Having concerns about your facility’s cleaning is valid when hiring a professional cleaning service. Especially when you work within a specialized industry that may require more services than the average office space. But don’t worry. We hear cleaning concerns all the time and we’re sharing them with you along with solutions based on years of experience.
How do I keep my facility safe and secure?
A major concern for every business is security. Many of our new clients express frustration with their previous janitorial providers because no matter how many times they complained, the provider failed to lock the doors and set the alarm before they went home for the night. Knowing that your business is protected when you aren’t there is important. Rest easy knowing that your facility is always protected by selecting a provider that has your security in mind at all times.
The safety of cleaning products is another common worry. All products used to clean any facility should be EPA-approved cleaners and disinfectants. You may want to go as far as using products that also promote a safe and healthy environment. Unfortunately, green cleaning requires research because you can’t always trust a label. But you can ensure the safety of your products by purchasing from companies who value social and environmental responsibility.
How do I keep my restrooms looking spotless?
Restrooms are always of concern because they are naturally perceived as unsanitary. They also get a lot of use if you have a large staff or many customers, which can make cleaning bathrooms difficult. If you know your bathrooms are mess prone, it is worth it to hire a day porter, someone responsible for cleaning daily, open to close, so that general janitorial isn’t set behind in the evening. Hiring a day porter will also help you keep up appearances in other areas of your facility like your lobby, lounge, cafeteria and offices. It is without a doubt that your restrooms must be presentable at all times. Your entire facility could be clean, but a dirty bathroom will completely alter a customers impression of your business.
Do I need specialty services and how often?
Many people have concerns about specialty services because they don’t happen as regularly as general janitorial. Specialty services include floor care, carpet care, upholstery care and window care. Every building requires specialty services at some point. Even if your facility is new, dirt is already eating away at your floor finish. But the frequency that you will need specialty services is different for every building and industry type. After a thorough walk through of your facility, your janitorial provider will have a good understanding of what services are needed and how often. Methods and supplies are especially important when it comes to making sure these services turn out right. Make sure your janitorial provider is only working with the best.
Another concern we’ve experienced is customers worried that we can’t perform a task specific to their building, like cleaning a large wall of artificial succulents or disinfecting plush toys in a daycare center. Making our customers happy is important to us, so we do as much as we can. If there is something out of the ordinary that you want cleaned, don’t be afraid to ask your janitorial provider!
Clean during the day or at night?
As a facility manager, you want to make sure your building is cleaned regularly, but you don’t want cleaning to impact the productivity of your staff or to disrupt your ability to do business with customers. Setting a service schedule that works for both parties is important. There are both pros and cons of daytime cleaning. While day cleaning allows us to take care of spillages and messes as they occur, it may be difficult to get detailed cleaning done with people continuously moving in and out of rooms.
If you are a medical facility or pharmacy for example, restricted areas will require daytime cleaning under supervision. As mentioned above, a day porter can solve this problem if day cleaning is a necessity for your facility. Or maybe a general janitorial staff can arrive one to two hours before closing to service those areas. But depending on your needs, general janitorial and specialty services can always be performed after hours to make sure they are done correctly with no distraction to you.
How do I measure the cleanliness of my facility?
If you aren’t a professional cleaner, you won’t notice some areas of a facility until they are so neglected that you do. For example baseboards, kick plates, handrails and high areas that for the most part go unseen until you need to store something away usually go unnoticed. But after weeks of neglect, you’ll begin to see the finger prints and dust accumulate. It is the job of your cleaning provider to hit these areas regularly so that they don’t become an issue later on.
When we perform quality assurance checks we always use a two step process. We first assess the facility through the customers eyes. This involves checking areas that we know with certainty you and your customers will notice. But the second step is to check the details. That is the difference between cleaning for a space to look good, and cleaning a space to ensure health and wellness are upheld.
All your cleaning concerns should be taken seriously. Alleviating your concerns begins with choosing the right service provider. If you are in a specialized field, make sure that your janitorial provider is educated in the right cleaning methods of that industry. Learn about their process and assess whether they are qualified. A good service provider will do the same when agreeing to do business with you.