Getting an office cleaning price point that is in line with what you are paying for can be a tall order. Not only is the office cleaning company marketplace a crowded one, but many of these companies aren’t experienced enough to accurately price their services. Hard as they may try, they don’t even know what they don’t know yet. Second, many commercial office cleaning companies will lowball their bid for your contract and then slam you with upcharges and hidden fees. Finally, for an office cleaning company to give a well-informed quote in an RFP (request for proposal), you as the Facility Manager need to give them good information about your specific requirements to work off of.
The best office cleaning bids or responses to a RFP start with good information. So, what information should you be providing? First, you are going to want to provide accurate numbers on the square footage, and not just total square footage but footage broken down by different type of flooring. Each floor type has its own needs and can significantly change your price point. Similarly, you should also provide an estimate if the number of people that work in and pass through your facility. This will give your prospective office cleaning company an idea of how much cleaning your facility will likely need as well as a rough count on the number of consumable items like toilet paper, paper towels, and trash can liners needed to keep your facility adequately stocked.
If your prospective Detroit office cleaning company provides a quote without doing a site visit, you should be concerned. A site visit will help pin down aspects of your facility's cleaning that you may not have thought to bring up before. Further, a site inspection can help to identify ways to Smart Clean, do more with less, as well as keep you on budget and your facility on track. Finally, the site inspection isn’t just an opportunity for your prospective Michigan cleaning company to learn about you, it will provide valuable insight on how they plan to handle your account and gives you a chance to ask specific questions that will help you select a future partner in your facility maintenance.
No one wants to relive past cleaning company drama or dwell on what wasn’tworking, but make sure you tell prospective commercial cleaning companies you are seriously considering contracting with your pain points. Most experienced, professional companies can put their years of experience to work and come up with real, workable solutions to whatever problems were particular thorns in your side. Similarly, if you’re last cleaning service provider seemed to have a revolving door of employees due to high cleaning staff turnover, tell them. Take advantage of this opportunity and see how your future partner addresses these issues (hopefully) differently. Finally, if your prospective Detroit office cleaning company knows what’s important to you, they can work proactively to address it.
Facilities with nearly unworkable budgets for office cleaning are commonplace in our industry. While cleaning will never be easy or optimal with this type of budget, an experienced office cleaning company does know how to do more with less and at the very least make deep cuts livable in the short term. Through a site inspection and careful analysis, we can construct a cleaning plan that will meet your facilities needs and fine tune so that your employees and customers barely notice a shift in service. Ideally, we would all love to have a meaty budget that addresses all facility needs at an optimal level but, unfortunately, sometimes life has different plans. But rest assured, the right office cleaning company can work with you to get your facility cleaned even with tight budgets. Don’t labor under the impression, however, that every company can do this for you. Only the most experienced companies can take advantage of innovation and extensive knowledge to trim work in areas that won’t negatively impact the cleaning of your facility or your facility’s reputation.
Marriage counselors and Facility Managers alike agree, communication is key. Take, for example, your office vacuuming. If you communicate to your building occupants that it takes place every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday then odds are you won’t receive an irritated call on Tuesday complaining about a lack of service. Likewise, by clearly communicating a reduction in office cleaning service as a result of specific cuts to help with budgeting, the better said cuts will go over. Finally, as a Facility Manager, consult with your office cleaning company and building occupants to target specific areas of the building that need to get cleaned and areas that are most important to your employees.
If your facility is getting dirty to the point that complaints are piling up, your budget optimization is either not working or it is too far gone to help your facility. To get the most out of a slashed cleaning budget, talk with your office cleaning staff often to set out a plan with realistic goals. The key to doing more with less is ‘Smart Cleaning’ as it takes thought and planning for a janitorial company to use their resources in a way to help you net the best value for your dollar. A commercial cleaning company does exist that will work with you to come up with a Smart Clean plan and deliver on their promises to you. With a little finesse and due-diligence, you can come up with a work schedule that works for your facility on a drastically cut budget.
It takes planning, innovation and experience to offer effective service on reduced budgets and a solid value no matter what price you are paying. The office cleaning companies that can help you effectively are few and far between. To find these companies that actively strive to innovate and work around unique situations in facilities as well as your budget, you should look to tools like CIMS certification. The ISSA (International Sanitary Supply Association) provides a rigorous, high level certification that said company performs at the highest level in the industry repeatedly demonstrating cleaning excellence and a commitment to their customers. Any medical office cleaning company or general office cleaning that meets these standards has demonstrated that they provide an effective, consistent service and is demonstrably more likely to work with you and your budget to make sure that your facility gets cleaned and looks its best while minding your bottom line.