Finding the right janitorial service provider for your facility has never been an easy task, but that doesn't mean that your time spent searching is wasted. Finding the right industrial cleaning services company is important, after all, not every commercial cleaning company is up to the job. While commercial cleaning companies come in all sizes and specialties, very few are equipped to handle large facilities, especially those with specific needs, professionally and effectively. Taking advantage of our insider tips and tricks and you can find those companies that stand above the rest in the crowded janitorial marketplace. Get the right industrial cleaning company and maintain your facility at the highest possible standard.
As you’ll find with any service based business, if your prospective industrial janitorial services company isn’t serious about their staff, you will be get a reduced quality of service. As such, there are a couple of important questions to ask yourself. Does your prospective Detroit industrial cleaning company service illegally hire and subcontract to artificially lower their bottom line? Do they work to hire, screen, train, and retain the best employees that are the best possible fit for you and your facility? Are they running a criminal background check and drug testing every employee who enters your facility?
According to national averages, the janitorial industry has an employee turnover rate of nearly 200%. That is to say that compared to other industries, janitorial companies lose and rehire employees nearly twice as often. While high turnover isn’t uncommon with lower wage, lower skill labor, it doesn't have to be thathigh. This high turnover rate is more often caused by a number of poor practices commonplace in the janitorial industry. High turnover is often directly related to a lack of competitive wages, benefits, quality training that raises performance and engagement, and a lack of responsive management that helps good people deliver good work. High turnover may seem like something you shouldn’t have to worry about, after all, it is your industrial cleaning service’s job to find and train new employees, right? Unfortunately for you, a revolving door of staff can cause security problems in your facility, an overall decline in the level of service as a result of inexperience in your facility and incomplete training, and ultimately higher costs and lower value of the service you receive.
The best manufacturing cleaning companies will invariably have the most comprehensive training programs. While effective training isn’t the only quality of a successful janitorial company, no company that does not have effective and proven training will deliver a consistent level of high quality service. Ask yourself, does your prospective Michigan industrial cleaning company offer solid, proven training specific to what needs to be done in your facility? Are they sending their people to your facility ready to work and to perform at the highest level in the industry?
There is never an excuse for your janitorial company to provide a quote that is difficult to understand or filled with fuzzy, unclear math. A confusing price point is a fundamental failure of your industrial janitorial company to understand their own services or, even worse, an attempt to hide upcharges or play pricing games to get you to pay more than you need to. No matter what the case may be, any company that fails to provide a clear, easy to understand bid that you can compare to other bids in a meaningful way should not be servicing your facility.
Every facility is different so any janitorial company that tries to use a “one size fits all” type of plan should raise some major red flags for you. Not only does every facility have different amounts of employee and customer traffic as well as layouts, but you as Facility Manager are going to have different concerns and needs than other managers. Perhaps you want to save money and have different budgetary requirements, or your last company had some problems that you need to be addressed. Either way, be wary of any company that tries to base their bid on the square footage of your facility alone. Any professional industrial maintenance services company worth their salt will need much more specific information in order to give you an accurate, fair pricing.
No matter how skilled an industrial janitorial company is, people make mistakes and there will be problems and miscommunications that occur. Problems aren’t what separate a good company from a bad company, it is the way that they are addressed. The first question that should come to your mind when talking to your prospective cleaning company is their plan for handling complaints, hiccups, among other issues. If they can’t answer this question it is clear they are not set up to handle problems or even minor issues and as such, will not be able to respond to the specific needs and modifications that your facility may need. An effective commercial cleaning and janitorial service provider will get back to you with suggestions quickly. They will inform you immediately of problems and then rapidly put things back on track. Further, they will regularly conduct inspections to make sure that you are satisfied with the level and type of service you are getting. As is with any service company, communication is key. Does your current commercial cleaning company regularly correspond with you about issues and solutions in your facility?
The best commercial industrial cleaning services protect you and themselves by taking advantage of all four types of service insurance to mitigate litigations towards them, and by extension, towards you. These four categories of insurance are: automobile liability, general liability, workers compensation and the umbrella policy. Make sure to confirm this coverage with your cleaning partner to make sure that you are protected from costly legal action and other types of risk associated with a lack of coverage.
Any building is going to be packed with your employees all using public items, so when cold and flu season rolls around, your going to have a lot of sick people shooting up your absenteeism way above normal. The most effective solution to this ongoing problem is having a professional commercial cleaning company that understands how to clean for health. Experienced companies that understand the science behind cleaning for health will use their know-how to halt the spread of pathogens by targeting hot spots, touch points, preventing cross contamination, and properly sanitizing to help keep you and your employees disease free.
The janitorial and cleaning industry, like many industries, has been technologically advancing at an unprecedented pace. Take, for example, Smart Cleaning. By identifying critical and non-critical services, you can strategically reduce cleaning in certain areas while still maintaining an acceptable level of clean. Essentially, reducing expensive service hours by understanding what is needed and what is not. It takes a level of skill, intuition, and innovation to find these industry specific efficiencies to help reduce costs and improve services without detracting from the overall cleanliness of the facility. Another forward thinking innovation is Team Cleaning. By putting a team in charge of cleaning the entire facility, instead of zone cleaning where a single person gets a zone, responsibility becomes very specific allowing task mastery as well as a reduction in the amount of duplicate equipment needed to help reduce costs. Innovation is the key to reducing labor hours and the amount of expensive solutions and equipment.
Green cleaning is the buzzword of the commercial cleaning industry, but what can it realistically do for you and your facility? First, green cleaning is a good way to minimize your employees and tenants exposure to traditionally harsh and toxic chemicals used for deep cleaning and sanitization. Second, it can help reduce your carbon footprint so as to garner more LEED points for your building. Finally, it can help maintain a higher level of air quality in the building as well as reduce the amount of waste produced in your facility.
Best practices can seem difficult to define, but in reality they are quite simple. Best practices are those methods and techniques that are strictly superior to the others that exist. These practices are accredited by managerial standards like: SO 9000, ISO 14001, and CIMS because these certifiers understand that these best practices lead to best results. These prestigious certifications are given to companies whose methodologies range from anything to on-site solutions to management methods that help the company provide your facility with a more effective, more reliable service. The best industrial janitorial companies use best standards because they are observably better. They are more effective and more efficient, delivering more consistent results to customers.
There is a long list of items you should consider when looking at a prospective commercial industrial cleaning company. It can seem complex and overwhelming at first glance. But this last trick should make things a lot easier. Instead of spending hours, if not days, asking questions and verifying the things above with the overcrowded marketplace of potential companies, simply look at their professional certifications like the ISSA’s CIMS and CIMS-GB accreditation to quickly cut down on your list of potential contractors. The certifications demonstrate a companies desire and ability to use the best practices in the industry as well as continue to innovate to bring better service to the table. Instead of starting from scratch, look at a much reduced list of CIMS certified companies and find the best contractor for you and your facility from there.