How Michigan’s Rising Minimum Wage Will Change Janitorial Pricing

In the state of Michigan, legislation has pushed up the minimum wage resulting in the small but impactful raise from $8.15 in 2015 to $8.50 in 2016 to $8.90 in 2017 to $9.25 which went into effect January of 2018, and now again $9.45 for 2019 starting in late March. This is all while the federal minimum wage is just $7.25 an hour. As an industry that is largely pinioned on its employee base, pricing can be severely impacted by an increase in such costs. While we can try to absorb these changes to limit the impact on your business, it is easy to see how challenging manage operational cost increases without passing along some of this price to you, the customer. That being said, you as the Facility Manager are still under pressure to keep your janitorial budgets under control. Let's look at a couple of ways that commercial cleaning companies are responding to higher labor costs to make sure that your cleaning budget isn’t further impacted while maintaining an effective level of service. For many of the most experienced, consistent, effective cleaning companies, it is a combination of some of the industry's best practices like:

• Smart Cleaning
• Open Book Pricing
• Time Saving Cleaning Equipment
• Team Cleaning
• Employee Retention Practices

The Difference Between Team Cleaning & Zone Cleaning

Team cleaning has been demonstrated again and again to be strictly more efficient than the traditional zone cleaning. To zone clean is to divide a building up into areas, assigning a specific cleaner or cleaning team to each respective area. While this may seem like a common sense approach to cleaning it can present a couple of problems, namely duplication and specialization. Take for example the process of cleaning one floor, it must be vacuumed or mopped (or both), dusted, surfaces cleaned, trashes emptied, and restrooms cleaned. This requires a large amount of equipment, consumables, and other products for each cleaner to do their job. Further, to properly complete these tasks, each cleaner must be familiar with the specifics of each task that goes into cleaning a whole section of a building. This is a challenging task and can often lead to incorrectly completed work. Team cleaning instead sends a group of people, each with assigned tasks to do throughout a facility. Each person is a specialist in their own right working on one specific item or process for each room. This way, each individual is better trained in their task and doesn't have to move large amounts of equipment from room to room helping to increase efficiency and decrease overall cost. Similarly, if you have a vacuum specialist, a floor cleaning specialist and a restroom specialist, for example, you do not have to outfit each individual cleaner with the equipment and supplies to do a variety of tasks. It is cheaper and far more efficient.

Industry Innovation Can Help Keep Prices Low

Like every industry, the janitorial industry has gone through a number of technological advances in the past few years. As a result, commercial cleaning has become increasingly more effective and more cost efficient. As an example of, the Clarke’s Boost floor cleaning machine, through case studies, has been shown to reduce labor costs by over 80%. While investing in this technology has a high associated cost, the efficiency it offers and reduction in hours can help keep janitorial and commercial cleaning prices down despite a rising minimum wage. Another technology that drastically changed the industry is HEPA filtration backpack vacuums, which allow cleaning staff to cover more than twice the area in a facility in the same amount of time as before. Additionally, the HEPA backpack vacuums also helped reduce repetitive motion injuries as well as improve indoor air quality compared to traditional vacuums. As you can see, not only does innovation in the commercial cleaning industry reduce labor hours, it also improves the health of your building by implementing greener, more sustainable technologies.

How to Use Smart Cleaning to Keep Prices in Check Without Letting Go of Quality

Implementing Smart Cleaning in your facility can help you keep costs down while living with the rising cost of labor in Michigan. To Smart Clean is to strategically target certain services while reducing others to help reduce the overall cost of cleaning while maintaining a similar, livable level of quality. Strategicallyis of course the key word. If your level of service suddenly drops off you are sure to be flooded with complaints and numerous other ancillary problems. The key to effective Smart Cleaning is two things: first, use a cleaning company that is experienced enough to know what can be cut back on and what cannot. Second, find a company that is willing to take the time to understand the ins and outs of your building as well as your specific needs so as to best implement Smart Cleaning in a way that works well for you and your facility. Smart Cleaning isn’t just a phrase that you can throw at your commercial cleaning company and expect results, it requires forethought, innovation, customization and above all, commitment. By cutting tasks that can go undone intermittently, you can significantly reduce your cleaning costs. When applied by an experienced company, you'll find you can reduce your cleaning hours and cost without drastically lowering the quality of your cleaning.

Janitorial Turnover Can Hurt Your Cleaning and Your Wallet

Any service businesses’ single greatest resource is their people, this is in part why rising labor costs have a big impact on Michigan cleaning companies. Employees are key to delivering quality service but the commercial cleaning industry can be notorious for its employee turnover. So, when you come across a janitorial company that actively works to reduce their turnover rate, you are very likely to benefit from their endeavors. Why is that? Mainly because the cost of bringing in new employees with any degree of frequency is a very large expense as it entails recruiting, screening, hiring, and training among other things. Add to that newer employees are more inefficient as they are learning and mastering their responsibilities. This is of course unavoidable, but if your cleaning company is a revolving door of new hires, they are really always in training mode reducing the quality and value of the cleaning services you are receiving. The higher the turnover rate is, the higher the cost is going to be to you, not to mention that the quality of your cleaning will be reduced by the constant changing of the staff that is cleaning your facility.

