A great many things go into effective, efficient office cleaning, but none of them more critical than very good people receiving very good training. Of course, other factors impact service and pricing. But without proper training you can be sure that you aren’t going to get the level of services you need in your facility and you certainly are not going to get real value for your maintenance budget. Open communication, preemptive solutions to common problems, and solid management practices are all a direct result of proper training. It isn’t your job to train your cleaning staff, but you better believe that if they haven’t been trained, you’re going to have a constant stream of problems that land squarely on YOUR desk. The primary reason to outsource you commercial cleaning service is to save you time and money, not to create more issues for you to sort through. Fortunately, there are a couple of red-flags you can be on the lookout for to save yourself from companies that don’t know what they are doing or how to train and manage their employees to succeed in your facility.

The State of the Janitorial Closet Mirrors the State of Your Office Cleaner’s Training

If there has ever been a quick visual sign of the quality of a company’s training it is most certainly the janitorial closet. If there are dirty mop heads and buckets lying about, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that is what is being used in your facility. Proper organization and safety practices go a long way in improving efficiency and the quality of your cleaning service. Chemicals should be stored safely and cleaning equipment should be put away in such a way that facilitates ease of access to more commonly used items. The janitorial closet should also feature up-to-date Data Safety Sheets. Failure to keep equipment clean, chemicals properly labeled and the Data Safety Sheets in view and updated is a hazard and an unnecessary liability. Office cleaning companies that focus on effective, comprehensive training instruct their teams on the importance of keeping a neat, clean and organized janitorial closet from the perspective of safety, ease of work and client perception. The janitorial closet can be like the proverbial canary in the coal mine, if the janitorial closet is in disarray, it is a sign that there are far bigger problems that you CAN’T see.

Is the Only Consistency From Your Office Cleaning Service Inconsistency?

Even the most professional office cleaning companies will occasionally drop a ball. But if your office cleaners drop more balls than they catch or drop the same balls over and over again, there are most certainly training and management issues in play. When your office cleaning service misses the same tasks over and over again, it's a safe bet to assume your cleaning company’s training is incomplete. Any commercial office cleaning company worth their salt has a systematic process for ensuring that daily tasks are consistently completed correctly. A digital checklist can work wonders for keeping everything running smoothly. Mistakes are going to happen, but a properly trained cleaning staff and accountability can help reduce the amount of tasks that are missed so that you don’t need to be chasing down daily disappointments in the form of uncompleted work.

Does Your Office Cleaning Company Have New Faces Every Day?

The office cleaning industry has a pretty high turnover rate, still, there are things the most effective office cleaning companies do to help attract, recruit and retain good staff. When companies experience a constant revolving door of staff, no one has the chance to learn the ins-and-outs of YOUR building. On top of that, companies with high turnover often don’t have the time to give new employees proper training and throw them into your facility trying to fill holes in service. Not only does this affect the quality of the service, it perpetuates the cycle of turnover. Employees that haven’t been given proper training tend to feel out of their depth or that their work isn’t important resulting in their leaving. Companies that don’t offer competitive wages, benefits and incentive programs will almost always have this problem. As with any service industry, people are a company's most important asset. If they aren’t treated as such by being provided with the training to succeed, you are likely to see too many new faces in your facility making you feel like your facility is the unwitting training ground for your office cleaning company.

Open Communication is the Key to Any Successful Relationship

Communication issues can plague the office cleaning industry. If your needs are not being communicated down to frontline cleaning staff, was there really a point to telling their management? Being forced to repeat the same requests is frustrating and a waste of your time that creates tension in your relationship with your cleaning company's management staff. This is another issue that can be completely addressed by proper training. Open communication is key to any functional business relationship and as such professional cleaning companies will take it very seriously. Many have success with a communication log book so that you can easily pass information back and forth while keeping a record of it in case it is ever needed. These open book communication practices help foster accountability, reliability and make things run smoother for everyone involved.

Best Practices Are Nowhere to Be Seen

Companies that take training seriously will design their training programs around industry best practices. If your commercial cleaning company isn’t keeping up with industry innovation, you’re not getting the level of service you and your facility deserve. For instance, the commercial cleaning industry can have issues with cross-contamination. It is easy to accidentally use the same rag you used in the kitchen that you used in the bathroom. Color coded microfiber cloths for specific areas were introduced to help combat this issue and have been incredibly effective at reducing the risks associated with cross contamination. By assigning a specific color cloth to specific areas, it is easy to see which rag you need to get to clean the surface in question. If your office cleaning company doesn’t both follow industry best practices and train their teams according to these practices, they put the health of you and your employees at risk and lower the overall quality and value of the service you are receiving.

Show Me Don’t Tell Me

The surefire way to avoid these massive issues is to understand how janitorial training is supposed to be done and to check to see what your prospective cleaning service is actually doing. Certainly, every company is going to tell you that they have a comprehensive and robust training program in an attempt to secure your business, but can they show you? Any professional cleaning company that actually takes their training seriously will be more than happy to show off how they go about preparing their teams to deliver results in your facility. A documented training program and quality assurance systems to keep cleaning technicians up to date on industry best practices goes a long way in demonstrating competency and an ability to correctly service your building.

CIMS Certification: A Powerful Tool In the Search For Your Next Office Cleaning Company

Now, most Facility Managers are busy people and looking under the hood of every prospective commercial cleaning company probably isn’t feasible. Fortunately there is an alternative, the ISSA’s CIMS and CIMS-GB certification program is a powerful tool for identifying which companies have solid training programs and that place an emphasis on industry best practices. CIMS certification is a robust, industry specific certification done through a neutral third-party designed as a tool for companies that go above and beyond industry standard to separate themselves. Just seeking out the ISSA’s certification programs demonstrates a level of commitment to industry best practices. Companies that possess the CIMS certification have demonstrated a consistent level of excellence in every aspect of commercial cleaning, including training and staffing practices.

As you know, any office janitorial company is only as proficient and capable as their frontline staff. The level of consistency and quality you receive is a direct reflection of their training and management. If it seems like your office cleaning company might not be cutting it anymore, contact us here at Stathakis to see how we can help you.

With Outsourcing Cleaning, Can You Do More With Less?

With economy uncertainty a veritable certainty, building owners and facility managers continue to look for cost saving measures. But budget cuts that result in a noticeable service decline cause as many problems as they solve. The question is, of course, how do you do more work with less money? How do you get quality cleaning and maintenance with a tight janitorial budget. Can you actually do more with less? Or can you at least reduce services in a way that doesn’t impact the overall quality or perception of your facility maintenance?

In an effort to answer these questions, many companies are turning towards outsourcing commercial office cleaning to get a more cost effective office cleaning solution. Outsourcing your professional office cleaning presents a number of benefits, not all of them financial. Outsourcing janitorial can help you understand and manage costs, improve building services as well as protect your buildings assets. Outsourcing your cleaning to an office cleaning services provider can help you save money, reduce operating costs, and on the whole create a safer, cleaner and more comfortable work environment.

