Reliable, effective, consistent office cleaning services shouldn’t be the magical unicorn of building services, the thing you’ve heard about but don’t believe exists. As a Facility Manager, you deserve to have a professional, capable office cleaning service in your facility. If you are suffering with a less than optimal office cleaning company, you probably dream about how better commercial office cleaning services could keep your building looking its best and make your life easier. No more fires to put out, no more missed items, no more steady stream of complaints. But exceptional office cleaners don’t have to be a dream, they can be a reality. There are professional office cleaning companies ready, willing and able to offer you the professional level of service you and your facility deserve and they aren’t even THAT hard to find.
Finding the right office cleaning company can sometimes seem like an impossibility right? The office cleaning marketplace is a crowded one and there are so many sizes and types of office cleaning companies, not all ready and willing to deliver their best in your facility. Often office cleaning companies want your business whether they are skilled enough to handle it is entirely different. Do they have good people? Do they price their services transparently, are they fully insured? Do they ascribe to industry best practices? Do they train their teams well? Do they have quality assurance measures in place? There are hundreds of questions you could ask to try to find those few office cleaning services truly up to the job. But trying to validate the claims of multiple office cleaning companies is both time consuming and not always precise. Yes you go through the paces talking to five, ten, twenty or more prospective commercial cleaning companies—you could have them all do site visits, submit office cleaning bids, try to get your head around their systems and if they will be able to do the work as promised, at or under your budget. That’s really what it takes find the masters and avoid the disasters, but that kind of commitment could easily become a full time job within your existing duties. There has to be a better, more efficient way to find the right office cleaning services.
Thankfully, great office cleaning services don’t have to be the elusive unicorn we sometimes think it is. Not only is it possible to find the right office cleaning company (without giving up your firstborn or casting a magic spell), it’s actually pretty easy and straightforward if you know about the valuable short cut. The shortcut and time saving technique to secure the most responsive and effective office cleaning services is the ISSA’s CIMS-GB. If you haven’t heard of this before, let’s look at what CIMS is and how it can work for you.
So the ISSA’s CIMS-GB gives office cleaning companies a framework with which to design and adjust their operations to deliver the most efficient, consistent and effective services and then the ISSA uses benchmarks and systematic evaluation to see if a company hits the mark, earning CIMS certification.
Some industry certifications amount to little more than paid awards or participation trophies that don’t really give you as a Facility Manager any real, solid, good information to make decisions about the cleaning and maintenance of your facility. CIMS certification is no participation trophy, rather it is a rigorous, challenging, comprehensive, independent assessment that critically assesses a building services companies compliance and track record with all CIMS elements and standards. Similarly, CIMS isn’t a self performed ‘test,’ it is a challenging, multifaceted assessment carried out by an ISSA-accredited third party assessor. This makes CIMS is a credible shortcut for creating your short list of prospective janitorial companies. In order to attain and retain certification, an office cleaning company must meet all of the mandatory elements and at least sixty percent of the suggested benchmarks in order to become certified. CIMS certification offers you a valuable tool in part because it IS so difficult. Those companies that seek CIMS certification are actively committed to continual improvement and making their businesses better and more responsive. And the office cleaning companies that DO achieve certification while not guaranteed to deliver, have every possible element in place to highly predict stand out service. CIMS makes it significantly more likely you that will get the level of quality and consistency you need from your office cleaning company by weeding out those companies operating at a lower level. It can be especially useful to use CIMS certification to build your short list of possible contractors and then examine prospective office cleaning companies with regard to fit, services, prices and use all the information to make a decision about which company is best for you and your facility.
ISSA’s CIMS and CIMS-GB is a demanding process for commercial cleaning companies and other building services companies, but what does CIMS really mean for you and your facility? The documentation, processes, systems and checks are all centered around five core areas that can make or break your office cleaning services.
These five, important yardsticks are excellent predictors of positive outcomes and the level of professional, responsive, effective service you and your facility deserve. The ISSA, in creating and executing the CIMS, has done essentially the most time consuming part of the search for you. And the best part of it is it is free to you.
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.