Use Open Book Pricing to Your Advantage

Open Book Pricing is when a janitorial company literally opens their books and shows you how they break down costs and profit. The benefit of this type open communication is that you can see exactly what it is your paying for and exactly what the hard costs are for your janitorial company. What you should be expecting to see when it comes to hard costs is the following:

• Direct Costs (often in the form of consumables like cleaners and other paper products)
• Labor
• Taxes
• Management Fees
• Employee Benefits
• Insurance
• Profits

In terms of expenditures, the highest expense will always go to staffing, and with the increase in minimum wage, this number will only go up. The best companies in the industry will look to position their business model in such a way to avoid passing on the cost to you by utilizing techniques like Smart Cleaning and by investing in efficient equipment. However, if you need fixed hours, the cost is going to go up. Taking advantage of industry innovation can help keep prices level, but understand how the rising wage impacts the price of your janitorial and commercial cleaning service provider.

Managing a Rising Minimum Wage Without Sacrificing Service

Inevitably, Michigan’s rising minimum wage will have an impact on costs in a number of industries and the janitorial industry is no exception. Still, there are things to be done with both you and your janitorial company making adjustments to try to keep costs as level as possible and still keep your facility well maintained. Are you looking for better service? Better value? More consistency? Reach out and let us show you how we can make your facility services work for you rather than against you.

Stathakis proudly serves the Southeastern businesses of Ann Arbor, including Detroit, Royal Oak, Farmington Hills, Downriver, Farmington, Dearborn, Livonia, Troy, Auburn Hills, Novi, and Plymouth.

Crystal Clear Pricing Is A Must For Any Successful Partnership

So often janitorial bids are confusing and difficult to understand when in reality cleaning prices should always be crystal clear and certainly easy to compare. We know that finding the right janitorial company to partner with can be a difficult task, especially given how many companies there are here in Michigan from which to choose. Not only are is it a crowded janitorial marketplace, there are so many different level providers and so many other factors to consider when trying to decide what company will be the best long term fit for your facility.

What Makes Up A Janitorial Bid?

No matter how much we would all love if effective commercial cleaning and janitorial services were easy to find, effective and affordable, that just isn’t the case. Deciding upon your next cleaning company doesn’t have to be a shot in the dark if you are armed with good information. First, what’s really in a bid? Every service industry, janitorial companies included, must account for hard costs like insurance, taxes, labor, benefits, cleaning supplies and more. As is with any service business, the largest hard cost is the price of labor, especially considering the changes to minimum wage here in Michigan. Aside from this, you also have your facility’s needs to consider. For instance, budgetary requirements, your building’s traffic, and maintenance needs among a host of other things. In order to provide you with the most accurate information about the cost of cleaning your facility, your prospective janitorial company is going to need to know these factors as well as information like square footage, the number of restrooms, floor type and any other details that can help them build an accurate quote. Site visits can also be an important component of accurate janitorial bids.

Too Low & Value Falls Apart

In an era of ever tightening budgets, we are all looking for a way to trim costs. Still, keep in mind when negotiating costs that there needs to be a balance between reducing the cost to you and making sure your prospective company is still turning a healthy profit. Go too low and your commercial cleaning company simply won’t be able to do the work you need. Janitorial companies have hard costs especially with regard to labor hours. They need to be able to cover their costs in labor, equipment, administration, supplies, and most importantly, net a reasonable profit margin. Without that they won’t be in business for long. So, when looking at prices for your commercial cleaning company, you have to consider what it costs your janitorial services company and what it costs you and strike a healthy balance.

Don’t Use Price As Your Only Gauge

If you are using lowest price as the sole basis for deciding on a Plymouth janitorial company, you are not likely to like the results. Getting a company that fits your bottom line but doesn't do the work promised or the work you need isn’t a good deal at any price. Getting your facility's needs met is the first priority of any potential partnership between you and an Ann Arbor cleaning service. This doesn't just mean that they sometimes provide the level of service required, it means that they consistently deliver on their promises to you and adjust according to what you need. While price will always factor into choosing a contractor, it should never be the only factor.

Beware the Very High & Very Low Prices

There is an important distinction that needs to be made between price and value. If you are receiving poor or inconsistent service at a rock bottom price, you might like the price but you aren’t getting what you need. Another way to think out about it is paying to have your facility not cleaned. No one would ever say “Hey! That is a great deal on not having my facility cleaned!” And the flip side of this is that high prices are not a guarantee of better service. You have to look beyond price t determine if you and your facility are truly getting value. All too often you will ask for a number of janitorial quotes and the prices will not actually reflect the reality of what your facility needs, value or what you will really end up paying. Many companies simply don’t know how to accurately price their services. Low prices can be a way of securing your contract and then boom, you are hit with hidden charges and fees and high prices are usually a result of inexperienced bidding. As Facility Manager, you should be looking for the company that offers a reasonable and clear price that falls within your janitorial budget. As such, you deserve to get clear bids and transparent pricing to help you make the best decision for your facility.