The Dollars and Sense of Outsourcing Office Cleaning Services

Of course, the primary incentive in outsourcing your building maintenance to an office cleaning company is to save you money. First, having an experienced, trained and resourced office cleaning service will immediately save you money. This savings is accomplished in part by scale, cheaper bulk cleaning supplies and equipment and the like, as well as hiring, onboarding and training systemized because unlike you, your janitorial company engages in this process all the time. Larger janitorial companies are well established and have a lot of bulk purchasing power so that they save money on equipment, supplies, consumable goods, among other things, savings that are passed along to you.

Outsourcing your office cleaning services saves you all the money and time that go into recruiting, training, screening and managing cleaning staff. Looking at all the money that goes into paying for management, benefits, healthcare, screening and other time consuming administrative and management tasks and it is easy to see the benefits of outsourcing to a professional office cleaning company. Finding the right office cleaners for your building will get more value you for your dollar. Any experience office cleaning company is able to provide a better service for less money (and fewer headaches for you). Cleaning isn’t part of their business, it is their business.

With Maintenance, It All Comes Down to Experience

Work on anything long enough and your going to build some mastery of it. The same is true for your office cleaning services company. It is possible to manage your own in-house office cleaning service, but is it really worth your time and money? Is that where your energy is best spent? Having an in-house cleaning service is no small feat, it is most literally like running a business inside of another business. Do you really want to spend time and money learning the ins and outs of the commercial cleaning industry when you could simply pay less for a company that has already mastered them in addition to offloading the responsibility that comes along with it? What it comes down to is that office cleaning companies have years of experience and a singular focus that you likely do not. With all of their resources, time, and money directed towards providing a solid office cleaning experience, they will always outperform an in-house cleaning service.

In-House Office Cleaning Can’t Compete With Outsourced Services

It is difficult to balance an in-house office cleaning service and your actual business. The problem is, if you don’t manage your in-house office cleaning service as a professional business, you aren’t going to get the same level of service. Outsourcing your commercial office cleaning eliminates the problems that come with using your staff to handle maintenance and general cleaning and trying to run the ‘business within a business’.

As a Facility Manager, you know how much time comes with managing a team and trying to get what you want from them. On top of that, no matter how much work you put into it, it will never scale. All the training and equipment you have will never be used outside of your building. You don’t generate extra income from competent cleaning staff, in fact, you might actually lose it because of the cost of equipment, supplies and consumables. This isn’t the only problem either, here are some of the core administrative and management responsibilities inherent in managing office cleaners:

• Health insurance
• Liability insurance
• Equipment costs and maintenance
• Cost of other cleaning products and supplies
• Direct supervision expense
• Employee Vacations & Absences
• Cost to maintain equipment
• Payroll taxes
• Employee turnover & retraining
• Workers comp claims
• Direct payroll expenses

Outsourced Office Cleaning Companies Can Manage Change

One frequent concern we here voiced about outsourcing is “how will we get coverage during times that are particularly busy?”. Certainly not with in-house cleaning! Unlike your in-house cleaning service, commercial office cleaning service providers have enough staff to cover you when their staff get sick or when your experiencing unanticipated higher than normal needs. These companies know that you will sometimes need more service and sometimes less and as such they are equipped to change and adapt according to your needs.

Outsourcing Can Help Shield You From Liability

Having an in-house office cleaning service means that you also get all of the liabilities and problems that come with one. As you’ll find in almost any service industry, office cleaning comes with a number of liabilities. Fortunately, when you contract with a commercial office cleaning services provider, you don’t need to worry about them because you are no longer responsible for dealing with them. In fact, many office cleaning companies will insure their own employees as well as you as the facility owner to shield you from third party litigations. It is the same as always, a company whose sole goal is to provide a solid office cleaning experience is always going to perform better, such is the nature of specialization. 

Don’t Waste Your Time Managing Something Someone Else Can Do

As a Facility Manager, you probably already have enough managing to do. Outsourcing your office cleaning to the right contractor will help give you less to deal with because you can trust them to deal with problems, both small and large. You get to offload all of the traditional managerial tasks to your contractor so that you can focus on other, more important duties. Instead of dealing with the headache of hiring, training, purchasing equipment and products, repair and maintenance among other time consuming things, your cleaning company will shoulder the responsibilities.

Make Your Life Easier In More Ways Than One

Another thing that your larger, professional office cleaning company can do for you is deal with integrated facility solutions. Many office cleaning service providers include an umbrella of services like electrical, plumbing, painting, HVAC, construction cleanup and carpet cleaning among other things. This allows you to get regular maintenance done around your facility without having to go through another contractor or doing any additional due diligence work. If you already have a commercial office cleaning company you trust it can save you a lot of time to take advantage of their services and trained technicians.

Sometimes You Need the Best Equipment to do the Best Job

Another way that outsourcing your office cleaning to a professional saves you time and money is through equipment costs. Professional office cleaning companies invest in newer, better, more efficient equipment much more regularly than you would with cleaning service operated in-house. This is because their business is cleaning and arming themselves with effective, efficient equipment advances their bottom line. Due to scale and repetition, everything from equipment to technology to green cleaning to chemical usage is improved with a professional janitorial company.

The Real Cost of Using In-house Cleaning Services

What it boils down to is how the math adds up. Will outsourcing your office cleaning to a building services contractor save you time and money or not? It can be easy to compare the full suite of services that a commercial office cleaning company can offer to the payroll of your in-house office cleaning. But this isn’t a fair comparison, if you really want to compare the two you need to consider everything that goes into it:

• Employee vacations & absences
• Scheduling and vacation
• Insurance & Worker’s Comp
• Employee hiring, training & turnover
• Payroll expense
• Cost of equipment, cleaning chemicals, & cleaning supplies
• Payroll taxes
• Benefits administration
• Direct supervision expense
• Cost to secure, service, store and maintain equipment

Between these different things, the cost in time and money begins to add up. Figure out what in-house cleaning is costing you and compare it to what a prospective office cleaning service can offer. The decision should be clear.

The Message Your Restroom Sends About Your Office Cleaning Services

A well-cleaned restroom is one of those things we take for granted until we are faced with the reality of using a restroom that is less than clean. And in your facility, you might not get the opportunity to visit restrooms and see for yourself just how much your office cleaning company measures up. It can be all too easy to overlook subpar office restroom cleaning, but be sure that your employees, tenants, visitors and customers are NOT overlooking it.

The restroom is one of the most critical areas of your facility for creating a good overall impression of your facility, company, practices, and staff to your customers. No one wants to walk into a restroom with overflowing trash cans, empty toilet paper rolls or the noticeable stench that can be among the telltale signs that your restrooms are not being adequately cleaned. If your office cleaning service isn’t sufficiently cleaning your restroom and making sure that they smell clean and fresh and are constantly stocked, your restroom is going to impart an overall negative impression to the people in your facility.

