Tomorrow is Halloween and many of us happily await the frights and fun of All Hallows' Eve. Who doesn’t love the decorations, the candy, the movies, the costumed kids and the spooky season? But shocks and scares aren’t just for Halloween, for many Facility Managers, the real terror is lurking in their office restrooms. Have your office restrooms become frightening places? Have you tried communicating with your janitorial company only to find they ghost you whenever there is a problem. Forget Dracula, Pennywise and Frankenstein, the real monster waiting to wreak havoc on your business and bottom line is poorly cleaned office restrooms. Where your office cleaning is concerned, restroom cleaning is critical. If your janitorial services company is failing to keep your restrooms clean, fresh and welcoming, it is impacting the overall impression and reputation of your business with customers, employees, prospective employees, tenants and the public. Don’t scare off people with stinky, frightening office restrooms and don’t settle for restroom cleaning that leaves your facilities looking more like a haunted house then a clean, healthy place of business. Here are 10 scary signs that your commercial restroom cleaning services are operating like a bunch of zombies and failing to keep your office restrooms clean, protect the health of your building’s occupants and safeguard your reputation.

1. Dreadfully Dirty

If your restroom cleaning service is leaving your office restrooms dreadfully dirty, it could be chilling on your bottom line. Visible dirt on sinks, counter fixtures and stalls is just shocking. Streaky, smudged mirrors dreadful and partitions with graffiti, gunk and worse are downright repulsive. Your office restrooms should never look like a set from a horror movie. If restrooms are looking visibly dirty, your commercial restroom cleaning is involved in some serious hocus pocus.

2. Ghoulish Grime & Hair Raising Horrors

Beyond the visible dirt that indicates a lack of good, daily cleaning, there are the signs that your restroom cleaners are not attending to the occasional deep cleaning office restrooms require. Things like broken fixtures (door handles, sanitary disposal containers, dryers, dispensers and more), dirty vents, grimy grout and more are scary signs that your commercial cleaning company is more trick than treat. Don’t settle for restroom cleaning services that are indifferent to your reputation, your employee’s health and your bottom line.

3. Weird Wetness

Not only are wet, waterlogged dirty floors dreadful, they are dangerous. Floors that are wet, dirty or given little more than a once over send a message about your business and it’s not a good one. Sure there are Stranger Things than some water left behind but a solid restroom cleaning company won’t put you and your people at risk in this way.

4. The Terror of Trash

Trashcans that are overflowing are a sure sign that your restrooms aren’t being cleaned enough or are not being cleaned adequately. Yes, trashcans are for trash but overflowing trashcans point to a problem that you cannot afford to ignore. Accumulating trash sends the wrong message about your facility and is a terrifying turnoff for employees, customers and guests. If your trashcans are frequently full or overfilled, your janitorial services company is either not properly cleaning your restrooms or you might require day cleaning or a day porter to keep up with the demands of your busy facility.

5. Supernatural Smells

If your restrooms smell seriously scary, you have a shocking situation on your hands. If there are noticeable and wicked odors left behind after restroom cleaning, you are likely getting little more than a superficial, surface cleaning. Typically, these funky smells and otherworldly odors are the result of toilets and urinals that are left with muck and gunk around them that attracts bacteria that feed off of it and leave behind the stinky smells we associate with bathroom odors. Eliminating the stench requires a level of deep cleaning and keeping up with restrooms that your current cleaning company may not be capable of. A professional, effective Detroit janitorial company will regularly deep clean restrooms, keep up with odor causing grime and leave office restrooms clean and fresh.

6. Spine-Chilling Supplies Shock

If restroom supplies like toilet paper, hand towels and soap are frequently empty or near empty, your commercial cleaning company isn’t heeding the signs and is leaving your building occupants in the lurch. You can’t be put in the position of having to check supplies in your office restrooms, your office cleaners need to be on top of it, it’s their job. Restocking supplies is not only a basic part of restroom cleaning, if your employees do not have adequate hand washing supplies, disease causing germs could spread through your facility skyrocketing illness, absenteeism and tanking productivity.

7. Too Many People is Petrifying

If there is a steady stream of new bodies coming in and out of your facility, your commercial cleaning company might be suffering from high turnover. This in turn not only affects the quality and effectiveness of your restroom cleaning, it can actually impact safety and security. In a service business, the people performing the front line duties matter a great deal. They must be screened, trained and managed in order to deliver the restroom cleaning you and your facility deserve. High turnover creates service gaps and security issues. Professional, effective janitorial services companies understand the importance of attracting, qualifying, training and managing the very best people for the work.

8. Afraid of Accountability

Even with the best commercial cleaning companies, things can get off track. When issues arise, do you know who you are going to call? Hint, it’s not Ghostbusters. Is your janitorial company clear about responsibility and accountability and who to contact? Or do they disappear when there is a problem? You should always know who to call or email when there is an issue because small issues are much easier to solve before they become big issues. Even if you aren’t regularly contacting your janitorial company, they should periodically check in with you to see how service is going and if there is anything, big or small, that requires their attention.

9. Is Responsiveness RIP?

Like we noted, even the best restroom cleaning company will occasionally miss the mark. But if your janitorial company addresses complaints and issues quickly, communicating these issues with the supervisors and cleaners likely to remedy issues, you can nip a problem in the bud and get the level of clean you require. If your restroom cleaning company is failing to respond timely to your concerns or issues, they come up often or are ignored altogether, it is a symptom of a much larger issue. Don’t let your commercial cleaning company’s lack of professionalism bleed into the overall cleanliness and health of your facility.

10. Macabre Managing

Do you feel like you have to frequently manage and deal with your cleaning contractor’s people? One of the benefits of outsourcing your cleaning to a Building Services contractor is that they manage their people and process leaving you to focus on the core elements of your business. If your commercial cleaning company is failing in this area, you are missing some of the most significant benefits of outsourcing janitorial. It isn’t your job to manage your cleaning company’s people. Outsourcing cleaning should reduce costs and reduce your workload. Don’t settle for scary service when there are a number of professional, qualified janitorial companies that won’t have you leave you shaky and scared over your restroom cleaning.

Finding the right commercial cleaning company can make all of the difference with your restroom cleaning and the overall condition and cleanliness of the entire facility. Don’t risk your reputation or your bottom line with scary restroom cleaning. Don’t stay with a janitorial services company that is either unable or unwilling to deliver professional, quality, effective service without leaving your restrooms in a state of horror. Here at Stathakis, we have over thirty years of experience, we won’t scare you with ineffective service or dirty restrooms. We deliver the best in facility maintenance and restroom cleaning for 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, please contact us to learn more about how we can help you maintain clean restrooms and get more treats than tricks when it comes to your office cleaning services.