The Benefits of a Carpet Maintenance Program

The cool winter months are often one of our biggest motivators to stay inside, and that’s why these months are often the hardest on your buildings hard flooring and carpet. Not only do the cooler months come with rain, snow, and sleet, they also come with salt, dirt, water and grit carried into your facility impacting your flooring. Needless to say, this isn’t optimal for your building’s flooring. Michigan’s winter months can really make it challenging to keep your facility looking good throughout the year. So it is important to make sure that your flooring and carpets are getting the attention they need. A commercial carpet cleaning company can keep your carpets looking in their best, prolong their lifespan, and keep your work environment healthier and the air cleaner. Is your carpet cleaning company doing all they need to in order to meet your goals this season and beyond?

Consistent Carpet Cleaning Protects Your Investment

Unfortunately for us, we can’t hit the gym once a year and spend the rest of the time chomping chips and slurping soda and expect to stay in peak shape. Much like you, your carpet can’t get a once a year cleaning and stay in its best condition the remainder of the year. Regular maintenance is the best way to keep your carpets looking their best and can greatly extend its lifespan. Spot removal and deep cleaning are important, but consistent daily vacuuming of carpets to remove dust, debris and more is a significant part of keeping your carpets looking good. For instance, daily vacuuming helps carpets last longer by removing the often sharp and jagged dirt that can actually cut, tear and wear at carpet fibers if left to be walked upon and ground further into your carpet. Another good way to safeguard your carpet is with a well designed mat program. Mats that are placed at your buildings most traversed entry points will reduce the amount of dirt and other particles tat make their way into your facility and that wear away at your carpet’s fibers as well as protecting people from falls.

Treating Stains & Wear Patterns Without Delay

We’ve talked at lengths about the importance of regular maintenance, but we cannot neglect the other critical factor that affects your carpet’s health: spot removal. Removing stains quickly and with the right tools and solutions is an important factor in keeping your carpet looking its best.If you partner with a commercial carpet cleaning company that is knows their business, you can utilize them for periodic carpet stain removal. These companies are aware of the right practices and stain removers that make all the difference in the end result. Working with an knowledgeable, effective and professional commercial carpet cleaning service will ensure the best outcomes and that your carpet always looks fresh and clean.

Planning and Budgeting Become Easier with a Good Carpet Maintenance Program

A good carpet maintenance program targets the heavily trafficked areas in your facility like walkways, hallways, lobby areas, waiting rooms, and dividers between floor and carpet that can show wear and tear much faster than other areas of your facility. These high-traffic areas are likely to require maintenance long before the rest of your building’s carpeted areas need cleaning. Further, standard maintenance in these areas can help you delay carpet cleaning longer and budget for more regular, ongoing carpet maintenance. Intermittent cleaning can utilize the dry carpet cleaning methods like Whittaker’s encapsulation carpet cleaning. A chemical solution is used on the carpet that rapidly dries and crystallizes particles in the carpet making it easy to vacuum up. As an added bonus, because this method is dry, carpets can be quickly used again after cleaning.

When Do Carpets Need Deep Cleaning?

While the dry cleaning method can be effective for intermittent maintenance, every once and a while a deep cleaning with the hot water extraction method can go a long way. As per your carpet’s warranty, we recommend doing this once or twice a year to remove even the most deeply ground in grime and dirt. This carpet cleaning method utilizes the truck mounted hot water extraction cleaning for the best results everywhere possible in your building. And, for areas that are perhaps not accessible with the truck mounted system, a portable hot water extraction carpet cleaning machine shines. This method uses a very hot water emulsion that is pushed into your carpets to bring up dirt and other particulates that have taken up residence in the depths of your carpeting to leave your carpet looking brand new.  

How Carpet Cleaning Creates a Healthier Workplace

While it's important to keep your carpet clean to make sure your facility looks presentable, it’s even more important to assure a healthy workplace. Your carpet catches dirt and dust that it continues to circulate in the air as people walk around. In a sense it acts as an air filter as long as it is regularly cleaned and well maintained. By keeping your HVAC working and your carpets clean, you can significantly improve the air quality in your facility.

An Industry Professional You Can Count On

At Stathakis, we offer the businesses of Detroit and southeastern Michigan expert commercial carpet cleaning and floor maintenance. Using the latest in proven technologies such as hot water extraction carpet cleaning, low moisture carpet cleaning, Whittaker Carpet cleaning, and portable machine carpet cleaning, we offer your carpet a way to improve its appearance, extend its longevity, and improve the air quality of your facility. Not only can you save money and time on trying to schedule cleaning with various different services, your carpets will be treated by certified industry professionals. For more information on how you can keep your floors cleaner than they have ever been, please contact us at #800-278-1884.

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year… to Help Your Office Cleaning Company Help You

We all know that the winter months and bevy of holidays be a time of shifting needs with regard to our office cleaning. This time of year can present both challenges and opportunities for both you and your commercial office cleaning company. Often you will find that with more employees taking vacation time, your needs shift. You may need less service or even more service from your office cleaners depending on the nature of your business. And sometimes, with so many people out of the office, it is a good time to get some deep cleaning done. But there are some factors that can get in the way of a clean building and even your office cleaner’s ability to make the most of the seasonal down times. How can you take advantage and make the most of the downtime in your building to make sure you offices look their best?

#1: Keep Desks Organized to Help Out Cleaning Staff

Your commercial cleaning company can’t clean the desks if they are covered in paperwork and other important things that they don’t know what to do with. Further, any trash, cups or other items can make it near impossible to get to the surfaces beneath. As Facility Manager, it can be helpful to remind your employees to clean their desk and other communal areas before they leave for holiday to allow the cleaning staff to effectively get their job done and get as deep and thorough a cleaning as possible.

#2: Prevent the ‘Holiday Fridge’ From Becoming a Biohazard 

When people start leaving for the holidays, your communal refrigerator can quickly becomes a biohazard if some steps aren’t taken to prevent it. How often have you looked into the office fridge post holiday party to find a Jenga of foil cartons threatening to tumble and assorted sundries left behind after the merriment si over? The danger (not to mention the smell) of the three-week-old salmon and the platters of party goodies that no one took with them in the haste to start their holidays can quickly become ideal hosts for molds and other unpleasantness. If you ignore this problem your office fridge may become the worst smelling thing in the office. The trick to solving this all to common problem, is getting employees to take responsibility for the week old Chinese or half finished soda. The most effective solution, we have found, is to create a regularly cleaning schedule so that anything that isn’t claimed within a certain time period is disposed of before it can become a problem. This eliminates any risks associated with leaving food in the fridge for too long and gives cleaners an opportunity to deep clean and minimize odors.

