At TRC Commercial Cleaning, we understand that hiring a cleaning company is not an easy task as there are many competitors to filter through. These 10 questions will help you find the right cleaner that offers what you need, can work around your busy schedule, and has the experience to provide the best results.
Your facility is a direct reflection of your business, so you often have only one chance to make a good impression on your prospective customers, clients, and staff. Properly screening cleaning companies is a critical step in ensuring your facility presents well and leaves a great impression.
We want to help you find the right professional solution with customizable services to meet your needs, manage risks, and minimize unsatisfactory feedback. Here are the questions you should ask a prospective cleaner, to weed out companies that will just say anything to get your business:
Are you insured?
Accidents can and will happen, especially in the cleaning business. Before hiring a company, you would want to ensure that it can protect itself as well as your business if something breaks or a worker is injured. Workers compensation and general liability insurance are non-negotiable when it comes to ensuring the commercial cleaning company is adequately protected. Ask for their insurance certificate to ensure a minimum coverage of $1,000,000 per policy.
What services do you specialize in?
An honest cleaning company understands that they have capabilities as well as limitations in the services they can provide. Too often companies over promise yet under deliver due to scheduling, employee, and servicing commitments that are unrealistic to their capacity. Your facility is unique with basic and potentially more complex procedures that may need to be implemented. Understand what a cleaning company specializes in as well as the services it subcontracts to promote full transparency and prevent negative experiences along the way.
How long have you been in business?
Every business must start somewhere, but experience in this industry matters. You may not want your facility to be the training grounds of a new cleaning company with no track record of serving grounds such as yours. Experienced cleaning companies are just better at what they do because they have more advanced knowledge, systems, employees, pricing, and problem-solving skills to properly address your needs. Enthusiasm cannot substitute for a lack of experience, so keep that in mind as you pick your cleaning company.
What cleaning certifications do you hold?
To become a HVAC technician, you need formal training. To become a barber, you will need to get a license. But to become a cleaner, there are no set requirements. This means a cleaning company must invest time and money into itself and its employees to prove they’re able and reliable to do the job. A cleaning company with certifications is a serious one as they are invested in the know-how to do the job. CIMS through ISSA is one of the most notable cleaning certifications a cleaner can hold to ensure they understand the proper methods to sanitize, disinfect and restore areas.
How do you screen your employees?
The hardest job for a cleaning company is finding the right people. My first and worst mistake in starting my first cleaning company some years ago was onboarding any candidate who was willing to train (regardless of their cleaning experience) into my organization. The result was no-shows, unprofessionalism, transportation issues, drug problems, theft, you name it. After a couple months of losing sleep over who I hired, I decided to not only incorporate drug and background screenings but only hire people that fit our brand values of Integrity, Excellence, Stewardship, and Community. We’ve accomplished this through asking the right questions and checking credible references. Asking your prospective janitorial company how they screen their workers will help you understand if they are taking shortcuts that will put your facility at risk by hiring unqualified and inexperienced workers.
How do you train your employees?
Training is important because it backs an employer’s commitment to quality service. Ongoing training in the cleaning business allows employees to receive regular updates on the latest cleaning techniques and safety protocols. Comprehensive training helps cleaners deliver consistently good service specifically geared toward your facility type. It is important to ask how often their employees are trained and who provides the training for safety and quality assurance.
How do you manage workloads and quality assurance?
The best cleaning companies effectively track and manage the quality of work their employees are performing. It is important to ask about the quality assurances tools a company has in place to ensure quality work is being done. A dependable cleaning company should perform regular inspections to confirm the quality of work done, and with the number of apps and software available for just this reason, there is really no excuse for a cleaning company to not have several layers of quality assurance in place. Their quality assurance measures should also allow you to easily communicate with management, especially if there are emergency services needed.
Do you provide your own supplies and equipment?
A commercial cleaning company typically uses their own chemicals and equipment to clean a facility as they have a high standard of cleaning and often utilize more advanced, high quality, and efficient tools to get the job done. But there will be jobs that only need the experienced workers as they provide everything needed to clean. Either way, ask the question to avoid misunderstandings of who provides what and ask detailed questions about the types of supplies and equipment they will utilize within your facility and why. If your business requires specific cleaning supplies that meet special disinfection or sanitization procedures, ask the potential cleaning company if those products are available.
Do you offer green cleaning methods and products?
Green cleaning is great for the environment and your employees. It focuses on health, safety, sustainability, and environmental responsibility. Such cleaning practices can save you money by reducing the waste footprint of your facility and improving energy usage. Green friendly chemicals and equipment also help reduce indoor air pollution and toxic remnants. If this is important to you, then you would want to inquire about a cleaning company’s protocols and usage.
Do you have similar facility references?
Find out what types of facilities they have served, and if a reference is available. If you are a medical facility, hiring a cleaning company that does mostly offices will not help you. In fact, it could cost you if healthcare regulations are violated. Or if a cleaning company specializes in industrial space, would you hire them to clean your university? For that reason, it’s a good idea to ask a cleaning company about which facilities they’ve serviced that are like yours or references.
While these critical 10 questions can help you separate the fakers from the producers, do not limit yourself to these 10. Ask, ask again, and keep asking until you’re comfortable and confident that a janitorial service company can provide the quality service and/or products you need for your facility.
In fact, we will answer these questions and any others you may have during your free consultation. Click here to schedule your consultation today!