How do you know if your restroom is giving people the wrong idea? Consider asking yourself a couple of important questions. Is the restroom consistently stocked with towels, toilet paper, soap and any other necessary amenities? Are the stalls dirty, damaged and/or have any type of graffiti or gunk on them? When you walk into the restroom, is there an obvious, unpleasant odor? Does everything seem to be perpetually damp, especially your floor and countertops or visible water collected in places? Are mirrors clean and free of water spots, smudges and worse? Is the floor inside and outside the stalls clean and free of any type of grime, build up, dust, debris or stains?

Professional Office Cleaning Must Include Professional Restroom Cleaning

Everyone likes walking into a restroom that is clean and smells fresh, but as far as your bottom line goes, do clean restrooms really matter? The answer is yes and it matters more than you may think. What are the real costs of poorly maintained restrooms? Obviously we all want a clean restroom simply for the fact that it is less unpleasant and more hygienic to use. But how much does having dirty or less than effectively cleaned restrooms really hurt your business?

There are a number of hidden costs that come with not giving restrooms the attention they need. First, poorly cleaned restrooms are a breeding ground for bacteria and can make your employees ill increasing turnover and absenteeism. Second, a lack of clean restrooms has been tied to lower rates of employee satisfaction. Third, insufficient restroom maintenance will reduce employee productivity and increase worker apathy. Simply put, failing to keep up with your restrooms is going to put a significant dent in your overall business and bottom line.

The Restroom Checklist to Keep Your Office Janitorial Service Checked In

No one wants an office cleaning company that is checked out. So how do you make sure your office cleaners are checked in? A restroom cleaning check list! Now, if your office cleaning company is already performing up to your standards, they probably don’t need a list. But if you suspect that your office cleaning service isn’t up-to-par there are a number of things that you can check to evaluate them and help get them back on track. At least by communicating your needs with your office cleaning company you can figure out if the partnership can get back on track or if it is time to start looking at different office cleaning companies. Here are the core areas that we feel any Michigan cleaning service should be focusing on to keep your restrooms looking their best:

• Your restroom can’t reek of toilet odors, toilets and urinals must be cleaned well and often to assure a fresh, clean smell.
• Urinals need to be sufficiently cleaned including being wiped down, cleaning handles, screen and replacing the urinal block regularly.
• Office cleaners need to observe manufacturer recommended dwell times to make sure their chemical cleaners are clinging to surfaces long enough to be effective at eradicating germs.
• If your cleaning company isn’t using best practices, what are they doing? Using the right chemicals, agitation and extraction can insure that walls, toilets, sinks, urinals, mirror, floors are completely clean.
• Mirrors should be clean, spot free and lint free, and shiny corner to corner.
• Your office janitorial service provider should place a heavy emphasis on “hot spots”, “high contact”, and “touch points” to drastically cut down on the spread of infectious pathogens.
• Hard to reach areas such as the backs of toilets need to be cleaned regularly in order to cut down on grime and odor.
• Trash receptacles need to be emptied regularly, the general rule of thumb is that they should be empty before they are full, not after.
• All consumable products should be regularly restocked and monitored so that they never run low or run out.
• No one likes mystery moisture. All surfaces that can get water or other liquids on them should be regularly cleaned and buffed so that they don’t have any liquid staining and aren’t sticky.
• The vents should be cleaned regularly.
• Maintaining restroom partitions so they are free of the three G’s—grime, gum and graffiti.
• The restroom should be regularly inspected to make sure that fixtures, paper and soap dispensers, as well as toilet paper dispensers are in working order.
• Make sure that all the light bulbs are in good working order.
• Details are as important as the core cleaning, the corners, baseboards, and ceiling all need to be kept clean.
• Feminine hygiene dispensers should be cleaned and restocked with new liners put in place as needed.
• The restroom needs undergo periodic deep cleaning in order to keep issues from piling up and to help protect your building assets.
• Any grout and tile lines should be clean.
• After every cleaning the restroom should be visually inspected to note any follow up cleaning or maintenance.
• Using effective, quality adds to both quality and efficiency.
• The restroom cleaning supplies should always be well stocked, organized, and stored with proper labeling and safety procedures in place.
• The cleaning equipment needs to be properly maintained, stored, repaired, and replaced as needed.

Restroom Cleaners Must Be Truly Professional

Today’s science has shown us that we need to go a little further than just surface cleaning in our restrooms, especially office restroom cleaning where restrooms see a great deal of traffic. Companies that are stuck in the past and that ignore industry best practices, systems, and equipment are in no position to keep your office restrooms healthy, clean, safe and looking their best. With dramatic improvements in cleaning products, equipment and methods, we can now expect cleaner restrooms faster and for less money. If your commercial office cleaning company isn’t delivering on their promises to you, you aren’t getting the quality or value you and your facility deserve. If they aren’t using the restroom checklist, have poor recruitment and training programs or are generally inexperienced, it’s time to start looking for a new commercial office cleaning service provider. You owe it to yourself and your restrooms to have a more responsive, customized commercial office cleaning service.

Commercial Office Cleaning Services That Deliver

Not only are clean restrooms good for your reputation, but they promote a healthy, productive atmosphere. The good news is the office cleaning marketplace is jammed with different companies to pick from, the bad news is there are a lot of duds in the mix. So how can you tell the difference between the professional and the less than professional without wasting hours of your time on a seemingly wild goose chase?

Your best option is to look for those companies that offer a transparent a clear price coupled with a site inspection. Your can then look at how said companies hire, train and retain their staff. The office cleaning industry is a service industry, the quality of the work you receive is entirely dependent on the type of people doing it. Finally, relevant industry certifications can be a great way to see which companies are just average and which go above and beyond.

The ISSA’s CIMS and CIMS-GB certification are rigorous and stringent industry accreditations that demonstrate a company’s willingness to not only match but surpass the industries best practices. Looking at such certifications can be your first line of defense against companies that are going to leave your restroom cleaning lacking.

A Clear Price Point is Critical to a Lasting Partnership

Finding an office cleaning company that can provide you with quality service at the right price may at times feel unattainable. The office cleaning marketplace is filled with different providers all claiming to be the best, and many of them don’t clearly price their services making them nearly impossible to compare. As if that wasn’t bad enough, if you choose the wrong company you are likely to get slapped with all kinds of upcharges and hidden fees without the benefit of professional, responsive office cleaning services. Finally, in order to get a meaningful and well-informed quote in an RFP (request for proposal), you need to have accurate information about the specifics of your facility and budget. Fortunately, there are ways of working with the janitorial marketplace to assure you start with a qualified, capable pool of choices and narrow down from their to pick a cleaning partner that shines.

