Mistakes happen, even in the best office cleaning companies. But when one mistake becomes two, three or four mistakes and these mistakes add up to a more pressing issue, and the issue becomes a pattern, you have a real problem. At a certain point, you must ask, how many mistakes are too many mistakes? When can an issue be remedied and when is it time to move on? And if you do decide to move on and work with a different office cleaning company, how do you assure you don’t end up in the very same position just with a different office cleaning service? We talk to Facility Managers just like you each and every day. We hear their pain points and the issues that so frequently plague office cleaning. Do your issues match up with those other Facility Managers? And what can you do to keep your office cleaning company’s mistakes from becoming YOUR problems?
While no commercial office cleaning service is perfect, there are some that respond to issues and problems better than others. When your office cleaning company makes a mistake, do they get in touch and rectify it promptly? And do they put a plan in place to make sure a problem doesn’t become a pattern? The best office cleaning services get back to you quickly when you report an issue. The best ones often find the problem before you even notice it with regular janitorial inspections and good employee training. If you are regularly hearing “we’ll take care of it” from your office cleaning company only to have to call or email again and again in order to get a response, it might be time to consider a new office cleaning company.
Turnover is an unfortunate problem in any of the lower-skilled or less specialized jobs, as the pay is often at the lower end of the continuum, often people who become skilled and experienced move into more highly skilled positions and some low-skilled employees have other issues that make consistent employment difficult. So the turnover you will see at an office cleaning company is likely to be higher than say, among teachers. But office cleaning is a service business and a service business is only as good as its people. While some turnover is expected, the best office cleaning companies work hard to keep their turnover below average in order to provide their employees and their customers with consistency and excellence. How do some office cleaning services reduce turnover giving them a consistent, experience work force? They find and hire people who are a very good fit for the work. Then they arm those people with the training, tools, supervision and management to do very good work. Finally, they use competitive pay, benefits and performance incentives to both get the best from their teams and make their people feel appreciated and valued. If you see too many new faces among your office cleaners, it might be time to contract with a company that knows how to find and keep very good people.
Office cleaning equipment is rapidly getting better, more effective, safer and greener. If your commercial office cleaning services is using old, outdated, poorly serviced equipment that has seen better days, they are shorting you of one of the many benefits of outsourcing office cleaning, that is newer, better equipment. By contracting with an office cleaning company, you should be getting the benefit of their specialization which means better equipment, serviced as needed and replaced more frequently. Office cleaning companies that are not using up to date equipment are not reinvesting in their own businesses and offering their customers the most optimal and effective service.
If your office cleaning company is taking short cuts with people, they will take shortcuts anywhere. People are the core component of office cleaning services. Office cleaners an in and out of your building daily and often after hours. You deserve to have people that are safe. That means no illegal hiring, comprehensive employment screening including drug testing and criminal background checks on every single employee without fail. A clean building is important but security is critical. Don’t let your office cleaning company take short cuts that put your business, your people and your reputation at risk.
Does your office cleaning company have good people? What does good people even mean? Well, as stated above, they must be legally hired and properly screened, but then what? Then training and management become critical to the success of an office cleaning program. Effective training benefits you the customer and changes the way people feel about their work, which in turn cultivates a more professional attitude. Everyone benefits. Office cleaning has leapt into the future and is so much more technical than the mop and bucket days. Science and technology have combined to give us major improvements in the Science of Cleaning and Cleaning for Health. But these advances require training in order to be implemented correctly giving you the best results possible in your facility. Is your office cleaning company finding, hiring, screening, training and managing their teams to success? Do they provide comprehensive general training as well as industry specific training to the office cleaners who work in your building?
There are certainly those office cleaning companies that are off track, making more mistakes than reasonable and taxing your good will and your office cleaning budget beyond their limits. But there are also those professional office cleaning services getting it right, working hard daily toward continual improvement to offer their valued customers more and better. As a Facility Manager, you are tasked with trying to discern the former from the latter. In fact, that can be the trickiest part. It isn’t always easy to identify those companies that are doing it better. The best office cleaning companies won’t take shortcuts with training, effective quality control is the goal and they operate with a professionalism that offers a predictor of service and value. The most effective Detroit office cleaning companies know that too many mistakes become a pattern and lose them customers so they strive to identify and remedy problems quickly. They know that communication and responsiveness are integral to effective service. The best office cleaning companies know that people are the face of their business and thus make it a priority to find, hire, retain and manage great people who are a great fit for the work. The most effective office cleaning services know why better, newer cleaning equipment and environmentally friendly products do the best job and make the most of their customer’s budgets. They fully understand that security and safety in your office building is nonnegotiable. Do your work upfront to find those office cleaning companies worthy of your business an you can set your facility up to run efficiently and effectively while looking its best.