Finding a new cleaning company can take time and effort. What if they don’t perform well? What if the start-up is a disaster? What if the complaints are worse with the new company than the old janitorial company? You don’t want to worry about cleaning services, and you need a vendor to give you the best chance at a worry-free service.
Here are a few questions you should ask any prospective janitorial company. While these questions won’t provide you with all the details you need to make a good decision, they help you determine if vendors are a good fit to clean your facility.
What is your process for hiring and training team members? How much do you pay?
The quality of the individuals who clean your facility will largely determine the quality of cleaning. For this reason, you must feel confident that your vendor will find and hire the best possible workers, pay them appropriately, and train them adequately. A company with a good process will stand ready to answer these questions confidently. A solid hourly wage, a thorough hiring process, and comprehensive training will likely predict a good experience with this vendor.
Describe your service model?
A service model is a system janitorial companies use to ensure you get the service you expect. Unfortunately, some companies don’t possess much of a service model. They send cleaners out to clean and respond when you have a complaint. But your expectations should be higher to get the peace-of-mind service you are looking for. What will the startup process look like? How often will an inspection be done? How frequently will a manager be in the building? Will partnership meetings be held periodically?
Who will be responsible for servicing our account?
Use this question to find out if the janitorial company uses local management. When you have a crew in your facility every night, management must be local. In addition to local management, dig in to determine their operational structure. Who does site visits? Who handles complaints or extra work requests? Who oversees the cleaners? A high-quality cleaning company should have good answers to each of these questions.
Can you provide me with a list of three references of similar size companies?
A cleaning company with a good reputation should be fine giving you references willing to talk. However, you need more than just references. Ideally, you want references from facilities similar in size and scope. While a company might do well servicing a small office building, perhaps they aren’t ready to tackle a surgery center or manufacturing plant. If they have quality references from similar facilities, you might have found an excellent janitorial company to work with.