Tip #3 Winter Means Cold and Flu

The holiday season also coincides with another less pleasant season, cold and flu season. As such, your Michigan janitorial company should be doing everything in their power to keep touch points and hotspots regularly cleaned to help reduce the risk of bacterial and viral infections and assure you have a healthy work environment. Is your office cleaning company cleaning for health?

It isn’t solely on your cleaning service, their are some things that you should remind your employees of:

• Wash your hands correctly to stop the spread of pathogens
• Don’t come to work sick, you won’t be an effective employee and it can potentially get other people sick
• Regularly use hand sanitizer and wash hands as well as to keep hands away from the face. It may sound like something you here in a kindergarten classroom, but science has shown time and time again that this is the most effective way to prevent illness
• Understand practices that help reduce the risk of spreading disease such as how to cough and sneeze

TIP #4:Use Winter Downtime to Your Advantage to Get Some of That Deep Cleaning and Maintenance Done

Most offices are busy, bustling places so deep cleaning and other intensive maintenance tasks are often pushed to the side or delayed longer than they should be. However, during the holiday season, take advantage of the reduced number of people to catch up and even do some preventative maintenance to prepare for the busy months ahead. Many office cleaning services not only offer cleaning but other services such as HVAC care, plumbing painting, electrical, carpet and window washing, among other things that you can use to care for your facility. Need carpets cleaned? Need floors stripped and recoated? Need some other extras? The holidays present a rare opportunity to get these things done, unobstructed by high traffic.

Tip #5 It is the Season of Giving, so Give Yourself an Effective, Professional Commercial Cleaning Company

The holiday season is a time of giving, so give yourself the right office cleaning service provider for your facility. Maybe you’ve had it with your current cleaning company and are looking to try something else. Or, perhaps you are new to the janitorial market and are trying to decide who can help keep your facility looking fresh and clean. Either way, if you are looking for quality, consistent, responsive, professional service for you and your building, there is a company out there that can fill your needs.

The winter holidays can present a good time to transition to a new, better office cleaning company. So often in talking to Facility Managers we are finding that as budgets remain tight or even reduced, demands go up leaving many Facility Managers struggling to get their buildings cleaned effectively AND within budget.

The time of reduced office budgets have been here and it doesn't look like it will be changing anytime soon so you need a company that will give you value for your dollar and that will be committed to working with your budget and giving you consistent, effective services. Thoughtful winter maintenance, planning and even bringing on a new more adept office cleaning company can be the answer to assuring your office is clean and ready to go during winter months and all through the year.

Don’t Take the Hit For Poor Office Cleaning

If your office is in a constant state of disorder, you’ll find that your employees attitudes tend to match. While office cleaning can seem like a insignificant part of your business, most of your employees appreciate when they work in a clean, fresh space. As such, when your facility is left in disarray or poorly cleaned, you are sending the message to your staff that subpar work is acceptable. 

It makes a lot of sense when you think about it, if you don’t require an acceptable level of service from your commercial office cleaning company, why would you require it from your employees? An unkempt office building can also impact the financial health of your business. For instance, try attracting high performing employees with a dirty building. Odds are, they will take one look at your facility and opt to align with a company that they perceive has higher quality standards.

If you care about having top talent, an engaged employee base, as well as reduced a and attrition, it’s important to assure that your office cleaning company is doing an effective job keeping your facility looking its best.

Are Your Office Cleaners Really Giving Everything They Got?

Does your office fridge look like something that belongs in a CDC lab? Do your restrooms look and smell more like stadium restrooms than office restrooms? Is a revolving door of office cleaners netting you ineffective cleaning as they are continually in training mode? What it comes down to is, are you and your facility getting the service that you need for the price that you are paying? Is your office cleaning company being responsive in managing issues in service you bring to their attention? If your commercial cleaning company is failing to deliver on contract promises time and time again, it may be time to look for a commercial cleaning company that can really deliver value for your dollar. With any service company, they should always strive to provide work that exceeds your expectations.

Are Your Office Cleaning Services Top of the Heap or Bottom of the Heap?

As you can imagine, professional office cleaning companies are all different. So, what is the difference between a solid office cleaner and one that performs below the bar? First, the best companies understand the need for security and put into place hiring and screening processes to make sure the people that make up their staff are a good fit for your facility. Companies that are committed to delivering the highest quality of service will often pursue the CIMS certification to show their ability to work using the industries best practices.

Professional companies will also demonstrate a track record and in-depth knowledge of their industry’s best practices. They don’t only promise quality work, they have systems in place to guarantee it. No one is perfect all the time and even the best commercial cleaning companies get it wrong sometimes. The difference is that when things go wrong, they are quick to address and rectify problems.

Where to Look to Get Effective Commercial Office Cleaning Services

Companies don’t just stumble into great service, there is always a plan involved. Even companies with the best intentions and the highest level of staff and equipment can’t compete with those companies that come prepared with a strategy. What good are intentions and equipment if there isn’t a clear path to implementing them. Think about it, there are so many things that can’t be done without a plan. For instance, how will your Detroit cleaning company find and keep good people? How do they create choice and set expectations for their customers with clear pricing? Are they committed to green cleaning, cleaning for health and using technology to advance their industry? Have they been awarded the CIMS certification? While it isn’t easy, asking questions will help you avoid getting saddled with a company that does not know what they are doing.

People Are The Cornerstone Of Standout Office Cleaning Services

When it comes to any service business, it is their people that will make or break service. After all, the office cleaning staff, day porters, medical cleaners, janitors and other support staff are the ones directly caring for your building. As such, it is incredibly important that you commercial cleaning company work to recruit, train, and retain their staff. Ask your prospective commercial cleaning service provider how their people processes work and encourage them to show you how they have led to success. Ask about their janitorial turnover. Any company with a solid people system in place will have low janitorial turnover increasing the quality of the service you receive. Further, the companies that invest time and energy into their people will differentiate themselves from other companies by simply being better at what they do.