Why The Cheapest Price Is Not Likely The Best Value

Cheap prices are always going to be tempting, especially if your budgets are tight to begin with. Unfortunately, very low prices are often a red flag for activities like illegal hiring, subcontracting, low quality service, and pricing games. Still, it is all to often the Facility Managers convince themselves that as a result of their budget that they have to partner with a bottom of the barrel commercial cleaning company in order to make ends meet. Never settle for a company that isn’t going to provide a consistent level of quality in their work regardless of their price. The best cleaning companies in the industry understand that many Facility Managers are in the same position and actively work to come up with custom cleaning solutions to make sure that your facility gets cleaned properly without going over budget. By taking advantage of industry proven practices like Smart Cleaning and Team Cleaning, you can streamline your cleaning to only include the essentials while removing other expensive services that your facility does not really need in order to operate effectively.

Some Janitorial Companies Understand How To Do More With Less

Experienced, professional janitorial companies know which services can be cut and which cannot in order to help you meet your bottom line numbers. They know that cutting service to areas without thought and planning will immediately cause an influx of complaints and calls that will cause all kinds of problems. Cuts have to be smart, strategic and planned. For instance, maybe the conference room can be cleaned once or twice a week, while restrooms must be cleaned every evening. The right commercial cleaning company will be able to work directly with you to make these calls to get the core areas of your building serviced without showing an appreciable loss in service to your tenants or employees. For smart cleaning to be effective, however, your cleaning company needs to have a detailed and complete understanding of the ins and outs of your facility. This means that you need to do a complete walk-through and sit down to create a plan based on traffic patterns and unique building requirements. Smart Cleaning, done correctly, will give you the tools you need to still get a high level of consistent service without going over you cleaning budget.

Don’t Settle For Overpriced Services That Don’t Deliver, You Can Do Better

It is always a balancing act between a reasonable price and a reasonable level of service when it comes to commercial cleaning. You don’t want to overpay for your cleaning service but at the same time you don’t want to accept the first unbelievably low bid you get as you likely won’t like the results. The goal of course is value, that point where price and quality meet to give you the most bang for your janitorial buck.

Here at Stathakis, we deliver janitorial services and building maintenance services to Southeastern Michigan including: Genesee County, Livingston County, Washtenaw County, Monroe County, Wayne County, Macomb County, St. Clair County. We offer effective, professional office cleaning services to the cities of Detroit, Ann Arbor, Farmington Hills, Dearborn, Farmington, Livonia, Plymouth, Downriver, Royal Oak, Southfield, Troy, Auburn Hills, Novi and more.

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. 

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.

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.

Local Is Often the Better Choice When Considering Janitorial Services

What kind of janitorial services does YOUR facility need? The giants of the national janitorial companies may seem like the way to go when it comes to finding an a janitorial cleaning service, but there are some important factors to consider when looking for your next janitorial company. With a national janitorial company, it isn’t unusual for Facility Managers to report that they feel like they are just one of many, often larger, companies and not at all getting the effective service, responsiveness or attention they had hoped for.

Why National Cleaning Companies Might Lead You Down the Wrong Path

Often, national janitorial companies simply don’t have the time or need to give you the most responsive, personalized cleaning and maintenance when compared to local Michigan commercial cleaning companies. Sure they want your business, but they can also replace it quite easily. By making the decision to partner locally with the right independent business, you are more likely to get a responsive, personalized cleaning service, and you get to help support the local businesses that help drive the local Michigan economy. This not only helps you, but helps shape our communities, create more local business and commerce connections with different suppliers and opportunities for employment and helps keep tax dollars instate. Investing locally in businesses can make a large impact on protecting the health and diversity of our state economy.

Local Janitorial Services Aren’t Just Good for You, They’re Good For Michigan

As a Facility Manager, making the active choice to choose local cleaning services Michigan instead of national janitorial services helps keep jobs and dollars in the Michigan community and economy. This choice will keep local tax dollars here to promote economic growth and benefits the Michigan community in a number of significant ways. But can you do the right thing and still the thing that is good for YOUR business? It is easy to convince yourself that your facility requires a national company in order to get the intensive services you need, but as the age-old adage goes, bigger isn’t always better. Of course, going for small businesses isn’t the solution either.

It all comes down to scalability, companies that are too small don’t have the resources or the manpower to give you the level of service you need, and companies that are too large often just aren’t set up to provide you with a personalized level or service, they have scaled beyond that. Being somewhere in the middle is what you want. If you are looking for reasonable prices, consistently high quality services, customized cleaning plan for your facility, responsiveness as your needs changes and a real partner in the care of your facility, then find yourself the right local Detroit janitorial company.

Which Local Janitorial Companies Will Help You Succeed?

As you have probably seen, local janitorial services and commercial cleaning companies can come in all shapes and sizes. When looking local you’ll find everything from the Mom and Pop style of operation to the start-up business to the large professional Detroit area commercial cleaning companies. The trick to choosing the right operation is finding what meets the needs of your facility best. Most of these smaller operations are likely not going to have the staff or financial resources to meet the needs of larger facilities, or multiple facilities. You best choice is likely to be the larger, more established Michigan building services contractors.