What Your Commercial Cleaning Company Needs to Know

A good partnership with your prospective office cleaning service starts with a good RFP and accurate information. So what information should you be looking to provide to get the best possible service? First, you are going to need to give them accurate numbers on square footage broken down by flooring type. A common mistake is not to have information on floor type, because each flooring type has different care requirements that can significantly change your price point. Similarly, you should provide a rough estimate of the number of people in your facility so your cleaning company has an idea of how building traffic will impact cleaning requirements. This also helps give them an idea of the amount of consumables that your facility needs. That is to say, how much toilet paper, paper towels and trash bags are needed to keep your facility stocked.

No Site Visit, no Contract

A huge red flag we often see Facility Managers inadvertently overlook is companies that provide a quote without doing a site visit. A site visit is crucial to helping identify what your facility needs and how well your prospective cleaning company can fill those needs. On top of that, a site inspection can help you develop a Smart Cleaning plan, that is to say, cleaning more with less by identifying how often things need to be serviced and what is critical to your cleaning plan and what is not. Finally, a site inspection is the best time to get to know your Michigan office cleaning company and vice versa. Having a personal relationship with your office cleaning service provider will make it easier to communicate and to build a lasting mutually beneficial partnership.

A Bad Cleaning Company Still has Some Use

You may have had negative cleaning company experiences in the past, but you can use them to your advantage. Communicate to your prospective janitorial services provider what works for you and what doesn’t. The most experienced and professional companies will listen to your pain points and work to come up with solutions to make sure that they don’t make the same mistakes. If you had a problem with you previous company constantly switching out their employees impacting your quality of service, communicate this to your future partner. If your prospective Detroit office cleaning knows what they need to focus on, you will get services more tailored to your specific needs.

You Can Get a Clean Facility on a Reduced Budget

There is no shortage of facilities that just don’t have the budget to get everything done that that they would like. It is an all too common in this industry. Of course, cleaning solutions are never going to be perfectly budget friendly and it can be a challenge for even the most experienced office cleaning company to create a manageable budget without losing money. But with some finesse and communication, it can be done. With a complete site inspection and thorough analysis of what needs to be done and what does not, a cleaning plan can be made that gives you the services that are critical to the function of your office building without taking you to the cleaners so to speak. In a perfect world, we’d all love an unlimited budget we could spend on our lengthy to do lists without having to worry. Unfortunately, life rarely makes things easy. But with the right cleaning company, you can at least make sure that your facility is getting the cleaning and maintenance it needs even with a tight budget. By taking advantage of industry innovation and tapping into the immense amount of experience your office cleaners have, it is possible to trim out unimportant work without affecting the overall perception of service.

Experts Agree: Communication is Essential

The most common piece of relationship advice is never more true than in the cleaning industry, communication is key. Let's look at a simple example, office vacuuming. If you tell your building occupants that service is every Wednesday and Friday, you probably won’t receive angry calls about the lack of service on Tuesday. In the same way, letting your cleaning company know that on Monday it is easiest to clean because of a meeting or some other event, they can be more efficient and responsive to your specific needs With specifics like this, you can cut down on the work done to save money without actually reducing the quality of the service. As a Facility Manager, consulting with your tenants and cleaning company can help you get the most out of what you are paying for.

Have Realistic Expectations, But Don’t Settle

If you are having problems with office cleaning or levels of service, your budget ‘optimizations’ might not be cutting it or your current budget may simply not be able to support your facility. To get the most out of a tight budget, you need to talk with your office cleaner and set realistic expectations. Smart Cleaning isn’t some miracle solution that you can fix any budget with. The trick to Smart Cleaning is making tactical decisions to minimize resource usage while maximizing the benefit of using them. A commercial cleaning company does exist that you can work with to get the most bang for your buck. But understanding what is and is not feasible on your budget is important when trying to build a workable plan to keep your offices in tip top shape.

CIMS and CIMS-GB Certified Companies are a Great Place to Look

So we know that clear pricing is critical. We also understand that Smart Cleaning is by no means easy, it requires extensive experience and a lot of innovation to construct a solid cleaning plan on a reduced budget. Not every office cleaning company has what it takes to help you keep your facility looking its best well within budget. A good place to start looking, however, is with the ISSA’s CIMS and CIMS-GB certification. Tools like CIMS certification give you good information to make sound choices regarding your office cleaning services. The ISSA (International Sanitary Supply Association) provides a rigorous, high-level certification that a company performs at the highest level in the industry, repeatedly demonstrating cleaning excellence and a commitment to their customers. Any medical office cleaning company or office cleaning service that can meet and exceed these rigorous, varied and stringent benchmarks will be infinitely more likely to be able to properly service your facility on a tight budget.

Aren’t Cleaning Companies Supposed to Make Your Facility Cleaner?

The whole point of a commercial cleaning service is to make your facility clean and visibly appealing, not to make it dirtier, right? Yet all too often we see janitorial companies through poor methods and a lack of standards, simply spreading bacteria around your facility. One of the leading causes of illness in the workplace is cross-contamination, and if your cleaning service is not using a color-coded cleaning cloth system to prevent it, they are ignoring industry best practices. Your employees are going to all be touching the same surfaces such as computer mice, door handles and phones, so when you commercial cleaning company comes and uses a rag to clean one of those surfaces and then somewhere else, they are spreading the hotspot of bacteria around your building. We all know that touching a commonly touched surface can be a one way ticket to getting sick, so imagine what a filthy towel or rag can do. It only takes one rag being used in the restroom and then somewhere else to start a pandemic in your office. The last thing you need is lower productivity, higher absenteeism, and even the risk of higher turnover rates. Your commercial cleaning company choosing not to protect you and your employees health by ignoring the best janitorial practices is a major red flag and it might be time to start looking for a new cleaning company if this is the case.

Is Your Office Cleaning Company Using the Same Rag to Wipe the Toilet & Your Lunch Tables?

It so easy to pick up the office phone or use the mouse at your desk without thinking what might be lingering on it. Help reduce the risk that these simple actions get your employees sick by having your cleaning service invest in a colored rag system to reduce cross-contamination. Not only is it an easy and affordable solution to implement, designating tools like rags and mop heads for specific jobs is a great way to prevent cross-contamination in your facility. It is a relatively simple concept, you assign a color like red to rags used in high risk areas, yellow to lower risk areas like sinks and mirrors, blue for general cleaning such as dusting and green for anything food related. Of course you don’t have to pick these colors but by having a clear visual indication of what should be used where you help drastically reduce cross-contamination in your facility to prevent the flu and other illness all throughout your facility.

It Is Simple, Cheap & Effective, What Is Not to Love?

Color coded tools aren’t some secret technique, they have long been a staple of proper janitorial cleaning and if you cleaning company is choosing to ignore it you aren’t getting the quality of service you deserve. It's easy to use and costs almost nothing so there is no excuse not too. Cross-contamination is a real problem and contributes to reduced productivity and absenteeism as well as employee turnover. So, make sure that your cleaning company has a clear visual coding system to protect you from said cross-contamination. It will help keep your facility cleaner and provide for a much healthier workplace without affecting your budget.

