Every business owner wants to keep a tidy space. A messy, chaotic office makes it harder for employees to work and makes customers less likely to take your business seriously. Because business owners need to focus on running their businesses rather than cleaning, they often hire a commercial cleaning company to handle janitorial work. Hiring a cleaning company is a great way to ensure your space remains tidy and professional; however, not all cleaning companies are the same. Hiring a bad cleaning company will waste your money and leave your office space looking worse than before. Janitorial services must be vetted like any other contractor your business hires. As the owner of a commercial cleaning company in Phoenix, I have worked with many business owners and encouraged them to vet my work as they would any other service. Here are a few tips to help you hire an honest and effective commercial cleaning company.
You get what you pay for
Commercial office cleaning is like any other service: You get what you pay for. Many cleaning companies offer services at prices that seem too good to be true, and they are. The cleaning company you hire is subject to the same market dynamics as anyone else, and if their price is significantly lower than everyone else’s, it means they are cutting corners somewhere. It means they are hiring cheap labor, using low-quality cleaning products, or simply not doing the work you hired them for. Do your market research on pricing and get a few quotes from a few cleaning companies for the work you want. There might be room to negotiate a better deal, but the price for services should be in the same ballpark. A low-ball bid is attractive on paper, but a nightmare in practice. Don’t simply hire a cleaning company because their price point is on the floor. Hire a cleaning company that wants to give you a deal but still respects the value of their service.
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Too many subcontractors
The first question you should ask any commercial cleaning company is, “Do you use your own employees or subcontract the work?” This is an important distinction because a company that subcontracts all its cleaning will not have the same level of consistency, as it is not responsible for training the team. A cleaning company with an in-house team will be involved in onboarding and training staff, will have long-term employees, and is more likely to have established processes and culture. A commercial cleaning company that subcontracts some smaller jobs isn’t a deal breaker, but if you have a large commercial space, you want an in-house team. Large, industry-specific jobs might require specialized chemicals, detailed procedures, and higher levels of training to be done efficiently. A team of subcontractors hired that day will not have the necessary cohesion to do these jobs. A supervisor can also account for an in-house team more effectively. They know who is entering the building and whether they can be trusted. You never know what you are getting with subcontractors.
They can explain their training
Training procedures separate a professional cleaning company from an amateur one. Ask prospective cleaning companies about their training process before hiring them. A qualified cleaning company will be able to explain its training process in detail, how it identifies issues over time, and how it has improved it. Experience isn’t simply about how many years a company has been operating. It is about a company building reputable systems for hiring talent and managing them. If a company can’t explain its own process, then it is not worth hiring.
No stone age communication
How a cleaning company communicates with you and its employees is essential when deciding whether to hire them. Too many cleaning companies still rely on outdated communication methods, such as logbooks, which can be easily ignored or overlooked by cleaning crews. These old tools create the appearance of oversight while making it easy to avoid accountability. Ask the cleaning company you want to hire how they track communication and how management receives your messages. For example, a cleaning company might place QR codes in certain areas of your office so that if you need something, you can check in using that code and send a message or complaint. You can then track the status of that submission. A cleaner who invests in modern communication tools takes their job seriously.
How do they treat employees?
You can tell a lot about a company by how it treats its employees. The cleaning industry has a high turnover rate, so if a company has many long-term employees, that is a good sign. Ask how long some of their staff have been with them, and don’t be afraid to ask what they pay their employees. If they have many long-term employees, it usually means they promote from within and have established a culture of hard work. A cleaning company with high turnover will not be able to provide you with this information.
References and online reviews
When it comes to verifying quality, references remain the best tool a business owner has for vetting a cleaning company. The people who know the quality of a company’s work are those who have hired it. I would ask for two or three references before committing to hiring any cleaning company. Online reviews are worth looking at, but they should not be the main metric you use to make your decision. Online reviews can be outdated, misleading, or fabricated. A credible cleaning company should provide you with a reference to ask about their work. If they don’t, that is a big red flag.
Business owners should treat hiring a cleaning company the same way they would any other contractor. Take the time to vet them and ask questions before committing their hard-earned money to the company’s services.
Author: Christian Morales is the Owner of American Commercial Cleaning, a commercial cleaning company in Phoenix, Arizona. They specialize in helping Arizona businesses in Gilbert, Phoenix, and Scottsdale keep their commercial spaces clean.