These companies are better able to service larger or multiple buildings, they invest in and offer better equipment as a result of being more financially established. Further, they are equipped to clean and maintain schools, medical buildings, and even industrial facilities. Forging a partnership with a local janitorial and commercial cleaning company can give you flexibility and customization that you may need to meet the needs that are specific to your facility.

The Important Differences Between A National Janitorial Company & Cleaning Services In Michigan

When it comes to working with a prospective commercial cleaning company, choosing one that is in the middle of the size range is often a good place to start your search. If you are the Facility Manager of a large building or numerous buildings, smaller operations simply aren’t likely to have the resources or staff to provide an acceptable level of service, not matter how much they want your business. At the same time, you don’t want to partner with a large national cleaning service that will simply lose your facility among the hundreds of others that they service.

So, what are you looking for in a cleaning service? First, you are going to want a company that is responsive to your requests and complaints. Communication is key in any partnership with a janitorial services provider. Second, you want to find a company that is both established and experienced and is going to be able to provide the best service as they have the resources and know-how to do so. Further, experienced companies are better able to price their services and adjust cleaning to help meet the budgetary needs of your building. Finally, you need a company that is large enough that it has the resources and financial backing to provide you with consistent, quality service but no so large that you get lost in the shuffle.

A large to mid sized local janitorial company with a record of recruiting, hiring, training and managing very good people is a good prospect. When you contract with such companies you get the benefits of both a large national company and a smaller local company. The most effective janitorial services companies in Michigan are those that have the experience where they have already worked through service issues and business problems that tend to plague newer startups or cleaning companies going through growth and the growing pains that can come with it. They reap the benefits of having purchasing power for bulk items and equipment, lowering prices to you, but they aren’t large enough to lose you in a mess a bureaucracy and larger contracts.

Dependable Service is a Must From Any Janitorial Company

You know what you want, a local Michigan janitorial company that is the right size to give you everything you need, but where do you start looking? First and foremost, look at the practices and methods of your prospective commercial cleaning companies when it comes to their most important asset, their staff. Any and all service business, janitorial companies included, are completely and totally reliant on their onsite staff to actually provide the services that they offer. It is, of course, the onsite staff that is responsible for assuring that your facility gets cleaned and maintained adequately day in and day out. The CEO won’t be there with a mop but where the CEO is likely to be involved is how the company recruits, hires, screens, trains and maintains their onsite staff. Having the best people for the job is entirely reliant on company culture and the practices for rewarding staff that go above and beyond in customer service.

Taking a lead in these areas helps reduce janitorial turnover and almost always improves the quality of service you are getting. Similarly, another important aspect to look at is communication. Cleaning, unfortunately, is not often as straightforward as many of us believe. Mistakes are bound to happen and what really separates the good from the bad companies is the way that these problems are addressed and rectified. Commercial cleaning companies with systems and procedures in place to deliver on promises and to fix problems when they come up are always going to be the best partners. Finally, a janitorial company that provides a transparent price point is always going to be better value than one that does not.

Shorten Your List of Would Be janitorial Services In Michigan With CIMS

Industry specific accreditations like the ISSA’s CIMS and CIMS-GB can make your list of prospective commercial cleaning companies much shorter and easier to navigate. CIMS is a certification offered to building services contractors that requires contractors to demonstrate their mastery of a number of areas of business that directly correlate to effective service and operations. By extension, the ISSA’s CIMS accreditation is a measurement of compliance with the industries best practices and continued innovation in core service areas. CIMS, among other certifications, is by far one of the more demanding and stringent in order to obtain. Any company that has demonstrated their capability by being awarded this prestigious certification have a clear commitment to performing at the highest level in their industry as well as continuing to pave the way for more effective and consistent cleaning and maintenance. When looking at prospective cleaning companies, you can quickly find those that are at the top of their game by looking for the CIMS and CIMS-GB accreditation. Put yourself in the best position to succeed by partnering with a local Michigan janitorial cleaning company that has repeatedly shown their commitment to providing you with the highest quality of service.

Cut Them Off!

Has service from your office cleaning company gone steadily downhill? Or maybe it’s been a disaster from day one. Is is time to find another commercial cleaning service and cut off your current one but you just haven’t gotten around to doing it? Maybe you tell yourself, what is the alternative anyway? Aren’t all cleaning companies going to offer roughly the same level or lack of service as the one you have now? Or maybe you think that to get the upgrade you need in your office cleaning it would cost you an arm and a leg?

Is Your Office Cleaning Company on the Chopping Block?

With even the best, most responsive and professional janitorial companies, you won’t get services that are 100% perfect or go smoothly 100% of the time. After all, office cleaning services are delivered by people not robots (yet). But when small mistakes become big mistakes become real, daily problems, it might be time to cut your office cleaning company loose. If you have given your commercial cleaning service an opportunity to learn from their mistakes and do better and well, they just aren’t, it’s likely time to say enough is enough and move on.

Common Commercial Cleaning Problems That Cause the Most Problems

What are some of the common cleaning problems that keep your facility from looking and running its best and even reduce the value of what you are getting?

 Is Your Cleaning Company On Top of It With Their People & People Processes?

