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7 ‘Critical Questions to Ask Your Janitorial Service Provider’.

Are you a full service company and what experience do you have with carpets, floors and other services?

This is a great question. Often times the more services you can bundle together the less expensive it will be for you in the long run. Also, by having one company service all of your buildings service needs you eliminate a tremendous amount of confusion and problems. When all of the regular service and the interim service is performed by the same people things don’t get missed and there is less opportunity for overlapping service. You get a lower cost and a better result.

What things beyond normal recurring service should you ask about?

Lets look at the carpets and floors for example. If you talk to reputable janitorial service providers they will tell you that regular maintenance is one of the best ways to preserve the life of your carpets and floors. When you have two or even three companies all doing different aspects of the required service, it is more likely you will get poor results. When one company is doing both the recurring service and the carpets they know what the foot traffic is like and they know how often carpets need service. That type of awareness is missing when multiple companies are involved.

There is also the tendency to ‘point fingers’ at other vendors when something goes wrong.

“That spot by the presidents office, who caused it? Who is responsible to clean it and why wasn’t it cleaned when we expected it to be cleaned.”

With one service provider there is none of that. They are responsible on all levels to remove the problem. This makes life a lot easier for you and much less time consuming.

Do they do windows? Virtually every commercial building has windows of some kind andthey will need to be cleaned. A reputable janitorial service provider should be able to handle all of your one or two story windows. When you start getting higher than this, a professionally equipped window cleaning company is going to be your best solution. Higher windows often will require ‘lifts’ or even scaffolding and not everyone is capable of doing this well.

Are they available to do event cleaning? Certain facilities are set up for events and others are not. Ask your service provider if they are able to do the setup and tear down as well as the impact clean required for your events. Some things to consider are the days and times required, which often are not on a normal schedule. Even working around other vendors like catering or entertainment, can create complications for restoring your facility to pre-event condition. A service provider who is used to doing these types of events is more likely to give you the results you desire.

Are they able to do landscaping and parking lots? This is one of those items that really depends on whether you own the building or not. In many cases you won’t have control of the outside of your office space but if you do this might be a consideration. Given that these items are not necessarily connected to your regular recurring service you will have to determine how important this is. Admittedly, very few janitorial service providers will have the equipment or available resources to handle some of these items but they may have working relationships with other vendors who will work with them in partnership to give you your desired results.

The bottom line for you is to ask. You may be surprised by the answers and you just might find a great vendor who you can work with long term.