New System Needs New Trainings

Often it is the case the implementing a new system requires time to train employees with. This isn’t the case for the color-coded towel system. It simplifies the cleaning process and can make it much easier to know what to use where. It does, however, require some reinforcement and supervision. It may be a good idea to provide a chart for which color goes where so that it can be easily checked and there is no room for error. Most office cleaning companies want to protect the health of your facility and this strategy is a clear and simple way to do it. Color coded towels and cloths can even offer employees a sense of responsibility and engagement by enlisting them in the fight to safeguard the health of your facility’s occupants.

Accountability Is Key

The color coded rag system can help reduce work for your cleaning staff as well as provide a powerful tool for management. Having brightly colored rags and other tools allow you to quickly get a sense of if individual teams are cleaning as you expect. By simply looking at laundry, you can see how much of each area is getting cleaned and get a general sense of what takes the longest and what isn’t as time consuming. For instance, if you notice a drop off in the number of red mop heads you’ll know that something happened with bathroom cleaning and can follow up to make sure that there are no issues that need to be corrected. While this isn’t the only quality assurance system that should be in place, it can be a powerful tool to keep your cleaning teams on track.

Partner With a Company that Takes Health & Safety Seriously

Using a color-coded cleaning system may be a new way of doing things for your commercial cleaning company, but it is a strict improvement to your cleaning system. Not only is it an easy to learn system, it should be relatively inexpensive while safeguarding the health of your building. There is no facility that would not benefit from having a color coded rag system. Everything from medical cleaning to school cleaning to office cleaning are exposed to the risk of cross-contamination and therefore need a way to reduce it. Help control illness in your facility and get the level of service you deserve from your janitorial cleaning company and implement a color coded cleaning system. Stathakis, we use the color-coded cloth system company wide in an effort to further reduce the risk of cross contamination and systemize efficient, health conscious cleaning practices.

Has Your Commercial Office Cleaning Company Fallen Behind

We often see office cleaning companies that start a race strong with a commitment to delivering the highest quality service and slowly lose steam and sight of that commitment. Maybe you have noticed your office cleaning service slowing down, or maybe they were never running a good race to begin with. If you are considering looking into a new office cleaning service, there are some things you should be on the lookout for to help you find an office cleaning service that will help you finish strong. 

In order to know the right direction to go, you must be equipped with better information when it comes to selecting from the crowded and often confusing janitorial services marketplace. It can be all too easy to convince yourself that all office janitorial services are the same when you’ve seen company after company that can’t keep a steady pace and deliver on their promises. And even if you were to find a professional office cleaning service, could you even afford it? Lucky for you, effective, professional, responsive office cleaning companies do exist and with the right information you can find one that meets your needs and your budget.

The Mistake Of Too Many Mistakes

People make mistakes and your office cleaning company is made up of people, so mistakes are bound to happen. The critical point is when your office cleaning company goes off course, do they course correct or just keep going off in the wrong direction? And at what point are mistakes being made so frequently that it is detrimental to your service and not worth the money you are paying? The following are some big red flags that we hear from Facility Managers all the time that might tell you that it is time to start looking for a new office cleaning company.

Fuzzy Office Cleaning Prices Are A Bad Sign

The first sign your office cleaning service isn’t capable and/or committed to delivering on what they promised is if it's difficult to tell what they promised in the first place. Fuzzy pricing can make it challenging for you to compare different bids and get an idea of what is best for your facility. On top of that, not having a clear plan in place of what your prospective cleaning company has agreed to do makes it difficult to hold them accountable. Don’t get thrown of course and settle for a company that can’t offer a clear and detailed bid.

Don’t Stand For A Slow Response Time From Your Office Cleaning Service

Another significant problem Facility Managers frequently deal with is a lack of responsiveness. Of course mistakes are going to happen from time to time, but if your Detroit office cleaning company isn’t quick to alert you of them and take control of the problem, things can spiral out of control in short order. All too often office cleaning companies will brush off problems only to have them come up again and again. It isn’t your job to micromanage your cleaning company, so don’t settle for an office cleaning company that will force you to do so. Any solid commercial cleaning company will have a system in place to handle problems and to allow easy communication between you and your cleaning company. Those that do offer a sign that they take your business seriously and know how to handle problems in an efficient and professional manner.

You Can’t Win the Race Without The Right Equipment

You wouldn’t start a marathon in work boots or high heels would you? To be effective you must have the right equipment. In the last decade, the cleaning industry has made huge strides in more effective, green, and efficient solutions and equipment. Having the right equipment for the job can save you time and money and more often than not, older equipment simply doesn't do the job as well. So, if your office cleaning service isn’t using up to date, properly serviced equipment, you aren’t getting the cleaning that you should be.

Keep Your Personal Problems Out Of The Office

Like many other businesses, the quality of the service you and your facility receive is dictated by the quality of the people that your cleaning company employs. If your office cleaning company takes shortcuts when it comes to their hiring and training process, you can be sure they will take shortcuts in any other number of areas. Further, far too many commercial cleaning companies will turn to illegal hiring, illegal subcontracting and subpar employee screening to try to make their numbers work. This not only sets you up for poor cleaning, but has major security implications as well. Having poorly screened cleaning staff in your building after hours is a recipe for disaster. It is the responsibility of your commercial cleaning company to provide full background and drug tests, not yours. Finally, poor hiring practices often increase turnover rates, further reducing the level of the service you receive. Paying employees under the table and not providing benefits is a good way to burn out staff quickly. So, before you partner with a prospective office cleaning company, for the sake of your service and safety, ask about their hiring and training practices. If they are in it to win it, they will be happy to share their plan and practices with you.

What Is Professionalism And Why Should I Care?

It may seem like common sense but professionalism isn’t guaranteed even when it’s promised. So, what does professionalism look like in the office cleaning industry? It starts with having well trained and well equipped teams that take a serious and effective approach to cleaning you building properly. It's also having open lines of communication to help deal with problems as they come up and to keep you in the loop about what is going on. It is having a thorough screening system and easy to identify uniforms and badges. It’s offering great people the training and management to really win at work. A company that does not operate on a professional level is bound to have other problems that bleed into your service.

Professional Office Cleaning Requires Professional Training

Marathon runners don’t just show up for marathon day without any training. Can you imagine? It would be a disaster. Cleaning has evolved from the time of the mop and bucket, it is now built on the foundation of science and the knowledge of what creates a clean and healthy workspace. To be an effective cleaner, you need this general knowledge of how to clean for health and specific industry training. Cleaning for a school versus a hospital versus a general office or industrial plant are all drastically different from each other. Whether it’s best practices, safe chemical use and storage, effective Smart Cleaning strategies or more, solid training benefits you the customer and changes the way people feel about their work, which in turn fosters a more professional attitude. Everyone wins!