Service businesses rely on the people as the face of their company. It’s these people that go out into the field and YOUR office each day or night to clean your facility. These people are trusted to not only do a good job, but be a safe and secure presence in your building. So, if your janitorial services company is guilty of poor employee screening, illegal subcontracting and under-the-table payment that can negatively impact you, it might be time for them to get the axe. Taking these illegal and often dangerous shortcuts says a lot about the culture of the company and thus the quality of cleaning you are receiving. Further, companies that take said shortcuts in one place are more likely to take shortcuts everywhere.

 Training & Professionalism

Being an effective janitorial service, especially with the rapid pace of industry wide technical innovation, requires an unprecedented degree of know-how and training. No matter if you want green cleaning practices implemented or are just looking for straight forward, no nonsense office cleaning, you need a Detroit cleaning company that provides consistent and proven training to its frontline staff so they know what needs to get done and how to do it. A professional cleaning company finds and hires very good people and then good training takes good people and makes them great! Further, better trained employees are often happier and more fulfilled making it a win for both your staff and you.

Is a Lack of Responsiveness & Regular Indifference Telling?

Not every janitorial service provider has the metaphorical “complaint box”. Or, perhaps they “take” complaints but nothing ever gets done with the information. If you’ve been brushed off one too many times or you’ve tried your best to communicate with your cleaning company and never gotten a workable response, it might be time to start looking for a new janitorial company.

Inconsistency

Anyone can get lucky once and a while and your cleaning company is no exception, but ask yourself this, are they delivering solid service on a consistent basis? Or is your Livonia office cleaning service hit or miss? No matter what you budget happens to be, you should always receive a service that is commensurate of what you’re paying for.

They Just Don’t Care

Apathy is all too common when it comes to commercial cleaning. For every janitorial company that is professional and offers a solid value for their services, there are probably 50 that don’t. They may have started with good intention but many cleaning companies simply don’t care about their employees, or the quality of service they deliver. If you have an apathetic cleaning company, you have no other choice but to release them. It can be challenging finding another company to do the job correctly and professionally, but having an apathetic company and not having a company at all are often one in the same. Don’t waste your already tight budget on a company that isn’t interested in delivering the level of service you and your facility deserve.

Janitorial Companies that Make the Cut

It can be tough to find a professional commercial cleaning company, especially when there are so many more cleaning companies that deserve the axe. But the work and effort you put into finding a real ally in your facility maintenance is worth the challenge. There are companies out there that conduct thorough background checks, use proven training techniques and manage in such a way so as to provide the highest quality of service. These experienced companies know how to deal with reduced budgets and can help to make sure you get the most bang for your buck. 

How do you find these companies? The first way is by talking to other Facility Managers. Let their experience and sometimes even trial and error benefit you. Or if you don’t know anyone that you can ask, start looking at your prospective janitorial companies pricing, employee screening and training to see if they’ll fit in your facility. Any company worth their salt won’t just say they do it, they’ll back it up.

Another good way to narrow down the list of companies you have to look at is by taking advantage of the ISSA’s CIMS and CIMS-GB accreditation. Companies that possess this certification perform at the highest level in the industry and have passed a battery of regular, stringent test in core cleaning and service areas. Here at Stathakis, we take these two ideas and combine them by hiring and training the best people as well as constantly looking to improve and test ourselves through hard-work and innovation. Further, we are one of the companies that possess the ISSA’s CIMS certification demonstrating our commitment to operating at the highest level in our industry for building care and cleaning.

The Secret of the Janitorial Closet

You contract with a janitorial company so that you can avoid having to deal with micromanaging the cleaning of your facility, right? The goal is for everything to run smoothly and effectively so that you can focus your energy elsewhere. In order for you to be relatively hands off with your commercial cleaning company, they must be experienced, professional and attentive to all the details big and small that go into providing exceptional, affective janitorial services. The janitorial closet can be a fairly good barometer of the level of quality your commercial cleaning company is providing. Is the cleaning closet neat and orderly, a complete mess or somewhere in between?

You Can Judge a Janitorial Company by the State of Their Closet

Is the focus on a well-organized janitorial closet too narrow? We don’t think so. Your janitorial service contractor is fully aware that you can go check the cleaning storage closet at anytime, and as such, if it is consistently left messy and unkempt it means that your cleaning company thinks that you don’t check and is likely treating your facility with about the same level of care. Further, there are specific compliance codes and regulations about the storage of various cleaning supplies that if aren’t followed, can put you and your facility at risk. Sure who hasn’t left something untidy before or even taken a shortcut here or there to get something done quickly, yet a pattern of sloppiness and shortcuts will inevitably lead to poor cleaning services.

Janitorial Best Practices are Well, Best

Do we really want to have to wonder if the cloth used to clean the toilet was also used to clean our desk? Do we want to settle for a janitorial services company that doesn’t follow the manufacturer’s directions regarding cleaning chemicals? Do we want to partner with a cleaning company that might not be adequately screening their staff? The reality is that short cuts in one area predict short cuts in others. If your commercial cleaning service isn’t consistently following industry best practices, you and your facility are at risk in a host of important ways.

