great deal of time finding, training, and rewarding excellent people.
Have the right people and you have a strong commercial cleaning company. Have the wrong people and you’re setting yourself up for failure.
Sound Like Too Much Work to Find the Right Commercial Cleaning Service?
There’s no question—vetting a potential commercial cleaning service takes time. If this kind of rigorous searching is too intensive (or you need help like yesterday), consider using industry certification to narrow the field. The ISSA is an industry association for building maintenance and cleaning that confers the CIMS certification to commercial cleaning companies that complete rigorous best practices.
Any company that achieves this certification has met professional benchmarks in their systems and people that ensure a minimum standard of service. It shouldn’t be impossible to find the right commercial cleaning company—and when you do, it will be a major load off your shoulders. Do the work (or enlist tools like ISSA CIMS to cut through the clutter), and you’ll be well on your way to a clean, well-maintained building with minimal management from you and at a cost you can live with.
