Maintaining a professional and clean work environment is not only important when it comes to impressing new clients, but also with respect to ensuring an effective and efficient staff.  Regardless of the type or size of your business, you most likely want to hire professional cleaners to make sure that your offices are always in tip-top condition.

While a small business owner with an office of just a few staff members may prefer local maid services, larger companies usually opt for commercial cleaners.  Ultimately, it’s important to understand the difference between a maid service and commercial cleaning, and also to identify your needs when deciding your cleaning protocol.

What are Commercial Cleaning Companies?

What exactly is a commercial cleaning company and what can you expect?  Well, while a maid service offers most of the basic cleaning activities including vacuuming, mopping, dusting, and bathroom cleaning, commercial cleaning companies typically offer a wider range of services that apply to a variety of workplaces.  For example, commercial cleaners will cover all the tasks of a maid service while also offering more advanced services such as cleaning carpet and upholstery, changing light bulbs, removing garbage and recycling, providing emergency cleaning services, and more.  In addition, commercial cleaning companies often have a range of specialized equipment that ensure their cleaning tasks are completed thoroughly.

Maid or Commercial Cleaner?

When deciding whether you need a maid service or a commercial cleaning company, you first need to identify your needs.  Commercial cleaning and janitorial companies will offer a complete range of services.  Depending on your current needs, a maid may not be able to help.  Ultimately, you want to work with a company that can handle the cleaning tasks you need on a schedule that suits your company.  For example, you likely want regular cleanings of bathrooms, floors, and windows as well as garbage removal; if this is the extent of your cleaning needs, consider hiring a maid service.  On the other hand, retail and industrial settings, and even some office environments may require more advanced cleaning.  Do you want your carpets cleaned?  Are your offices located in a high-rise requiring specialized window cleaning equipment?

Ideally, you want to speak to potential cleaners and assess exactly what they can offer.  If your cleaning company or maid service does not offer what you need, you need to keep looking.  Take some time to contact a number of professionals to see what they can do and how much it will cost.  Also, remember that maid services are not as customizable as commercial cleaning services, but whichever route you decide to take, make sure to develop and sign an explicit cleaning contract so that you can rest easy knowing your workplace will be cleaned thoroughly and efficiently.

Even the word “fire” can conjure some uncomfortable feelings among employers and employees alike – there’s nothing enjoyable about firing or being fired.  Nevertheless, there comes a time in almost every manager’s professional life where an employee or employment contract needs to be terminated.  So how do you know when it’s time to fire your janitorial service?  As is the case with any professional relationship, you’re likely to have problems with your janitorial service from time-to-time.  Maybe you need to remind them to remove the garbage or draw their attention to a spot they neglected to clean, but you’re not likely to fire them over these types of problems.  The following are the top reasons to fire your janitor.

Staffing Issues

Major issues like incompetent employee screening, hiring illegal workers, illegal pay practices, and other questionable business decisions are valid reasons to fire your janitorial service.  Not only do you open yourself to legal and liability problems, but you don’t want to work with a company that cuts corners in these ways.  More importantly, when staff feel undervalued, they are likely to suffer from poor morale and motivation, so they’re not likely to do the best job.

Poor Communication

While you probably won’t fire your janitorial service for neglecting a task on the rare occasion, their responsiveness to your complaints and concerns is important.  They should have a clear system in place for dealing with customer concerns, but if response time is excessively long, move along.  You want to have good and open lines of communication with all the contractors you employ.

Consistency

Janitorial services really need to be consistent.  When you first meet with potential cleaners, you likely drew up a cleaning contract that clearly stipulates what tasks need to be done and when.  You also likely laid out expectations about the quality of the work too.  Ultimately, you want to get what you pay for, so if your janitorial service is not meeting your needs, it’s probably time to fire them.

Apathy

You can learn a lot from a janitorial contractor just from the way they treat you and their employees.  They’re constantly treating their staff poorly, they are unresponsive to your communications, and their cleaning is inconsistent – maybe they just don’t care about you or your business.  If it seems like your janitor just doesn’t care about properly cleaning your facility or ensuring you’re satisfied with you’re work, a timely “you’re fired!” is in order.

Finding the Right Janitorial Service

Of course, many of the problems above can be avoided by taking special care to hire a quality janitorial service.  Ask friends and colleagues for referrals, and always ask potential cleaners for references.  Read our post What to Look for in a Janitorial Company. Meet with all short-listed candidates to discuss your cleaning needs and the services you offer.  Also, avoid long-term commitments and contracts that you can’t get out of if the janitor isn’t up to snuff.