Color Coded Rags and Combatting Cross-Contamination

When it comes to dealing with cross contamination, there is a cost effective, common sense method that your janitorial company should be using, a color coordinated rage system. The color-coded rag system uses rags, cloths and towels of varying color for specified areas in order to reduce or eliminate cross-contamination and get a cleaner, healthier work environment. Take, for instance, office cleaning. The rag that was used to clean the restroom should never be used to clean the desk. By color coding rags that can be used in the restroom and those that can be used on the desk, you are never at risk for these types of problems. It is a simple system anyone can follow. If your cleaning service isn’t using this easy to understand, easy to implement visual coding system, they are not doing their part to prevent health risks in your facility.

The Old Gray Mare She Ain’t What She Used to Be

Unlike some of us tech junkies, your office cleaning company doesn't need brand new state-of-the-art equipment every year to be competitive and to provide a high level or service. However, that doesn't mean that having near antique equipment won’t impact the quality of cleaning in your facility. First, using the right equipment, such as HVAC vacuum cleaners, can help earn LEED points towards improving your green building score. Further, newer vacuum cleaners are often lighter and more efficient saving you both time and money. This is especially beneficial given that janitorial cleaning budgets are as tight as ever. The best commercial cleaning companies recognize that having the right, up-to-date equipment can improve cleaning and efficiency. When you look in your janitorial closet do you see newer equipment that is well maintained or a bunch of broken bits or vacuums and floor cleaning supplies or machines that have seen better days?

Does Your Green Cleaning Program Have Teeth?

Every janitorial or commercial cleaning that you talk to is going to throw the word “green cleaning” at you but do they have a comprehensive program to truly meet your environmental and sustainability goals? What does an actual green cleaning program look like? Is your janitorial company using LEEDs approved equipment and processes? Are they using environmentally sound cleaning solutions and are they using them in the right ways? Are they protecting your building’s occupants from the dangers of cross-contaminations? If your prospective janitorial and commercial cleaning company is really putting their best foot forward on green cleaning practices they should have comprehensive information and evident programs that they can implement in your facility.

Improve Your Janitorial Cleaning Service Through Regular Inspection

One of the best ways to ensure consistency and assure reliability in your facility is to perform regular janitorial inspections, including inspections of the janitorial closet/closets. Everyone makes mistakes from time to time, it is a very human thing to do. So, through the use of janitorial inspections, we can help find and address these mistakes quickly before they bloom into larger problems. Your cleaning company can’t address issues you have with them if they are never told what the issues are. Use regular inspections to your advantage to help forge a stronger partnership with your cleaning company.

A Dirty Cleaning Closet is a Major Red Flag

You can’t use the state of the janitorial closet as a sole gauge of the quality of cleaning and service that you are receiving. However, it can be a major red flag indicating larger problems. If you perform a janitorial inspection and find that the closet is in perfect or near perfect condition, it is likely you can rest assured that your facility is being attended to in the same way. Here at Stathakis, we take advantage of the latest innovations and proven cleaning processes to deliver the highest quality service. We work with our teams to keep janitorial closet clean and organized because we know having the right tools well organized is the optimal starting point. Let us show you how our Southeast Michigan cleaning sets the standard for the industry. Whether you have a simple question or would like a no-obligation quote, give us a call at 1-800-278-1844 or email info@stathakis.com

The Budget Forecast

At Stathakis, we know that many southeastern Michigan businesses are dealing with reduced and even razor thin budgets in your facilities. We also know that the last thing you need is your janitorial company causing problems, creating issues and generating extra work for you. After all, the entire purpose of outsourcing janitorial services is to reduce your workload not add to it. As the budget constricts, the number of things you have to do balloons. Aside from supervising your facility, it is likely you are in charge of lease management, managing space and people, as well as understanding all the pertinent regulations that go with those tasks. Not only do you have to go above and beyond, but it is entirely possible you may also be required to figure out how to do all of this more effectively on a significantly reduced budget. Juggling more objects at an increasing speed, it would seem, is no longer just a circus act.

How Budget Reductions Impact You & Your Facility

The metaphoric hole in your budget isn’t going to go away. In fact, increased competition and economic pressure may actually make it larger as businesses try to go farther on less. While this may not be bad news for you, your job as Facility Manager is likely becoming, if it hasn’t already, a lot more complex and demanding than previously. That being said, challenges and competition in industry is what drives the American economy and just like other businesses, the janitorial industry is changing to meet the needs of an evolving marketplace. Working with less, professional janitorial companies and suppliers are working to cut down on waste and optimize processes to work cheaper and more effectively. Now the task for you as the Facility Manager is finding which commercial cleaning provider is going to do this best. While the current climate may necessitate working leaner, it is a sink or swim situation for a lot of companies. Partnering with a commercial cleaning company that approaches these challenges with a plan and action to back it up is what will lead to a successful partnership.