A Professional Office Cleaning Company Provides You With Transparent Pricing

When looking at your list of prospective commercial cleaning companies, the largest red flag any of them can give you is a cleaning bid that isn’t well-defined in terms of both services offered and clear pricing. One of the most important things a janitorial bid allows you to do is to compare different companies side by side. So, when you receive a bid that is confusing and imprecise, it takes away your ability to do this. Further, cleaning costs often take a large portion of your budget, so it is important to know exactly where your funds are going. On top of that, companies that don’t offer a clear price point are often trying to hide fees and other upcharges, or, simply aren’t experienced enough to give a proper bid. Either way, pricing problems start of the relationship with a new cleaning company on the wrong foot and point to trouble ahead.

Does Your Office Cleaning Company Have A Commitment to Industry Proven Practices?

Proper office cleaning isn’t just cleaning a surface so that it looks clean, it is cleaning a surface so that it is clean. If your office cleaners don't understand cleaning for health, rather than just cleaning for appearance, then you and your staff are at a higher risk for contracting any of the number of communicable diseases that make the rounds. The best commercial cleaning companies understand cleaning for health, touch points, hotspots, dwell times, green cleaning and the most common forms of bacterial transmission. They take advantage of industry techniques such as color-coded cleaning cloths, procedures to avoid cross-contamination and critical health based cleaning training for all their staff. Remember, a company that properly trains their staff to clean for health can keep your building sparking and help you maintain a healthy workplace. 

Make Life Just a Little Simpler With Effective Office Cleaning 

Finding the right commercial cleaning company for your facility is never going to be the easiest task in the world, but it can be done and better yet, it’s worth it. Getting referrals from other professionals you trust, asking the right questions and following up with your prospective cleaning and maintenance contractor can help ensure that you get a high quality service and value for your dollar. Understanding the processes the use to hire, train, and retain their staff as well as what systems they have in place to address and resolve problems is also important to consider. With a cleaning company that is right fit for your building, you will feel like you have a great partner in the care and maintenance of your facility.

It is that time of year again. The beginning of the cold and flu ramps up threatening to leave your team a combination of the walking wounded and terrified germaphobes hoping not to get sick. While most of us recover, colds and flus can be serious business for the very young, the very old and those people who are already healthy compromised. Not only do colds and flus spell disaster for people and their noses, chests and stomachs, they can spell disaster for your bottom line. 

If your commercial cleaning service isn’t on the ball, you’re about to have an office full of sick people rather than a case here and there. Poor cleaning processes and practices coupled with employees not properly washing their hands can quickly make any building into a nexus of contagion. And the rates of infection increase exponentially. The more people get sick, the more they can spread disease-causing germs around getting others ill. So, what should you and your employees be doing to protect themselves and how can your Detroit janitorial company do to help keep infection rates down in your facility?

You Are The First & Best Defense Against Office Illness 

The first and often most effective step you can take to protect your employees health is to encourage them never to come to work sick. Coming to work sick will only result in an upward trend in absenteeism reducing work output, not increasing it. Another step you as the Facility Manager can take is to remind your employees of how to correctly wash their hands. Even posting guidelines is shown to increase correct hand washing compliance. At food establishments, it’s the law but hand washing after using the restroom is a good practice for all of us.

It can be surprising how few people actually know how to. Here are the times the U.S. Centers For Disease Control (CDC) advocates hand washing:

• Before eating food
• Before and after treating an open wound, cut or abrasion
• After changing diapers or cleaning up a child who has used the toilet
• Before and after caring for a person or people who are sick
• After touching an animal, animal feed, or animal waste
• After touching garbage
• After using the toilet
• Before, during, and after food preparation
• After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing

Knowing when to wash your hands isn’t the only important aspect of hand washing, however. Knowing how to wash your hands can be just as, if not more important. So, here is what the CDC recommends for non-medical hand washing practices:

1. Wet your hands with clean, running water, and apply soap.
2. Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Be sure to lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails.
3. Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds
4. Rinse your hands well under clean, running water.
5. Dry your hands using a clean towel or air-dry them.

Your Commercial Cleaning Company Might be Doing More Harm than Good

Now that you know what your part is in keeping your facility healthy, what should your commercial cleaning company be doing to back you up? Certainly not cleaning your restrooms and desks with the same towel. Nor should they be using the same mop and bucket in the restroom anywhere else in the facility. Cross-contamination is one of the most overlooked problems in health cleaning practices and noticeably contributes to poor cleaning, poor outcomes and even employee absenteeism. The reality of the situation is that your cleaning companies practices are going to determine the effects of the cold and flu season on your facility. So here are some industry-proven practices that your commercial cleaning comapny should be following for the best, most effective results.

• Frequently change mop heads and mop waters, especially after cleaning restrooms, to help reduce cross-contamination risks.
• Implement a color-coded rag system to eliminate the risk of cross-contamination on surfaces.
• Use the right cleaning product for the work at hand. For instance, use a lightweight cleaner on low-risk surfaces and a strong disinfectant on touch points and hotspots.
• Install entryway mats to help reduce the amount of foreign materials that enter the building.
• Following the practices you set for your employees, your cleaning staff should frequently and correctly wash hands,
• Keep the janitorial closet in a clean, working order with cleaning supplies neatly and safely stored and equipment and supplies kept clean.
• All equipment should be well maintained so that is operational.

Why You Need to be Cleaning for Health

There is an important difference between cleaning for appearance and cleaning for health, and your commercial cleaning company has to understand how to do both effectively. As you know, we cannot see the disease causing bacteria and viruses that lurk on surfaces in our office like influenza, the various strains of E. coli, C. difficile, MRSA and other retroviruses. While it is easy to overlook these things because we cannot see them, proper cleaning for health does impact infection rates in your office.

Companies that take the lead protecting your staff will use industry best practices like color-coded rags, use appropriate chemical cleaners for various situations, take advantage of industry specific innovations like HEPA vacuum cleaners to improve air quality and follow manufacturer recommendations like dwell times and effective usage to get you optimal results. If you cleaning company is ignoring these tried and proven practices, they are putting your facility at risk.