Commercial Office Cleaning Services Require Accountability        

No matter what you are paying for, even if your budgets are below where they perhaps should be, you can still secure solid, professional office cleaning services. It all comes down to how your cleaning service holds their staff accountable to the work they agreed to do. The best office cleaning companies will often conduct regular janitorial inspections to make sure the work is being done consistently and to the highest possible level. On top of that, they will often meet with their customers to adjust what they are doing to better meet their needs. You and your facility deserve responsive service and accountability from your office cleaning company.

Partner With The Company That Knows How To Be A Professional

You are going to come across many commercial cleaning companies that just can’t get it right no matter what they do. Fortunately, there are companies that are professional and effective cleaners that will set you up to finish strong. What are these companies doing to help you get to the finish line? They know how to communicate and how to be responsive to your needs. The best commercial janitorial services know that people are the starting point of effective service delivery and they make their people processes a priority in order to find, hire, retain and manage great people who are a natural fit for the work. They know that investing in high quality equipment and cleaning solutions will benefit you and them in the long run along with improving the quality of their cleaning and the health of your facility. They perform frequent inspections of their frontline staff to make sure they deliver consistently high quality results. Finding an office cleaning service like won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.

Many of your fellow Facility Managers have already likely determined the solid benefits of having an effective, professional, reliable commercial office cleaning service provider. Unfortunately, there are still Facility Managers who have all but given up hope of good service settling instead for a below-standard janitorial company. Is it that they don’t want better cleaning services? Fewer complaints? A better value? Of course not, it’s likely more a function of either feeling like all commercial cleaning companies delver poor service or not having an understanding of how to tell the good cleaning companies from the bad.

Why is it worth putting in the extra time and work to hire a professional, reputable commercial office cleaning service? With ever tightening budgets, you can’t afford to throw good money out the window on a cleaning service that just isn’t delivering. With a more effective building services contractor, not only can office cleaning be affordable, if can even save you money by increasing employee productivity, morale and helping to attract new customers. Having a commercial cleaning company that you trust and that provides real value is a excellent way to save money in the long run and keep your facility looking its best. As such, being saddled with an incompetent commercial cleaning service may end up being what costs you.

Don’t Try to Give Your Employees Cleaning Duties

If you are already running on tight budgets, it can be tempting to delegate some cleaning to your staff. This eliminates the need for a commercial cleaning company, right? Especially in smaller offices, far too many managers will try to enlist help from certain employees to keep the facility cleaner. As it turns out, your receptionist won’t be particularly happy to have to clean up the toilets after colleagues use them. Now cleaning isn’t any more or less important than any other job, but for an employee that was hired specifically for one set of tasks, it may feel that way. On top of this, cleaning tasks are always going to be put on the back burner for the work that your staff was hired to do. This leaves most building cleaning and maintenance poorly done or abandoned all together. Often this will lead to an unclean work environment that stems from a lack of proper cleaning causing higher absenteeism, lower job satisfaction and generally more problems between employees.

An In-House Cleaning Service Gives You More Work Without Tangible Improvements

You may also be thinking that it would be a better idea to hire your own cleaning team for your facility. At least then you have some control over it right? Sure, if you really prepared to wholeheartedly take on another full time job of cleaning management, background checks, training, firing, as well as all of the administrative work that goes into managing cleaning staff? More often than not, you will be certainly be better off devoting this time and energy into improving your own chosen business and bottom. Between healthcare costs and the money and time involved in administration of more employees, there are significant costs associated with employing over contracting. Similarly, running a cleaning service is going to have some very different skill sets and responsibilities than your chosen industry. Even if you understand what it takes, it is likely better to devote your limited time towards other important areas.

Find the Right Commercial Cleaning Company & Let Them Do What They Were Hired To Do

Successful business people understand that there are major advantages to hiring an expert. The more experience a business accumulates, the more they know. It is as simple as this. When you partner with a professional, effective cleaning service, you will get professional, effective cleaning in your building. As an added bonus, such cleaning might even be cheaper than you think it is. As it turns out, more experienced companies know how to more accurately price their service and have had years to work with other Facility Managers on a budget.. As such, they have honed their service to be effective even when your cleaning budget is less than optimal. Similarly, through scale they get cost saving measures you would not running a smaller in-house cleaning operation. Another important aspect to consider is that a professional, experienced commercial cleaning companies have a more clear understanding of federal and state regulations that govern them. While it may seem obvious, this means that you don’t have to waste time familiarizing yourself with these various regulations.

Commercial Cleaning Equipment Presents a Cost You Don’t Need

When a company is primarily focused on cleaning as their core business, they have likely spent the time and energy needed to secure the best prices on the quality supplies and equipment to keep your offices sparkling clean. As such, you can avoid expensive chemicals and cleaning equipment that can cost you thousands for even the most basic models and let your commercial cleaning company handle it. Even better, it means that you are not responsible for servicing, repairing and storing said equipment. Of course, you are going to need to work with your commercial cleaning company at first to get things running smoothly and work out any kinks. However, the most professional cleaning companies will quickly get on their feet and do their best work in your facility. On top of this, many of these companies will have added services that can be really useful. For instance, carpet cleaning, hard floor stripping and resurfacing, drywall repair, painting, carpet cleaning and more. It can be very helpful and efficient as you have a one-stop-shop for the bulk of your building maintenance needs. 

Your Time And Effort Belongs To Your Facility

For many Facility Managers, running a commercial cleaning company isn’t a lifelong dream just waiting to be realized. Let a solid, professional commercial cleaning company meet the maintenance and cleaning needs of your facility. Having your own cleaning staff is time consuming and requires a lot of resources that are better directed towards your facility. Hiring a commercial office cleaning company will give you and your employees more time to focus on tasks and issues central to your business and the bottom line.

Finding the right office cleaning company to partner with in your facility can be a big ask. CIMS can help clear a path that while not making the process easy, at least makes it easier. Here at Stathakis, we have spent over thirty years developing a standard of service delivery. We have worked hard to create lasting relationships with our customers and offer the businesses of southeastern Michigan the service they deserve. We are proudly CIMS certified and committed to the continual improvement that has made us a valued partner to the businesses of southeastern Michigan.

If you are a Facility Manager in Ann Arbor, Detroit, Royal Oak, Farmington Hills, Farmington, Dearborn, Livonia, Troy, Auburn Hills, Novi, Plymouth, Downriver or surrounding areas and you are looking for commercial cleaning services, office cleaning, school cleaning, industrial cleaning, medical cleaning or other building services, please contact us to learn more about how we can help make your job at least a little easier and make your facility shine. To find an office company in your area ISSA CIMS-GB certified, visit the ISSA here.

Is a Constant Influx Of Complaints Piling Up?

When your inbox is bombarded by complaints about cleaning, cleaning that has not been finished and restrooms that haven’t been cleaned properly, it’s a pretty good indication that you have a problem with your commercial office cleaning company. As Facility Manager, you likely outsourced your cleaning to what you thought was a professional office cleaning company so that you wouldn’t have to deal with such problems, not to make them more frequent. If it seems like your office cleaning company has been asleep at the wheel, and your inbox is a steady stream of grievances against your office cleaning company, it is time to find a real solution.

