If you work in facilities management or operations, this guide will give you the information you need to help you make an informed decision about which commercial cleaning contractor you should hire.
Introduction
Before we start this guide I want to introduce myself, my name is James Croft and I am the managing director at Cleaníge. We are a family-owned eco-friendly commercial cleaning business based in Watford. Providing all the internal cleaning services your office or commercial property will ever need. Having spent the best part of twenty years working for various cleaning companies during that time, I learned a great deal about cleaning.
The health and safety side of it as well as how to actually clean professionally and efficiently. One thing that has served me well is understanding my client's pain problems, that is to say, what frustrates them with the current contractor, or what might be the issues with the standards of cleanliness in their building. Therefore, having industry experience and knowledge of a client are two of the most important factors in choosing a cleaning contractor.
Factors to Consider
I would be more inclined to purchase the services of a company that made a point of understanding what pain point I am trying to solve within my business. The fact they made the effort to understand me and my business would impress me far more than a company that put little effort into gaining my custom.
It's also important to consider additional factors such as your policies and values, does the contractor align with your policies and company values like sustainability or fair employment? Do they provide the latest in cleaning and employee technology and training in order that they provide a leading-edge service?
Having a local contractor is also a great tip, local cleaning companies have extensive knowledge of the area. They will have access to a local pool of candidates to fill the vacancies that each new contract will require. Unless they are transferring them under TUPE regulations. Local candidates will be more reliable which in turn benefits both the client and the contractor, everyone wins in this scenario.
Research,research, research!
When choosing your next contractor, research their company extensively. Look at all their reviews across all social media platforms and review sites, like Facebook, Linkedin, Yellow Pages and Trustpilot. Really get a feel for who they are and how they support both clients and employees. If their employee retention and satisfaction is high you are far more likely to receive a better client experience.
Conclusion
Price and value should be the final things to consider when weighing up options for hiring a cleaning contractor. Why do I say this? Well, price is usually at the forefront of decision-making for contracts, and that makes sense for the most part. But, this is where a lot of companies go wrong. They end up hiring a service provider based on price rather than value or ability to deliver quality service. Cheap contractors only want to win the contract as a numbers game, they quote cheaply to get as many contracts as they can through the books.
However, they put little thought into the execution or delivery of the contract and end up falling way short. The client ends up effectively paying twice. As the saying goes, "Buy cheap, buy twice". Value is far more important than price, ask yourself, "What am I getting for the money I will be paying for this contract"? If the contractor is providing additional cleaning tasks like carpet cleaning or external jet washing in the annual cost, that is providing value for money. If the contractor provides technology to help you track their cleaner's productivity or provides a 24-hour support line, that is providing value of service. In the end, value will always be more important than price.
I hope this guide has given you some useful bits of information to help you with decision-making regarding hiring cleaning contractors for your business. I'd be really grateful if you could share this blog guide as I want to help as many facilities and operations managers as I can. Next week's blog will discuss sustainability issues and the damage of plastics in our oceans and waterways.
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