Understanding Why Touch Points & Hot Spots Are Vital To Health

When it comes to cleaning for health, touch points and hot spots are critical to employee health and by default, your bottom line. Touch points and hot spots are things like door handles, computer equipment, touchpads, faucet handles, telephones and things like these. They are essentially any common surface that becomes a hotspot for disease because of the number of people that touch and use it on a day to day basis. While it is impossible to keep these surfaces completely clean all the time, regularly cleaning them can help reduce the total germ load and thus the spread of disease in your facility. Make sure that when you partner with a commercial cleaning company that they have a thorough understanding of what it means to clean for health. If your commercial cleaning company is phoning it in or simply doesn’t understand the requirements of the work, when cold and flu season rolls around, you may have a lot of sick employees.

Is it Time to Find A New Commercial Cleaning Partner for the Sake of Health?

No matter what type of cleaning service you are looking for, office cleaning, medical cleaning, industrial cleaning, hospital or other medical cleaning, or just general cleaning, you need to have a partner that has the know-how to clean your facility with the health of your employees in mind. Not only that, they need to implement proven industry practices to insure the proper cleaning of your building. If you aren’t sure what your office cleaning service provider is doing to protect the health of you and your employees, just ask them. If what they tell you does not involve hotspots, reducing the risk of cross-contamination, and dwell times, it might be time to start shopping the commercial cleaning marketplace for something that does. 

Working behind the scenes, Day Porter services can help keep your facility looking good and running smoothly without you knowing that they are even there. Could you and your facility benefit from a Day Porter and what exactly does a Day Porter service do? The short answer is anything and nearly everything you need them to. The long answer is well, longer. Having a professional, effective Day Porter service is like having your own Justice League, a team of superheroes ready and willing to take on the next challenge. This extra person or extra people can help you as a Facility Manager keep your facilities looking and running their best around the clock. Having a Day Porter as part of your daytime crew means that your facility can be cleaned as needed and specific needs attended to without having to wait for your night time cleaners to deal with messes. Similarly, your http://www.stathakis.com/janitorial-services-detroit-michigan/day-porterda can help attend to day time cleaning tasks that can’t always wait for the evening cleaners like keeping restrooms fresh and restocked and meeting set up and tear down. Used effectively, a day porter or dayporter service can be a real lifesaver.

Your Day Porter Might Just be Superman in Disguise

While no Superman, you Day Porter can do almost anything you need them to. Day Porter services can vary company to company and are based on your budget but services often include:

1. Restroom Restocking
2. Setting up Meeting Rooms and Tearing them Back Down
3. Making Sure the Lobby is in Clean & Welcoming
4. Emptying Trash and Other Waste
5. Keeping Track of and Servicing High Traffic Areas
6. Keeping Common Areas Clean and Organized

While this list is far from exhaustive, it can give you a basic idea of where Day Porter services begin and then you add on duties that are specific to your needs and those of your facility to get day porter services custom tailored to fit your unique facility.

Maximizing Your Day Porter Service

Less isn’t more, MORE is more. In order for a Day Porter service to be a truly effective addition to your facility, they need to know what your facility needs and where their help will benefit you most. When you partner with a professional and effective Day Porter service, they are always looking for ways to help you and your customers. All you need to do is tell them what you need done and they can be a valuable tool for taking some of the more time consuming or difficult tasks of your to do list allowing you to focus on more important things.  The best way to take advantage of a Day Porter service is to determine which kind of daytime help is most useful in your building not only to you, but to your staff, customers, and tenants. Knowing these things, a Day Porter service can be a cost-effective way to help fill in service gaps as well as improving the overall condition of your facility during the day.

Put Up the Day Porter Service Signal to Get Some Help

Once you have identified the key areas that your facility needs help in, it is recommended that you work with your commercial cleaning company or janitorial company to put together a list of tasks for your Day Porter service. Giving your Day Porter service specific instructions on what needs to be done allows your building contractor to get you just the right person or the right people for the job. Putting together a plan for your commercial cleaning company is a good way to make sure that you don’t have overlap between your Day Porter and night cleaning services as well as a way to keep everyone accountable.

The Hero You Need & Deserve

While your Day Porter service isn’t a literal Superman, you’ll find that they quickly become an indispensable part of your team. But not everyone has the can do attitude, competency and helpful character needed to be an outstanding Day Porter. It requires a level of responsiveness, positivity, attention to detail and general helpfulness that you won’t find just anywhere. You want and need a dayporter that can work well with your other employees, that you are comfortable representing your company with customers and employees that may engage with your facility and day porter during business hours. For this to happen, your janitorial company has to make a serious effort to recruit, screen, and train the very best people for the job. Having the right people on your team is key to any successful Day Porter service. When business take shortcuts on thorough background checks such as criminal and drug screening, you run the risk of putting your facility and staff in danger. The best companies will avoid this at all costs as well as incorporate checks like employment verification and personality testing into their battery of screening tests. Without a clear understanding of how to recruit, interview, screen, and train the best people for the job, you could be stuck with zeros instead of heroes.

Just Point Them in the Right Direction

To have an effective Day Porter service, you have to know what duties are going to have the largest impact on your facility. Creating clear expectations of what you need done for your Day Porter service not only allows you to keep track of them, but also sets them up to succeed in your facility. No matter how much of a superhero your Day Porter is, without direction most will gravitate towards job duties that they prefer which may not line up with what your facility needs. Often the case is that your day porter is so useful, many of your other staff will be asking for their assistance. As such, even the best day porters may get bogged down in requests and have difficulties prioritizing. After all, it is so often the ‘special’ tasks that also garner the most attention and praise from you the Facility Manager. The best way to avoid this is to make it clear which tasks are the highest priority to keep your Day Porter service from putting them off to do other things they are asked to help with. Take a moment in your Day Porter’s shoes, they likely don’t know who is allowed to tell them what to do and who is not without approval from you. Having a clear list of responsibilities is the best way to address this as it means what you need done will always come first and extras will only be added as the other tasks allow. Communicating with your Day Porter service is the best way to get a Herculean amount of work done in your facility.

As you can clearly see, a Day Porter service can be a valuable addition to almost any facility and can be customized according the specific needs of your facility, staff, and budget. If this seems like something that would be beneficial for your building or you just want to give it a try contact Stathakis today at (800)278-1884 so we can assist you in designing a Day Porter customized to the individual needs of you and your facility.