Smart Cleaning can be Your Solution to Tighter Budgets

At Stathakis, Smart Cleaning is the name of the game when it comes to helping Facility Managers with their janitorial budgets and prevention of service drop offs. “What is Smart Cleaning?”, you may ask. With Smart Cleaning, we work with suboptimal janitorial budgets in a given facility and strategically choose which services are most beneficial to the cleanliness and function of the facility. Services can then be ranked and delivered at a frequency that helps better manage your budget and makes sure your facility is still well-maintained from the perspective of your building’s occupants and visitors. Our complete analysis asks the questions:

• “What tasks are we performing that might be unnecessary?”
• “What tasks and duties are must haves that need to be included regardless of reduced budgets?”
• “What are we doing currently and does it make sense given your maintenance and budget needs?”
• “Where are the areas we might be able to get by with less?”
• "How can we use janitorial industry innovation, products, equipment & processes to better meet our customer's needs?
• “What better, more efficient ways might there be to complete those things that are necessary?”

Partnerships Make Smart Cleaning a Success

You can’t just ask your commercial cleaning company to start Smart Cleaning and expect the problem to be solved. If only it was as simple as asking our service providers to do better work for cheaper right? Many companies don’t have the capability to further optimize their cleaning practices and asking them to do more for less is a great way to create problems with the work that they do. Smart Cleaning means that you need to sit down with your janitorial cleaning company and discuss which services are important and which are not while looking out how they can be better fitted to your facility. As a janitorial company, we need to know the ins and outs of your building to best customize our service for you. We need to know exactly what your priorities are and what things can be given less attention. Smart Cleaning is based on upfront communication between you and your commercial cleaning company. It is nuanced and in order to work, must be customized to your particular facility. While it may be more work, in the long run, it offers a lot of benefit to yourself and your facility.

What is Smart Cleaning?

Smart Cleaning isn’t just a word, its ideas, processes, and knowledge that when combined together, give you better service for less money. Many companies may dismiss it because its seems complicated, but in actuality its a simple, common sense approach to cleaning. There are a couple of key, general components that apply to your facility and the planning process no matter what:

The Smart Clean approach requires:

• Site visits a must in order to look well beyond simple square footage in determining work and pricing.
• A complete review of your needs to be able to put the focus where it is needed most.
• Getting a real sense of your facility and how you use it
• A thorough understanding of your pain points, whether with former janitorial services or within your own company so we can provide solutions that will actually help you.
• A complete review of services and how they can be condensed and scheduled to minimize the appearance of less by employees or tenants.
• Leaner approaches to cleaning through improved staff training and time saving tools like Team Cleaning, where appropriate.
• Clear, effective communication in order to catch problems early and adjust in real time.
• Establishing efficiencies with the use of better, high tech equipment that reduces labor hours while still delivering effective service.

It is important to remember, however, that Smart Cleaning isn’t about just doing less cleaning. Rather it is the deliberate transition focusing on the most critical services that have the largest impact on the functioning of your facility. Smart Cleaning comprises the processes and implementation of targeting waste and inefficiencies by eliminating overlap or unnecessary work and taking that saved time and using it somewhere more meaningful. This is the only way a janitorial company can try reduce cost while keeping a professional, effective cleaning service. For that reason, Smart Cleaning can only be done by companies that are veterans in their industry. The amount of work and knowledge and training that goes into Smart Cleaning means that only the best of the best in the trade can make it all come together.

Could your facility benefit from Smart Cleaning? Are you working with a less than ideal building maintenance budget?

Here at Stathakis, we have over thirty years experience developing a standard of service and working hard to create lasting relationships with our customers and offer the businesses of southeastern Michigan the solutions and services they deserve. In a perfect world there would be healthy budgets to care for your facility without thought to livable cuts and efficiencies but we know the pressure Facility Managers are under.

If you are a Facility Manager in Ann Arbor, Detroit, Royal Oak, Farmington Hills, Farmington, Dearborn, Livonia, Troy, Auburn Hills, Novi, Plymouth, Downriveror surrounding areas and you are looking for janitorial services that deliver without breaking the bank, please contact us to learn more about how we can assure you get the service you and your facility require.

What We Hear From Facility Managers Just Like You

We talk to Facility Managers day in and day out, it is after all, part of our job. The thing we hear over and over again is how Facility Managers are working with tighter janitorial budgets and overall belt tightening and as such, need to hold costs steady or even reduce them. This, of course, is not the ideal but we understand that it is sometimes simply an unavoidable part of doing business. So Facility Managers have to be careful how and where the allot their dollars and yet, no Facility Manager wants to meet budgets at the expense of having a well maintained building. Angry phone calls and an email box filled with complaints is not a scenario any Facility Manager wants to entertain. SO what are you to do if you are in the position of trying to manage both getting your facility properly cleaned AND keeping costs down? If you are working with a reduced or suboptimal janitorial budget WHO cleans your facility is even more important. The best janitorial companies have responded to the economic uncertainty of budget cuts, increased minimum wage and increased employee healthcare requirements with creative solutions and high tech cost cutting measures from machines that do the work faster, better and cheaper to methods like team cleaning which offer more efficient and effective service. The best cleaning services do not always have to cost more. In fact, the best janitorial services can help you maximize your budget, deliver a level of services that lightens your load and keeps your facility clean and well maintained avoiding complaints from employees and tenants.

