Having served the lower Alabama and Mississippi area for a number of years, ServiceMaster Services is uniquely qualified to list some questions that you may want to consider asking a janitorial provider before you enter into a contract.
1. Read the contract. How easily can you get out of it if it doesn't work for you? One national provider had some unbelievably difficult steps for you to get out of their contract. We haven't seen it in a few years, but our customers tell us. We will soon get a copy of their contract and post it. You must notify of your dissatisfaction in writing. They have a certain period to cure. You must then re-notify of their failings, and specifically say that the problem was NOT cured, or the failings will be deemed cured. Then another period of time must be allowed. Also, the contract is not cancelled 30 days prior to the annual renewal, it renews automatically for another year. There were severe penalties for cancelling. This company SELLS the franchise AND the account to the franchisee, so they cannot let customers out of bad contracts easily. At ServiceMaster Services, if we no longer are able to provide a service that fits the customer's needs, we allow them out with a 30 day notice. How simple is that?
2. How many people do they have locally? A deep bench means that they can easily hire, rehire and retrain new employees.
3. Where is their local office or offices? Are they just a branch of an out-of-town company? May I visit your office?
4. Who is your owner?
5. What is your workman's compensation experience modifier? (We bet most companies don't even know what this is!)
6. Do you do a FIFTY STATE background check on your employees rather than a local police records check?
7. May we see a copy of your general liability insurance declaration?
8. How do you clean carpet? Do you have truck-mounted units? Portables only? Really??
9. How do you locate workers?
10. May I see a copy of your training program? How do you know that you have allocated enough time to clean my facility?
11. How do you plan to help us with water damage or disaster cleanup? (ServiceMaster is the only entity that has a commonly held LOCAL disaster restoration arm.)
12. Do you have any expertise in mold remediation? Smoke and odor cleanup?
13. What certifications does your company hold? Medical? Mold Remediation? Water Damage Restoration? Smoke and Odor Restoration? Are you IICRC certified in any of this fields?
14. Who are your references? May we call them? May I have two additional LOCAL ones? What is the largest account LOCALLY that you have done? What are your annual revenues LOCALLY?
16. Are you willing to let us out of our contract if we are not happy with your service?
We will update this article regularly and add to it. It will be a work in progress.