Zone Cleaning Isn’t Effective

In theory, multitasking sounds like a great idea, but like many other theories, it doesn't stand up in practice. As it turns out, people aren’t amazing at juggling a variety of tasks. While sometimes this is an unavoidable consequence of work, studies have shown that better, more consistent results are delivered when someone specializes in one area. Knowing this, it is no surprise that zone cleaning, that is, assigning a single person to all the tasks in a room, has been shown to be less effective than team cleaning.

Team Cleaning Is More Efficient, More Effective & Saves Money

So, what is team cleaning and how does its stack up to zone cleaning? A cleaning service that uses zone cleaning has to equip each of their staff members for cleaning every part of a room resulting in the unnecessary duplication, storage and maintenance of items. Further, because zone cleaning is an extreme form of multi-tasking and task switching, the quality of the work is often poor and requires more labor hours overall. In contrast, team cleaning has each person on a team doing a specific cleaning task or small subset of tasks in a building. For instance, one person would be tasked with vacuuming and another with restrooms. This way, there is minimal duplication of equipment and each person is allowed to focus on a specific set of tasks resulting in better task mastery and amore effective, faster cleaning of your facility.

Why Zone Cleaning Fails to Deliver

For certain smaller buildings, it can make sense to have a single person clean the entire office, however, with nearly all larger facilities, having a team for office cleaning offers a number of advantages to you. For instance:

• Team cleaning streamlines training, makes it easier to fill in for a missing member and improves work consistency.
• Promotes teamwork to help balance responsibilities.
• Specialization results in task mastery, consistently higher quality work and reduced labor hours.
• Reduces the cost of purchasing, servicing and storaging costly duplicate equipment.
• Different cleaning solutions such as Green Cleaning are easy to implement with a more centralized staff.
• Easy to customize to the needs of your facility.
• Overall reduction in the cost to you will reducing the number of labor hours needed to manage the cleaning and maintenance of your facility.

Team Cleaning Offers Clear Cost Advantages

Almost every Facility Manager is trying to figure out how to hold steady the costs of their facility maintenance. Maybe you have overall reduced budgets or maybe you had a costly unplanned maintenance issue that threw your carefully planned budget into a tailspin. Whatever the reason, reducing services can’t come at the cost of proper facility cleaning, cuts have to be strategic to still maintain acceptable cleanliness while keeping costs steady or even reducing the overall price of the service.

One of the best ways to do this is by taking advantage of team cleaning. Take for example a light duties specialist, this individual typically dusts and cleans all surfaces, clean windows and doors, empties trash and stacks trash for pickup by different team member to collect. These teams will often include specialist in everything from vacuuming to utilities. Such specialization has a number of benefits to you and your budget. First, it helps reduce the risk of cross-contamination. Second, it helps improve consistency and the quality of service, giving you more value for your dollar. Finally, it makes sure the responsibilities are laid out and that each person is aware of what needs to get done.

How Team Cleaning Mitigates the Impact of the Rising Minimum Wage

Janitorial and commercial cleaning prices are on the rise largely due to the increasing minimum wage here in Michigan. As the single largest hard cost to any office cleaning company, the cost of labor has a serious impact on our pricing. The second largest contributor to hard costs is the price of buying and maintaining equipment. Team cleaning helps address both of these factors. Not only does it reduce labor hours, by minimizing the amount of duplicated equipment, team cleaning can significantly reduce the price of having your facility regularly cleaned without significantly reducing the quality of cleaning. 

Are You Looking for a Step Up in Your Commercial Cleaning Services?

As Facility Manager, you know how the quality and consistency of your janitorial and commercial cleaning service can positively or negatively impact your workload as well as the function of your facility. If your cleaning service is a constant thorn in your side, it might be time to look for a new prospective cleaning company. Companies that provide a cost-effective service without causing problems in your facility do exist. You can have a high quality service without bankrupting your building.

Here at Stathakis, we provide consistent, responsive, effective service and a solid value for businesses all across southeastern Michigan. We have been in the industry more than 30 years and have developed a consistent standard of service that our customers are all willing to vouch for. We will work hard to develop a lasting partnership with you and your facility as well as to deliver the highest quality of service to your facility. If you are a Facility Manager in Royal Oak, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Farmington Hills, Farmington, Dearborn, Novi, Livonia, Troy, Auburn Hills, Plymouth, Downriver or any areas close to those and you are looking for commercial cleaning services, office cleaning, school cleaning, industrial cleaning, medical cleaning or a janitorial company, please contact us so we can help your facility look its best and work to meet your specific needs.

What is an RFP?

What is an RFP (Request for Proposal) and how does it impact you? An RFP is a written document that details the specific needs of your facility and asks for a comprehensive plan from a qualified contractor on how they propose to address those needs. The RFP is designed to be an open tool for you to look at a number of janitorial service providers and find the right contractor for your facility. The better the RFP you receive, the better chance that your prospective cleaning company will be able to understand and offer your facility the services it needs. While this may seem like a straightforward idea, it can quickly be derailed by a number of things from imprecise specifications, quickly thrown together for your RFP, to janitorial bids that are clearly not realistic for your facility. Fortuitously, there are a couple of important tools you can use when considering RFPs to be certain you get (and give) good information and get proposals that clearly address the unique needs of your facility.

Competition is a Good Thing… Usually

Having competition for your facility’s business is likely to lead to more and better options for you and your facility. That being said, in order to be useful, an RFP requires a lot of work from prospective janitorial companies. It shouldn’t be a first tool you use to narrow your search for the right building services company. Odds are, if you cast a wide enough net your are going to be bringing in a lot of RFPs from unqualified, inexperienced, under skilled companies that you shouldn’t have to sort through. Having to sort through such RFPs is a drain on your time and taxing on those cleaning companies that are not really in league for your business. The RFP, for that reason, should never be used as your first qualification tool but rather later in the process when you have identified a few companies that seem promising. When bids are open to nearly anyone, sometimes the most experienced companies will opt out concentrating their efforts elsewhere to avoid the hassle.

Take Advantage of Industry Certifications Like CIMS

A good way to wade through the crowded janitorial marketplace is to take advantage of the ISSA’s CIMS accreditation program to prequalify contractors before you even meet them or ask them to submit a proposal for your facility. ISSA CIMS certification offers you a free shortcut to sift through the crowded janitorial marketplace and identify those companies most equipped to provide the kind of cleaning and maintenance that will best fit the needs of your facility. CIMS is a voluntary accreditation that requires a janitorial company or commercial cleaning company demonstrate a superior level of cleaning and maintenance in industry specific areas. 