Finding a Janitorial Services Company That is Ready, Willing & Able

Reduced budgets require an A team, not the B, C or D team. While there are a great many janitorial and cleaning companies, there are only a few that are really poised to do more with less and clean and care for your facility well. The janitorial marketplace is a crowded one and while competition is good for you the customer, often there are so many companies that finding the right one for YOUR facility can be a challenge. And so often, we talk to Facility Managers that think just because they are working with less than ideal budgets, they have to settle for crummy service. Sure with reduced budgets you might not get everything you want but the right janitorial company will make sure you get everything you need. When looking for your next janitorial services company, we suggest you get an idea of the size and types of businesses and industries they already serve in order to avoid those janitorial companies that are simply not going to deliver services up to the standard of work you require.

Transparent Pricing Is Key

The only thing worse than getting less than what you need from your janitorial services is paying too much for it. One way to insulate yourself from unnecessary costs and still get the service you need is to get clear,transparent pricing up front. Not only will this help you find the best value, it creates a map for you and your cleaning company to measure whether they are meeting expectations or not. Cloudy pricing and fuzzy math is a bad sign that a janitorial company either doesn’t know how to price their services or is purposefully keeping pricing vague so they can charge you more down the road. A prospective janitorial cleaning service must take the time to acquaint themselves your facility and requirements up front, from the cleaning spec, site visit, they must understand and have a solid sense of your requirements and be prepared to meet them. If they cannot exhibit good planning and process BEFORE they get your business, what is the chance service and quality will get better AFTER they already have a contract? Whatever the reason for the ‘fuzzy math,’ it will end up making a mess of your carefully planned budget.

Cheap Cleaning Bids Are a Giant Red Flag

While they can certainly be enticing, in reponse to your janitorial RFP very, very low cleaning bids are a giant red flag. Listen, there are unavoidable hard costs when it comes to maintaining large commercial buildings. Think about it, how exactly can a janitorial company do the same work for so much less. Anyone who says they can do it for far less than other bids coming in is either going to do much less than you need or charge you more through hidden pricing and pricing games. Too good to be true pricing can be a sign that your prospective janitorial services company is using illegal hiring. Extremely low janitorial prices can signal an inexperienced company that wants to use your facility as a training ground. A very low janitorial bid can be tempting because when you are trying to puzzle together the pieces of your budget it seems to solve the problem. But overly low pricing will create far more problems than it will solve and it’s almost guaranteed to cost you significantly more long term.

Too Good To Be True Pricing Points to Illegal Hiring Practices

Janitorial pricing that is well below the majority of the other bids after a janitorial RFP is a possible indication that the building services company is participating in illegal hiring practices. They might be using illegal hiring to trim costs. Two illegal hiring issues are problematic in the janitorial industry, both of which are bad news for you. First, some cleaning companies hire undocumented workers. 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, some janitorial companies illegally classified workers as independent contractors rather than employees. Dishonest janitorial companies illegally classify workers to avoid the legal requirements a company has when having employees like payroll, taxes, benefits and all of the other things businesses must provide for legal employees. These companies willing to put themselves at risk are certainly willing to put you and your business at risk, it’s just not worth the liability.

Sure Price Is Important But Value Is KEY

As a Facility Manager, it is likely your job to find the best prospective janitorial services and stay on budget. When you requets a janitorial RFP, low prices can be enticing but remember, as important as prices are, value is KEY. Price is what you pay, value is what you get. A janitorial services company that does a shoddy job with cleaning and maintenance isn’t a good value at any price right? And making things even more complicated is the fact that a higher price point doesn’t necessarily translate into better value. Basically, what you need is an acceptable level of facility maintenance at a price that comes closest to your targets. You have service and you have price and where they intersect is where you find the greatest value. So how do you recognize those commercial cleaning companies that really understand value? There are some signs that point to a janitorial service company that truly understands service and value.

The Best Janitorial Companies Know How To Make the Most of the Budget You Have

It takes a certain kind of janitorial company to do more with less. Although it might seem counterintuitive, if you are asking for a janitorial RFP and dealing with reduced janitorial budgets you need a better, more experienced and resourced company to clean your facility. Some Facility Managers are under the impression that the better companies MUST cost more but in fact, the very fact that they are experienced and resourced can dramatically cut overall costs. For instance, the best janitorial professionals have a clear understanding of where you CAN and where you CAN’T reduce services that can only come with experience. If a janitorial services company is experienced, you aren’t going to be their first customer who was working with a less than optimal budget. And experienced, knowledgeable commercial cleaning companies understand Smart Cleaning, Team Cleaning and have invested resources into using equipment, supplies and processes that all save money and time. Smart Cleaning means a janitorial company will strategically focus on the areas of your facility that see the most traffic and require more attention while maintaining less used spaces less often or as needed. Team cleaning is when duties throughout a building are assigned to specialists thereby reducing the need for extra equipment as well as creating specialties and efficiencies that save labor hours, the single biggest component of janitorial cost. They make themselves more efficient so that they can be cost competitive while still providing a quality baseline of services. Those janitorial companies that are better equipped and employ the most efficient cleaning processes are much more likely to be capable of delivering effective janitorial services at a lower cost while still making a profit themselves, a necessity in any business.