Summer is finally here. Right about now, parents, kids, teachers and staff alike are ready for a well-earned break. But as long as it takes summer to come, fall seems to show up so much faster than imagined. Are you and your school cleaning company making the best use of summer so that you head into the new school year clean and prepared?
Having a clean and inviting place to learn and study is critical to the success of our students. Creating the right learning atmosphere is an important part of the puzzle when it comes to educating our children. If your school cleaning service isn’t making the grade, scoring well, and delivering the results you, your staff and your students deserve, it might be time to start looking for a new school cleaning company. Summer time can provide an ideal time to evaluate what your facility needs and adjust services to better suit your needs or look for a school cleaning service that is in a position to meet your goals.
If your school cleaning company isn’t great or even average, it's time to start looking at your other options, for you and the sake of your students. In order to be successful, you need to find a school cleaning company that is willing to put in the work to create a clean, learning environment. School cleaning companies can learn a great deal from other professional janitorial services, real cleaning isn’t just about a mop and a bucket. If you are looking for a new, improved school cleaning service, there are a couple of core areas you should be looking at when considering your options. The best school cleaning services:
There is no other type of cleaning where experience, safety and security are more relevant than school cleaning. Just as you can’t expect elementary school students to excel in a high school classroom, an inexperienced janitorial services company will definitely not provide the level of service you need in a school setting. Any janitorial company can pick it up given enough time, but do you really want your school to be a training ground for a company that doesn’t understand the fundamentals of school cleaning yet? Any type of educational campus has vastly different requirements compared to your average office or business facility. As a result, you need a well-trained and experienced janitorial service to effectively maintain them. If you are looking for the headache of a lifetime, try partnering with a company that can’t quite grasp what it means to be an effective school cleaning and maintenance service provider.
Without minimizing the importance of anything else, it would be an understatement to say that safety is the single most critical aspect of school cleaning. Any potential Detroit school cleaning company must have this at the forefront of their priorities and it must be reflected by everything they do, especially when it comes to who is on your campus. This doesn’t just mean employment verification, it means extensive background checks, at a minimum, a multi-panel drug screening and of course, a criminal background check to make sure that you know who is in your school day and night. Further, the people working on your campus need to be a good fit for the work. Having the right janitor or custodian can make all the difference in getting a high level of responsive service and building a lasting partnership between you and your custodial school cleaning service.
Like many other facilities, many schools are grappling with budget cuts and demands for greater efficiencies. Having a reasonably priced school cleaning company that can meet your needs is a critical component of the value equation. If your prospective school janitorial service can’t give you a clear estimate on what it is going to cost you, that should be a major red flag. Having a clear price point not only allows you to compare costs directly against other companies, but it also allows you to work to refine your budget and focus on areas and services that are most critical. No matter what kind of school or campus you manage, a school cleaning company having a price point as clear as mud should scream a couple of things. First, that they aren’t being honest about what they are planning to charge you or they don’t understand how to accurately price their own services, neither of these good options. Second, if they can’t tell you what you are paying for, you cannot hold them accountable for work that they didn’t do. Don’t fall victim to unclear pricing, it is often a sign of illegal hiring, illegal subcontracting or intentionally cutting corners to slam you with add-ons and upcharges later.
We know how challenging it is to find the information you need to make an informed decision about your school cleaning. As if that wasn’t enough, the time it takes to qualify this information and see how it fits with your facility’s requirements can often seem more of a headache than it is worth. Fortunately, professional and industry relevant certifications like the ISSA’s CIMS and CIMS-GB certification exist to help cut down on the work you need to do to find the right school custodial services company. The CIMS-GB certification, or Cleaning Industry Management Standard, Green Building, demonstrate a company's proficiency and ability to meet the industries highest standards. These types of stringent industry certifications are the best way to find companies that are committed to giving you the best possible level of service and the highest possible value. When you start your search for a new school cleaning company, the best place to start with is CIMS certified companies and then narrow your pool of possibilities from there. Not only will it save you time, these certified companies will often charge no more than their uncertified counterparts providing you with better, more responsive services for the same price. Outsourcing school cleaning to the right school cleaning company can benefit your bottom line and provide a valuable service that will keep your school’s cleaning and maintenance in check.