CIMS, or the Cleaning Industry Management Standard, is a clear demonstration of a company's capability and commitment to providing the highest levels of service and management. These rigorous benchmarks are all good indicators of a company’s competency and can be used to effectively help you winnow down your short list to the best of the best. It can be helpful to narrow your search using CIMS and then use the RFP in combination with an onsite inspection to best get an idea of what your prospective company can provide for you. If you are looking for a CIMS certified partner in your building maintenance, check in with ISSA for a complete list of CIMS certified cleaning companies and building services companies in your area.

Overly Complicated RFPs Do More Harm Than Good

Information is king, except when it is not. There is information that can help you make decisions and there is information that just overly complicates your issue or gives you more information than could possibly be helpful. A frequent problem that we see is when RFPs are just thrown together versions of older RFPs that haven’t been edited since the company started business. The RFP grows in size and complexity but doesn't actually provide any more useful information. As such, a overly complicated RFP creates extra work for you and your prospective janitorial company without really TELLING you much about the company and how they will actually DO business in your facility. An RFP should be detailed and specific but focused on that information that is pertinent to getting a specific and accurate janitorial quote. What kind of information is important in making a decision on your next janitorial services company? First, cleanable square feet by floor type because different types of flooring will require different equipment, cleaners and have different time requirements. Second, giving an accurate number for typical building occupants is important because it is the best indicator consumables use like toilet paper and hand towels will be used in a day as well as how quickly your building will need attention. This information will allow your janitorial company to stock, plan and estimate janitorial hours accordingly.

Got Maintenance Headaches & Pain Points? Share Them

A common mistake is to use the RFP as a way to address problems that you had with you last company and propose solutions to said problems. However, finding fixes to these solutions isn’t your job, it is your prospective janitorial company’s job. But you have to tell them what isn’t or wasn’t working for you otherwise your prospective janitorial company might run through possible solutions testing ones you already know don’t work for you. Were you disappointed with your last commercial cleaning company? Did they consistently underperform in your restrooms? Are you facing budget cuts that are leaving your maintenance on shaky ground?

Share this with qualified janitorial companies. Not only will you get to see their problems solving skills in action before you give them a yes, they may have better, more efficient, effective and even less costly solutions to the issues plaguing your facility. You are not the specialist in cleaning that is why you’re outsourcing you cleaning to a business that specializes in it. The best way to help with your RFP is to talk about pain points and building it around actual business problems allowing the professionals you hired to present solutions which is both free advice and allows you to compare the different strategies of companies. Let your prospective cleaning company do the heavy lifting!

The Importance of Site Visits

A site visit is an important aspect of any future contracting and all too often it is only quick and cursory. For this reason, it is important to thin your list of prospective janitorial companies before you do facility walkthroughs. By doing this, you can give your potential contractors more time to inspect your facility allowing them to produce a more detailed, facility specific plan for the future. Not only will you get a more accurate bid, in the long run you’ll end up receiving a better, more attuned cleaning.

Get the Commercial Janitorial and Cleaning Company That Does it Right

One of the most challenging tasks for any Facility Manager is finding the right janitorial service provider for your facility. Putting in the time into the RFP process sets you and your facility up for success. Further, take advantage of the CIMS certification to sort through the dense commercial cleaning and janitorial services market to narrow down your search to those companies that perform at a level above the rest. 

Here at Stathakis, we have served the businesses of southeastern Michigan for over thirty years. We provide commercial cleaning, janitorial services and commercial handyman services to the following Southeastern Michigan Counties: Genesee County, Livingston County, Washtenaw County, Monroe County, Wayne County, Macomb County, St. Clair County.

We offer effective, professional facility services to the cities of Detroit, Ann Arbor, Farmington Hills, Dearborn, Farmington, Livonia, Plymouth, Downriver, Royal Oak, Southfield, Troy, Auburn Hills, Novi and more. For more information on our services and how we can help you, please contact us at 1-800-278-1884.

Budgets Are Often A Balancing Act

A continually changing economic landscape is keeping budgets low or in flux. As a Facility Manager, it is undoubtedly frustrating to have to do more work with less money. You are often called to keep quality consistent with less than you were working with before. It can be frustrating to feel like you must be a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat you don’t have. However, even with this set of challenging circumstances, some managers have figured out unique solutions on how to manage their facilities with less money.

Do you, as Facility Manager, have to work on a significantly reduced budget? Or even worse, are you partnered with a commercial office cleaning company that isn’t getting to the level of cleaning that you need? Partnering with the correct professional office cleaning company will not only help you live with a tight budget, but can consistently deliver a level of service that will keep your facility clean and looking good. So, how can you find the right office cleaning service to keep your facility looking good as you weather increasingly tight budgets?

So Many Choices, So Few Real Competitors

The number of office cleaning companies in Southeast Michigan has skyrocketed since the advent of inexpensive websites and mobile phones. Take, for instance, the one man operations, the mom and pop operations, the small part-time operations, the franchisee, the medium and large local service providers and then the national and multinational cleaning companies. In this packed marketplace, only a few of these companies are going to be the right partner for you and your facility. Just because someone wants your business does not mean that they are up for the level of effort and skill YOUR facility requires. When exploring this expansive market of potential commercial cleaning companies, make sure you get an idea of the scale and type of businesses any commercial cleaning company serves in order to avoid companies that either don’t match your facilities needs or are just poor in quality service delivery.  

Don’t Be Tricked With Math That Just Doesn’t Add Up

A questions that pops up over and over again, are commercial cleaning prices intentionally confusing or does it just stem from a lack of experience in bidding? Fortunately, the answer is, it doesn't matter. As a Facility Manager, you need transparent quotes on your cleaning service to compare the value offered by different service providers. First, it’s important for a commercial cleaning service to take time to analyze your facility up front, so that they can understand the specific requirements. Not only is this a good way to provide better cleaning, it’s the best way to get an accurate estimate. Second, having a clear price instead of some meaningless “estimated” cost means that you will not get charged with hidden fees and other upcharges later. While avoiding estimates that are given off hand may be difficult in the short term, finding a company that takes pricing your facility seriously will always benefit you in the long run.

