Has Your Office Cleaning Gone Off the Rails?

Outsourcing Office Cleaning Should Be A Fast Track to Easy

The main point of a professional office cleaning service is that they will handle the cleaning of your facility without you having to be involved every step of the way. This is, or at least it should be, one of the primary benefits of outsourcing your facility maintenance to a commercial office cleaning company. You spent all that time identifying what needed to be done and working out a contract, the last thing you need is to then have to go back and double check everything your cleaning service does.

So, if your office cleaners are putting you in a position where work needs to be checked on the daily, you are not really getting the benefits of a maintenance ‘solution.’ Unfortunately, many Facility Managers are under the impression that better service simply isn’t out there or that their budget can’t support a better office cleaning company. While finding the right janitorial company for your facility can be challenging, it can be done. Many professional and reputable office cleaning service providers will work with you to build a cleaning plan around your budget. The right office cleaning company will keep you solidly on track and keep your facility maintenance from going off the rails.

Not All Trains Have the Same Destination

The office cleaning marketplace is a crowded one and you’ll find everything from small mom and pop operations to multinational conglomerates. There is no shortage of small start-ups in this industry owing to the perceived low cost of entry, and this is largely responsible for the densely packed market. Of course, every company needs to start somewhere and it is possible that some of these smaller start-ups will eventually deliver solid, affordable service, but they are likely to take more than a few detours before they can get there and deliver real value reliably.

The best, most effective office cleaning companies have had enough time to refine and perfect their trade and are far more capable of providing a quality service that isn’t looking to use your building as a springboard for bigger and better things. A primary issue with a lack of experience is poor cleaning quotes. Not understanding what and how to accurately price a janitorial bid leads to difficult to understand quotes that don’t reflect how much you’ll actually be paying. If you want a one way ticket to upcharges and hidden fees, partnering with an inexperienced office cleaning company is a good place to start.

Be Wary of Exceptionally Low Ticket Prices

Price isn’t really correlated to the quality of the service you are going to get, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be wary of extremes. Labor and materials cost money and if a deal seems a little too good to be true, you should start asking yourself some questions about why your prospective office cleaner can offer prices so much lower than everyone else. For instance, they might be:

1. Using illegal hiring and subcontracting to avoid paying insurance and taxes, a practice both bad for their employees and for your building
2. Not offering competitive wages. Sure, cheap labor is neat until your office cleaning staff are a constant revolving door of people that quickly realize that they are worth more than minimum wage
3. Intentionally underestimating hours or the price of tasks to get your business. This is a sign that you office cleaning company will either cut corners or hit you with hidden fees and charges later to make up for lost revenue

Price Isn’t the Same As Value

On the other end of the spectrum, we find that some Facility Managers cross their fingers and hope that high prices will translate to much better service. Unfortunately, paying more isn’t any guarantee of better service either. When looking at prospective companies, you shouldn’t be looking at price alone but rather what your facility really needs and how much it will cost you. For instance, if one contractor gives you a fantastic quote but it doesn’t include necessary services, it isn’t a value at ANY price. You need a certain level of services and you need it at the best price available.

Clear office cleaning bids will make it easy to see the specific services you are paying for, exactly what it will cost you and will allow you to compare these prices to other companies to see which cleaning company is prepared to deliver the best value for your cleaning dollar. Aside from this, another good barometer of how well a prospective company will perform is how well they treat their employees. While it might cost a little extra, solid training and competitive pay go a long way in providing a quality service. You want the people cleaning your facility motivated and engaged. While a company’s price point is important to consider, it should rarely be the only thing you take into account while choosing a long term partner in your facility maintenance.

CIMS Will Get You Where You Need To Be Every Time

In life, we are rarely handed a one way ticket to Easyville, but just this once we are given a free, powerful tool to quickly sort through the overcrowded marketplace and get us where we need to be with the fewest sidetracks, delays and detours possible. The ISSA’s CIMS certification is a robust and stringent tool that you can use to quickly identify the best cleaning companies in the industry. No longer will you have to deal with poorly designed building quotes, insufficient insurance or companies that simply don’t understand the specific compliance and regulatory issues of your industry. The Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) accreditation will help you quickly sift through all of the subpar office cleaning provider and find industry professionals that know exactly what they are doing. While not every CIMS certified company is going to be right for your facility, all of the will at least be capable of providing a detailed and easy to understand bid and have the correct experience to provide a quality cleaning service.

At Stathakis, we are CIMS-GB certified and place a heavy emphasis on hiring and contracting with great people in order to provide you the highest quality service. We have demonstrated our commitment to industry best practices, open and responsive communication and cost effective cleaning methods time and time again. No matter what kind of budget you have or what type of work you need done, we can build a custom cleaning plan to meet your needs. If you need office cleaning services and your business is in the South Eastern Michigan service area, please get in touch with us at (800) 278-1884 and let us make your life easier and your facility shine. Proudly serving Genesee County, St. Clair County, Macomb County, Oakland County, Livingston County Wayne County, Washtenaw County and Monroe County.