How To Tell If Your Commercial Cleaning Company Is A Mess In Itself

Are unclean restrooms and low performance noticeably reducing the quality of service in your facility? The problem could be related to the turnover rate of your professional cleaning service provider. If your commercial office cleaning services have a constant influx of new staff replacing more experienced staff, you’ll find that the quality of your office cleaning is reduced significantly. It takes time to train new employees and even longer for them to become acquainted with your facility and its specific needs. The most effective commercial cleaning company is proactive rather than reactive. A proactive office cleaning service will perform inspections regularly to keep an eye on their own people. Further, if they see a trend of poor service as a result of high turnover, poor training or poor fit, they will take steps to address the problem before it becomes an ongoing issue. The most effective cleaning companies in the industry have solid communication skills to address problems.

Where Office Cleaning Companies Go Off Track

Some Detroit office cleaning companies are just after your money with little thought to excelling at service, but typically, the common problems of cleaning come down to a lack of systems in place to assure quality rather than a lack of good intentions. Being a professional in the office cleaning industry is no easier than any other business and as such should never be left to the inexperienced. Still, startup costs of office cleaning can be on the lower end, creating the overcrowded marketplace you are bound to see when looking for such a company. Still, office cleaning requires no less skill or care. Partnering with inexperienced office cleaning companies will almost always yield the same result. You will get unclear pricing as they are still learning to accurately price their services, inconsistent results, high turnover, poorly trained employees and a lack of communication. Every cleaning company has been there but the more experienced among them have already worked these kinks out.

Finding the Office Cleaning Company That Really Stacks Up

When company after commercial cleaning company delivers consistently poor levels of service, it can feel like they are all the same. In reality, however, they are not. In fact, there are a number of quality commercial cleaning companies that consistently deliver the highest levels of service. So, what is the trick to finding office janitorial service that measure up to what your facility needs? First, you have to look for value over cost. Naturally, you don’t want to over pay for your cleaning service and you have budgets to meet, however, no amount of cost savings can make up for a company that simply isn’t doing the job. Second, the most effective and most professional Michigan office cleaning services should have procedures, processes and systems in place to assure effective, consistent, responsive office cleaning service, including:

• Regular inspections of janitorial and commercial cleaning services in your facility
• A thorough understanding of the security needs of your facility as well as a clear, well documented employee screening and training system
• A comprehensive Green cleaning solution that fits in your facility
• A complete system and set of procedures to make sure your cleaning service is meeting its commitments
• The ISSA’s CIMS certification or another relevant industry accreditation to demonstrate a commitment to a high level of service
• The manpower to meet your changing needs
• Solid communication skills to address problems and changes as they come up

When Is It Time to Sack Your Office Cleaning Company & Start Over?

If your office cleaning service isn’t meeting their commitments or just generally causing headaches in your facility, it is time to make a choice. One path you could follow is to sit down with your current service provider and rework your contract so that you can get your cleaning plan back where it is supposed to be. This usually works best with companies that started with a quality service and slowly went off track. However, if you have been unsatisfied with the performance of your office cleaning company for some time now and you have already communicated that with little or no change in service, it is time to find a new company. Finding the right company for your facility to ensure a consistent level of service is probably the smartest decision you can make for your facility.

Finding an Office Cleaning Company That Will Deliver

If you have gotten this far then you have decided it is time to start from the top and partner with a new commercial cleaning company. As such, you must be wondering, “how do I find an office cleaning company that fits the needs of my facility, my budget and will help me avoid frequent complaints I am getting about facility cleaning?” The process of finding a new cleaning company can be daunting, especially because there are so many cleaning companies that come in all different types and sizes. You have everything from your national janitorial companies to your mom and pop cleaning services, and everyone in between. Sure, you can ask around, check references and do the due diligence it takes to weed out the fakers but that all takes time, the one thing we are pretty sure you don’t have enough of. If you are anticipating a changing of the guard with your office cleaners, you should know about the ISSA’s CIMS or Certified Industry Management Standard. The CIMS accreditation is an industry specific certification wherein the research needed to vet prospective cleaning companies has been done for you. Looking for this certification can help you find the partner that will provide a high level of service in your facility and help cut down on the number of complaints that you have been getting.

The best way to make sure that your office cleaning delivers is to have a professional, effective, and most importantly responsive Detroit office cleaning and janitorial company. Here at Stathakis, we work with all types of businesses to keep their workplaces clean and healthy. We utilize industry best practices to offer our customers an exceptional level of service. We also understand that the people that clean your facility are as important as how they clean your facility. As such, we go well beyond industry requirements when it comes to screening, hiring and training our teams. Can we help you? If you would like to learn how we help Facility Managers just like you with effective janitorial services all while staying on budget, please contact us at (800) 278-1884.

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.

'Tis the Season....For Colds & Flus

‘Tis the season for holiday cheer, merriment and celebration, but it is also flu and cold season. When a cold or flu gets a foothold in your facility, it can really dampen holiday spirits. According to the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this time of year has much higher rates of influenza and other respiratory illness than any other. Not only is the flu’s intensity much worse than any other time, the CDC tells us that “between December and peaking in January and February we expect to see the highest rate of respiratory illness and positive tests for respiratory influenza.”

The cold and flu season is a long one and can have a major impact on workplaces throughout the country. Federal and State governments spend a large amount of time and money trying to minimize the impact of colds, flus and other communicable illnesses, but what can YOU do to protect yourself and your employees to minimize the impact of the cold and flu seasons on your bottom line and staff? Absenteeism is a large problem on its own, so it can be especially damaging when it is exacerbated by illness. What steps should you be taking to mitigate the effects of colds and flus in your workplace and what can you do yourself to protect yourself and your employees?

Enlist Your Office Cleaning Company to Help Prevent the Spread of Illness in the Workplace

When your facility is getting cleaned, especially during cold and flu season, it cannot simply be to make it look nice. Your office cleaning company isn’t very effective if your office looks good but is teeming with disease causing germs. Your cleaning company needs to actively invest in making sure your facility is properly sanitized to protect you and your employees from the various colds and flus that makes their rounds this time of year. Cleaning for health has measurable, positive outcomes in your facility that can affect the morale, productivity and attrition rates of your staff.  Cleaning for health has very specific meanings with methods and procedures attached to it. So, what kinds of things do commercial cleaning companies do when they clean for health?

1. Cleaners observe dwell times and other relevant product instructions so that cleaning products work as intended to eradicate disease causing germs.
2. They use a color-coded rag system that helps minimize cross-contamination between different cleaning sites.
3. Cleaners are familiar with different areas of your facility and apply the correct cleaning method to each area.
4. Cleaners understand the importance of touch points and hotspots and how to properly clean them to reduce the risk of illness around the workspace.