You Get What You Pay For, Kind Of

When our cleaning budget is razor thin, it can be all to easy to convince ourselves that we need the cheapest office cleaning service available. We all know that cheap cleaning may not be the best cleaning, but it's easy to convince ourselves that we can live with less than good service. But all too often, that attractive low price that met our budget goals just leads to a litany of complaints and other issues that require our time and money. So in accepting a too low price we haven’t solved the problem, just moved and delayed it.

Low commercial cleaning bids are often a sign of a host of issues. Not only does it indicate that the company is likely inexperienced at best, it can also be a sign of inadequate training, cheap ineffective cleaning products and illegal hiring and subcontracting. Companies that lowball bids do ONE thing consistently and that is overpromise and under deliver.That being said, choosing to go for bids that are clearly too high won’t always result in better service. Simply put, choosing a commercial cleaning service solely on their bid won’t result in a good partner. You must look further.

Low Pricing Might Be Symptomatic of Larger Issues

The first thought that should pop in to your head when you see a low bid is “how does this company reduce the price of their service so much?” Like everything else, there is a fixed cost of operation for a janitorial services company that determines about where a bid should be. Any bid that is significantly below the rest is a major red flag. First, there is the hiring of undocumented labor. An undocumented worker is a person working off the payroll or someone that has not supplied the necessary identification to verify their legal status or authorization to work. Second, there can be illegally classified workers who are incorrectly identified as independent contractors. Commercial cleaning companies will do this to avoid having to pay payroll, taxes and other benefits that would normally be given to a legal employee. A company that takes these risky shortcuts isn’t likely to be on top of other things like criminal background checks and complete panel drug screening. Finding one shortcut is often a sign that other shortcuts are being taken behind the scenes.

Best Price Versus Best Value

There is a major and important difference between best price and best value. A cleaning company that provides value is one that gets the work you really need done for a reasonable price. If your facility isn’t receiving the care it needs, it doesn't matter what you are paying for it. Value is where service and price intersect. So, how do you find a company that makes value their number one priority? There are a couple of practices you can follow to find cleaning companies that will deliver results where you need them.

Experience Is A Must

Companies with a solid record of experience are in the best position to help you with your significantly reduced budgets. With experience comes an understanding of what services can be cut down and which are non-negotiable when it comes to making sure your facility is clean. Especially with veteran commercial cleaning companies, it’s likely you're not the first person to come to them with a less helpful cleaning budget. With strategies like Smart Cleaning to new innovations in cleaning technologies, it is possible to maintain the overall quality of your facility while staying in line with even less than ideal budgets. Smart Cleaning means that your office cleaner will focus on areas with high traffic and usage strategically while working less in lower usage areas. This will make sure that areas that are used frequently are always in good condition while those that are not are only touched up every once in a while. Finally, larger, more experienced office cleaning companies are often the best equipped and therefore in the best spot to deliver solid, affordable services while still turning a profit.

Tight Budgets Don’t Mean You Completely Sacrifice Service

Even if you are living with an unenviable low cleaning budget putting so many obstacles in your path you feel like Indiana Jones, you are entitled to a reliable, effective cleaning service. The good news is that the most experienced commercial cleaning companies are in a good place to maximize the cleaning you get for your dollar. When looking at prospective companies, it is important to remember the following. Those janitorial companies that provide a transparent price, quality systems and experience are likely to offer you a solid value and service that doesn’t feel like you aren’t getting what you need.

Ensuring Office Safety is as Important as Making Sure It Is Cleaned Well

With many large office buildings there are so many people going in and out over the course of the day. These days, increased security is paramount and that means we need to have an idea about who is entering our facilities as well as some degree of trust that they are safe. We would all like to think that each and every person that we meet is generally a good person, but recently the news has been filling up with headlines like “Maryland Office Shooting Suspect Had a History of Workplace Violence” and “Chef Killed by Coworker” raising real concerns for companies all across the country in terms of workplace safety.  

Safety & Your Commercial Cleaning Company’s Staff

Thankfully although these events understandably grab headlines, they are not as common as it can sometimes feel. However, they raise important safety questions about why these events happen, what we can do to prevent them or at least reduce their likelihood and common sense ways we can make our workplaces safer. So when it comes to your janitorial services company, you want to know who is coming and going and you want to know that they are safe. No one likes a constant stream of new faces in and out of your building at all hours of the day.

Assuring Fit & Suitability In Office Cleaners Requires Some Effort

It all comes down to comprehensiveness and effectiveness of the background checks implemented by the cleaning company in question. Your janitorial services company needs to perform comprehensive background checks on ANY employee that enters YOUR facility. Many companies neglect to be diligent about background checks and drug screening and perhaps fail to appreciate the real risk that presents you your employee and your facility. As time goes on, it is becoming more and more evident that halfhearted, occasional screening isn’t enough to make sure the workplace is safe for you and your employees.  What is needed? There are a couple of key areas that need to be thoroughly examined when performing background checks, not limited to just criminal and drug history. For instance, education, verifying employment history, and reference verifications are all important aspects of someone's employability. Some companies will go beyond and do more to assure office cleaners are a good fit for the work.

What to be on the Lookout When it Comes to Hiring Verifications

Before you decide to outsource you office cleaning to just any building services contractor, make sure you know enough about them. In the cleaning industry, many businesses having a revolving door of staff as a result of an inadequate pool of talent. To err is human, so at some point your office cleaning company will hire the wrong person, and that is ok. But, if your commercial office cleaning company is consistently ignoring or overlooking references, criminal histories, and drug tests because of the cost and time required to check a double check their people, then it is time to find a new partner or move on in your search for effective and safe office cleaning services. Don’t put you or your employees at risk, make sure your office cleaning company is following through with their background checks.

• Criminal Background check (nationwide not just state)
• E-Verify
• Education Verification
• References Follow Up
• Drug Screening
• Employment History Verification

What We do Differently Here At Stathakis

Here at STATHAKIS, we go against the grain when it comes to providing janitorial and commercial cleaning services. Cleaning goes beyond just the task of mopping the floor, taking out the trash, and dusting surfaces, though we do that and do it well. It is about providing the highest quality of overall service, everything from cleaning to helping do our part to assure your workplace is safe. We believe in building relationships with our clients and good relationships are built on trust. We utilize extensive and stringent verification methods when we hire new employees to make sure that they are not only skilled cleaners, but a good addition to your work environment. After all, our business is only as good as our people.

