What kind of janitorial services does YOUR facility need? The giants of the national janitorial companies may seem like the way to go when it comes to finding an a janitorial cleaning service, but there are some important factors to consider when looking for your next janitorial company. With a national janitorial company, it isn’t unusual for Facility Managers to report that they feel like they are just one of many, often larger, companies and not at all getting the effective service, responsiveness or attention they had hoped for.
Often, national janitorial companies simply don’t have the time or need to give you the most responsive, personalized cleaning and maintenance when compared to local Michigan commercial cleaning companies. Sure they want your business, but they can also replace it quite easily. By making the decision to partner locally with the right independent business, you are more likely to get a responsive, personalized cleaning service, and you get to help support the local businesses that help drive the local Michigan economy. This not only helps you, but helps shape our communities, create more local business and commerce connections with different suppliers and opportunities for employment and helps keep tax dollars instate. Investing locally in businesses can make a large impact on protecting the health and diversity of our state economy.
As a Facility Manager, making the active choice to choose local cleaning services Michigan instead of national janitorial services helps keep jobs and dollars in the Michigan community and economy. This choice will keep local tax dollars here to promote economic growth and benefits the Michigan community in a number of significant ways. But can you do the right thing and still the thing that is good for YOUR business? It is easy to convince yourself that your facility requires a national company in order to get the intensive services you need, but as the age-old adage goes, bigger isn’t always better. Of course, going for small businesses isn’t the solution either.
It all comes down to scalability, companies that are too small don’t have the resources or the manpower to give you the level of service you need, and companies that are too large often just aren’t set up to provide you with a personalized level or service, they have scaled beyond that. Being somewhere in the middle is what you want. If you are looking for reasonable prices, consistently high quality services, customized cleaning plan for your facility, responsiveness as your needs changes and a real partner in the care of your facility, then find yourself the right local Detroit janitorial company.
As you have probably seen, local janitorial services and commercial cleaning companies can come in all shapes and sizes. When looking local you’ll find everything from the Mom and Pop style of operation to the start-up business to the large professional Detroit area commercial cleaning companies. The trick to choosing the right operation is finding what meets the needs of your facility best. Most of these smaller operations are likely not going to have the staff or financial resources to meet the needs of larger facilities, or multiple facilities. You best choice is likely to be the larger, more established Michigan building services contractors.
These companies are better able to service larger or multiple buildings, they invest in and offer better equipment as a result of being more financially established. Further, they are equipped to clean and maintain schools, medical buildings, and even industrial facilities. Forging a partnership with a local janitorial and commercial cleaning company can give you flexibility and customization that you may need to meet the needs that are specific to your facility.
When it comes to working with a prospective commercial cleaning company, choosing one that is in the middle of the size range is often a good place to start your search. If you are the Facility Manager of a large building or numerous buildings, smaller operations simply aren’t likely to have the resources or staff to provide an acceptable level of service, not matter how much they want your business. At the same time, you don’t want to partner with a large national cleaning service that will simply lose your facility among the hundreds of others that they service.
So, what are you looking for in a cleaning service? First, you are going to want a company that is responsive to your requests and complaints. Communication is key in any partnership with a janitorial services provider. Second, you want to find a company that is both established and experienced and is going to be able to provide the best service as they have the resources and know-how to do so. Further, experienced companies are better able to price their services and adjust cleaning to help meet the budgetary needs of your building. Finally, you need a company that is large enough that it has the resources and financial backing to provide you with consistent, quality service but no so large that you get lost in the shuffle.
A large to mid sized local janitorial company with a record of recruiting, hiring, training and managing very good people is a good prospect. When you contract with such companies you get the benefits of both a large national company and a smaller local company. The most effective janitorial services companies in Michigan are those that have the experience where they have already worked through service issues and business problems that tend to plague newer startups or cleaning companies going through growth and the growing pains that can come with it. They reap the benefits of having purchasing power for bulk items and equipment, lowering prices to you, but they aren’t large enough to lose you in a mess a bureaucracy and larger contracts.
You know what you want, a local Michigan janitorial company that is the right size to give you everything you need, but where do you start looking? First and foremost, look at the practices and methods of your prospective commercial cleaning companies when it comes to their most important asset, their staff. Any and all service business, janitorial companies included, are completely and totally reliant on their onsite staff to actually provide the services that they offer. It is, of course, the onsite staff that is responsible for assuring that your facility gets cleaned and maintained adequately day in and day out. The CEO won’t be there with a mop but where the CEO is likely to be involved is how the company recruits, hires, screens, trains and maintains their onsite staff. Having the best people for the job is entirely reliant on company culture and the practices for rewarding staff that go above and beyond in customer service.
Taking a lead in these areas helps reduce janitorial turnover and almost always improves the quality of service you are getting. Similarly, another important aspect to look at is communication. Cleaning, unfortunately, is not often as straightforward as many of us believe. Mistakes are bound to happen and what really separates the good from the bad companies is the way that these problems are addressed and rectified. Commercial cleaning companies with systems and procedures in place to deliver on promises and to fix problems when they come up are always going to be the best partners. Finally, a janitorial company that provides a transparent price point is always going to be better value than one that does not.
Industry specific accreditations like the ISSA’s CIMS and CIMS-GB can make your list of prospective commercial cleaning companies much shorter and easier to navigate. CIMS is a certification offered to building services contractors that requires contractors to demonstrate their mastery of a number of areas of business that directly correlate to effective service and operations. By extension, the ISSA’s CIMS accreditation is a measurement of compliance with the industries best practices and continued innovation in core service areas. CIMS, among other certifications, is by far one of the more demanding and stringent in order to obtain. Any company that has demonstrated their capability by being awarded this prestigious certification have a clear commitment to performing at the highest level in their industry as well as continuing to pave the way for more effective and consistent cleaning and maintenance. When looking at prospective cleaning companies, you can quickly find those that are at the top of their game by looking for the CIMS and CIMS-GB accreditation. Put yourself in the best position to succeed by partnering with a local Michigan janitorial cleaning company that has repeatedly shown their commitment to providing you with the highest quality of service.