But what are touch points and how does a color-coded rag system help reduce the spread of disease? First, touch points are areas around the office that are touched more often than any other. Some examples might be: light switches, work phones, computer mice, and door handles. Because of the high traffic they receive, they store exponentially more bacteria and other pathogens than other surfaces and are responsible for the majority of illness around the office. Understanding which objects are touch points and how to clean them is critical to employee health. Second, the color-coded cleaning cloth system is as simple as it sounds. Your cleaning staff has a number of different colored rags that are designated for specific areas around the office so that the rag used on the toilet seat isn’t used on the conference room table. While not the only methods your commercial cleaning company should be using to protect your health, they are both good starting points for keeping you and your employees healthy during the cold and flu season.

What Definitely NOT to Do When You’re Sick

Many of us feel that missing a day of work is unthinkable, especially with large workloads and important deadlines to meet. But coming to work sick is a pointless endeavor. Not only are you going to be unproductive and get little work done, you are risking getting your peers sick and further reducing productivity in the office. No one will think that you are tough or strong willed when you come to the office sick, when your feeling sick, stay home and rest so that when you come back your ready to work.

What You CAN Do to Prevent Illness in the Workplace

“Make sure to wash your hands” is a phrase most of our mothers harangued us about constantly, but it isn’t bad advice at all. What's unfortunate is the number of adults that never learned how and when to wash their hands properly. Your hands are the perfect carrier for all manner of bacteria and other pathogens that make people sick. So, it is important to wash them before eating, after using the restroom, and after touching high traffic objects. Effective hand washing should be your first line of defense against workplace illness and should be done by all employees throughout the day. Another important step to keeping you and your staff healthy is coughing or sneezing into your arm instead of your hand. While you shouldn’t be at work if your coughing or sneezing with any degree of frequency, this simple change in habit can help protect others from illness.

Knowing that hand to hand contact is such an easy way to spread illness, another common sense thing to do is keep your hands away from your eyes and mouth at all costs. It is impossible to make sure one's hands are clean all the time and putting them near your mucous membranes is the perfect opportunity for bacteria to invade your body. Finally, when a sink and soap aren’t available, make sure that you have some hand sanitizer on hand (no pun intended). Hand sanitizer solutions with a least 60% alcohol content are effective at removing all manner of bacteria from your hands and can help keep you clean when you can’t wash your hands. Keeping in mind these simple tips about your hands can help spare you and your co-workers illness during the peak of flu season.

When in Doubt, Vaccine it Out

Another basic step you can take to help keep yourself healthy during the cold and flu season is the flu vaccine. While it isn’t and never has been a sure fire way to completely protect yourself from the flu, it has been shown to be upwards of 90% effective. It's a cheap, safe way to protect yourself against the season so it might be a good idea to ask your doctor if the flu shot might be right for you. Getting the flu shot can help protect you from the most prevalent strains of influenza as well reduce your chances of getting your co-workers sick.  

If you need help with medical cleaning, day porter services, school cleaning, commercial handyman services, restroom sanitation services or more, please call Stathakis at 1-800-278-1884.

How Do Your Office Cleaning Prices & Service Add Up?

Is the difficulty of trying to find a new commercial cleaning company beginning to feel reminiscent of your college algebra course? Does it seem like no matter what you do, you can’t ever seem to find the right solution? Finding the right office cleaning company for your facility can feel like a seemingly insurmountable task. For every professional, effective office cleaning company, there are probably at least twenty cleaning companies just treading water. Fortunately for you, although this task can feel Sisyphean or even impossible, there is a tried and true formula (no algebra we promise) for finding high quality, effective, responsive office cleaning without too much suffering on your part. By looking at a few core aspects of office cleaning and what takes it from poor to good to great, you can see what makes a company effective and those qualities that add real value to the service you receive.

Fuzzy Pricing is a Major Red Flag

Forget the algebra, this isn’t rocket science, but if you did the math on your prospective cleaning companies bid and things just aren’t adding up it might be time to look for another office cleaning company. An imprecise bid has a number of inherent problems with it. First, if the pricing isn’t clear, it can be difficult to see what it is your actually paying for. Without being able to determine the value of a service, it can be difficult to decide if a commercial cleaning company is right for your facility. Further, fuzzy pricing can be a function of hidden fees and other upcharges, which can further damaged an already reduced budget and throw careful planning into a tailspin. Second, without a clear price point it is impossible to compare different companies to each other. As a Facility Manager, you are always looking to get the best deal for your company, so not having the tools to do so can create a significant handicap. The most experienced, professional companies will always give you a detailed and crystal clear bid. They want to set a benchmark and consistently perform at that level so that you continue to give them business.

The Equation is Fairly Simple, Good People = Good Service

Any service business’s most important asset is the people that they employee. The best commercial cleaning companies understand this concept and work around the clock to attract, hire, and retain the best staff for getting your facility cleaned properly. A good gauge of the quality of any prospective commercial cleaning company is their understanding of the value of their staff. Ask them how they attract, screen, hire, train and retain their top talent. The best companies will show you clear, well thought through and developed processes that make them shine above the rest of the competition. What is even more encouraging about these companies is that they didn’t just stumble across their techniques to this particular challenge. Any company that dedicates themselves to finding the right employees and implementing pre-qualifications such as background checks and drug checks is going to take cleaning your facility just as seriously. Partnering with a company that shows a passionate interest in the quality of their company culture is always going to perform better than a company that is not interested in the people that they hire.

The Solution Lies in the Right Office Cleaning Company

Communication is another important trait of any successful commercial cleaning service provider. These companies recognize the need to have the right people in place in order to deliver the most effective service as well as respond to your requests and suggestions as they come up.  As you likely know as a Facility Manager, being responsive to your customer’s requests is one of the foremost priorities of any service business.  The reality is that people are performing a service and people are only human after all. Even the most effective, professional office cleaner will need some feedback to fine-tune their work to your particular requirements. It is never a question of if your commercial cleaning company is going to make a mistake, it is a question of how they are going to address it and how smoothly the issue can be resolved. The cream of the crop companies will communicate how they are going to solve the problem and then quickly implement their solution.

Take Advantage of a Couple of Industry Shortcuts

Finding the right cleaning company as a Facility Manager can seem like a giant headache full of numbers, computations and promises that may or may not hold water. Fortunately for you, there is a useful shortcut you can take advantage of to help cut down on the time you have to look for the right company. As a Facility Manager, why wouldn’t you avail yourself of any and all advantages you could in finding and hiring a solid, consistent and quick to respond office cleaning service? One means to get to the answers to your office cleaning problems faster and more effectively is to put industry certifications to use in creating your short-list of qualified, professional office cleaning companies. Taking advantage of such certifications as the ISSA CIMS offers an effective way to winnow down this list given the rigor and prestige of such a certification. Companies that are CIMS certified are often the best in their industry committed to excellence and innovation. When looking for your next partner in cleaning, take advantage of this free tool to help make the search for your next office cleaning company easier and more effective.