The Difference Between a Winner and a Loser

If office cleaning is a contest, then finding a winner is no easy task. Not only is the office cleaning market place a crowded one, it can be difficult to tell the difference between the winners and the losers. It is entirely possible you’ve had one or more bad experiences with office cleaning companies. Or, this is your first time trying to find one, and your not sure where to start. Do you choose a prospective company based on online reviews? Recommendations of other Facility Managers? Price? Or is there a better way to make sure that the company you partner with is right for you and your facility? If your office is looking dirty and grimy and potentially scaring away potential customers, you have to act quickly. But make sure you do your responsible research and find the commercial cleaning company that will offer the most value for your budget. Here are ten top things that separates the winners from the losers to help you get premier office cleaning services.

1 – Teams That Score

Any company that is in the business of service is completely represented by its staff. So you should never partner with a Detroit commercial cleaning service that doesn't have the best processes in place to train and retain their employees. When a company invests in the people that represent them, they set themselves up, and by extension you, to win. As such, one of the best ways to gauge a prospective office cleaning service is to look at their systems for recruiting, screening, and training.

2 – Tip Top Training

Experience and training have always been the best way to deliver a high quality service. The top-of-the-top office cleaning companies thoroughly train their staff to be professional technicians with a base of knowledge to rival any person in the industry. The best technicians and teams can quickly identify how to effectively and efficiently tackle your office cleaning.

3 – Equipped for Success

Like everything else in the world, the office cleaning industry has been advancing at an unprecedented pace bringing with it more efficient, effective and powerful equipment, techniques and supplies that provide greener solutions, greater effectiveness and even cost efficiencies. However, not every company has the wherewithal or foresight to invest and implement these money saving innovations because as happens all to often, they don’t want to invest valuable profits in new technology or are simply to set in their ways to change.

4 – Winners Carry Their Teams

Office cleaning companies that are in it to win it bring everyone else along with them. Simply put, this means that their management teams push everyone to perform at the highest level. They reward their strongest members for their efforts and help those that are falling behind to achieve. They are playing to win the long game by having the strongest teams with the least employee turnover. What does this mean for you? It means your going to have engaged employees working to clean your offices to the best of their ability. It means that you aren’t going to have to worry about communication or problems not being addressed. The best companies will almost always have the best teams. 

5 – No Such Thing as Beginner’s Luck

Experience is king, we all know this. Companies that have a higher level of experience are simply going to perform at a higher level. Something that not all of us recognize, however, is that often the more experienced companies can be equally priced with those companies lagging far behind in results and value. Now this may seem very counter-intuitive. Why would a company that has spent years honing their skills charge less for their service? First, an experienced office cleaning company knows exactly how to make a bid. You will be getting exactly what you paid for. Second, the best companies, as common sense economics would tell us, operate at higher volumes. As such, many items are purchased in bulk reducing their hard cost to you. Finally, the best companies in the industry are always trying to price competitively to attract the most business. It doesn't make sense for a company that knows they can impress you and keep your business to price themselves outside of everyone’s reach. Further, these companies competency means that they can get more cleaning done in less time reducing labor hours and the cost to you. Why partner with an expensive, inexperienced office cleaning company when you can get a skilled service provider for a comparable price and far better value?

6 – Slow and Steady Wins the Race

If life has taught any of us anything, it is that shortcuts rarely work out. The same life lesson applies to your office cleaners. If they are taking shortcuts with illegal hiring or subcontracting, not only is it an indication shortcuts are being taken elsewhere, it will always come back to bite you. Not only will it put the quality of your service at risk, it can be detrimental to your reputation and standing. Is it really worth partnering with a company that takes shortcuts to try to win your business?

7 – Losers Take Risks

As long as we are on the subject of shortcuts, we should also talk about risk taking. We all avoid unnecessary risk and so should your office cleaning company. If the commercial cleaning company you partner with isn’t fully insured or even insured at all they are introducing an unnecessary liability to your workplace. Unfortunately, this isn’t all that unusual to see. Many smaller companies will skimp on insurance to help bolster profit margins. Don’t take risks with expensive litigations, make sure you partner with a company that is fully insured.

8 – Winning With Green Cleaning

We all know that office cleaning chemicals have never been particularly safe, so we want to know exactly what's being used in our facility. Fortunately, innovation has yet again provided us with a solution. Green cleaning is becoming an increasingly popular office cleaning solution for many companies. Green cleaning is not only better for the environment, it has been demonstrated to create a healthier workplace. Further, Green Cleaning implements less wasteful techniques to reduce the overall cost to you.

9 - Plan to Win

Successful companies are never without a plan. As such, these crème-of-the-crop companies have put into place systems to assure quality and reliability in their practices as well as to promote accountability. They identify problems quickly and address them and provide a consistent and professional service. When you are rooting through the crowded office cleaning marketplace, look for companies that are committed to continually improving their craft in pricing, inspections, cleaning, innovation, and management, with a plan. He who designs the best plan wins.

10 – Partnering with the Right Company is a Win

While finding the winning commercial office cleaning company isn’t a slam dunk, it is worthy of your time. When you find the right building services company, they become a true partner in your facility’s maintenance. Companies that take a long range view of their relationship with you are more likely to work hard to continually offer you the responsiveness and value you need. Likewise, many building services contractors that offer expert office cleaning also provide a range of other services for typical building needs, like janitorial services, to special projects. Invest time into finding the right company and you can go back to them to meet additional maintenance needs.

A Winning Formula

Finding the right commercial office cleaning company for your facility will never be a sure-fire task. There will always be trials and tribulations that go along with it that can make it a real thorn in the side. However, that isn’t to say it isn’t a worthy goal. Companies that put your long term relationship above short term profits are going to be partners that ultimate reduce your workload, not increase it. Similarly, companies that provide office cleaning are often the Swiss army knife of the industry making them a versatile tool for all your company’s needs. Invest some time into finding the right office cleaning service provider and we promise that you won’t be disappointed with the results.

Here at Stathakis, we combine state-of-the-art innovations in office cleaning and care with proven training and industry practices to give you the service you need. If you need office cleaning services, you won’t be disappointed with Stathakis. For more information on how you can get offices cleaner than they have ever been, please contact us at #800-278-1884.