Top 10 Questions to Ask When Choosing a Commercial Cleaning Company
- What hours are they willing to work? If you’re choosing a commercial cleaning company for
your business, you need to be sure that the company will be available
during the hours you prefer them to work. If you don’t mind having some
cleaning going on during your regular business hours, then this shouldn’t
be a problem, but if you’d rather them not be sweeping up while business
is going on, then you need to be sure they’re willing to clean after
everyone has vacated the premises for the day.
- Do they have a track record of good customer service? If you want to make sure that you’re getting the
spiffiest cleaning treatment available, find out about the commercial
cleaning company’s history and reputation before deciding to hire them. There
are a variety of ways to find out if the company is worth its salt—or
soap, as it were. One of the very best ways is word of mouth. Ask your
friends and business colleagues to refer you to a top-notch cleaning
service. Another reliable option is to go online to find customer reviews
and ratings.
- What are their rates?
Just as in any other business transaction, you want to make sure you’re
getting the most bang for your buck when it comes to hiring a janitorial
or other commercial cleaning company. Not only should you compare their
rates to their competitors, you should also find out exactly which
services they will provide for the agreed-upon fee. This should be
thoroughly explained in the contract agreement.
- What are their hiring guidelines? To protect your own company’s reputation and assets,
it may be a good idea to find out how the cleaning company goes about
hiring its employees. Specifically, ask if they require a drug test or
references for potential employees. If the person cleaning your business
is going to be doing it during business hours, you need to ensure that he
or she will appear and behave as professional as possible. If the
individual will be working after hours, you need to be assured that the
person is responsible and trustworthy.
- Are they insured?
This is another question targeted toward protecting your business and your
financial security. You need to make sure that the company has insurance
so that if they damage any furniture, flooring, or equipment in your
facility, they will have the means to replace it. Otherwise, you might be
footing the bill.
- What are their quality assurance policies? Ask the company what they will do to ensure that you
are satisfied with their services. Anticipate beforehand what will happen
if you are unsatisfied with their work. Do they offer a satisfaction
guarantee? Will you receive a credit for any work that is less than
quality? Will they send someone out immediately to correct the error?
These are all things that need to be resolved before a problem occurs, and
preferably in writing.
- Will the same person be providing the service every
time? Depending on your personality
and your face-time with the person providing the cleaning services, you
may or may not prefer the same provider for each cleaning session. If this
is important to you, be sure to find out beforehand if you can count on
building a working relationship with any one individual.
- How do they train their employees? This is something you should be concerned with in
order to ensure that any cleaning individual or team the company sends to
clean your business will have the skills and professionalism needed to
clean your office or facility thoroughly and with care. This is an
especially important question if the corporation has a large number of
employees.
- Do they offer incentives? Find out if there are any special benefits that come
along with hiring the company. For instance, do they provide their own
cleaning solutions, equipment, and paper products? Do they offer a
referral incentive? Will you receive a loyalty discount? These little
extras can help you make the decision between two or more reputable
companies.
- Do they offer the option of using
environmentally-friendly cleaning products? There’s been quite a bit of buzz lately about the
dangers of traditional cleaning solutions. More and more evidence is
pointing to the fact that some common cleaning ingredients—namely,
volatile organic compounds (VOCs), phosphates, heavy metals, and artificial
fragrances—are not only polluting the Earth, but posing dangerous health
risks as well. If you don’t want these toxic chemicals to invade your
business or facility, ask any potential cleaning company directly whether
they make it a practice to use green cleaners.
Hiring a commercial cleaning company is not a
decision that should be made hastily. Be sure to ask the right questions
beforehand to make sure that you receive the best service available at the most
competitive rate.
Top 10 Questions to Ask When Choosing a Commercial Cleaning Company
My husband's company has been trying to decide if they should hire a cleaning service so I will have to show them this post. I like that you point out the importance of asking them what their hiring guidelines are. That way, you will know what they expect of the people they are trusting in your office so you can trust them as well. Thanks for sharing this! http://skg.net.au/services/commercial-cleaning/
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