How to Get Janitorial Services
Either you or your Office Manager are tired of cleaning the office. Or you’re no longer satisfied with the performance of your current cleaning team. You’re ready for a change. So what’s next?
In today’s blog post, we will discuss the steps you can take before you call us, and the steps we will take together after.
Before You Call Us
Know what you want. Have at least a draft checklist of the areas you want cleaned and what you want done to them. What chores do you hate? What do customers or employees complain about? Remember that if you need to reduce costs after you receive the bids, you will also need to reduce line items: prioritizing before you engage cleaners will make the process run smoothly.
Know your budget. Many Professional Janitorial Services are capable of building a custom scope of work that meets your most important needs and your budget— if they know what your budget is, and what your highest priority tasks are.
Know who’s providing what. You may want to keep furnishing paper products or chemicals because your distributor is giving you a killer deal. You may already have equipment: a janitor cart, a vacuum, a commercial mop and bucket. Or you may be starting from scratch. Here are the components of a clean: labor; equipment, including cloths and mop heads; disposables that your customers and staff use (paper towels, toilet paper, trash bags, hand soap, dish soap, etc.); laundering of cloths and mop heads; and disposables that the cleaners will use (chemicals, disinfectant wipes, etc).
Call at least three total companies, though five is a great best practice. A spread of three bids will give you a good idea of the market rate for the service, and will give you up to three different approaches to your janitorial problems. If you call five, a couple may not have room for you, not offer janitorial services, not service your area, or may not complete the bid process; calling five will likely get you all three completed bid packets.
The Bid Process
Schedule and complete walkthroughs. Professional Janitorial Services will want to walk through the space and see it first. They will discuss the conditions they find, your needs, the feedback you have gotten from customers and staff, and your draft checklist. They may also give you insight about their company.
Think big & get big results!
During the walkthrough, pay attention to your salesperson. Was she on time? Does she communicate effectively? Is she taking notes? What kinds of questions does she ask: does she seem technically proficient? Does she dress well? Even a cleaning uniform should be clean and neat. Does she thank you for the opportunity?
Our Bid Process
After we have conducted your walkthrough, you’ll usually just start seeing bid packets come in. We operate a little differently: we found that one extra step saves a lot of your time and ours, and gets you a better apples-to-apples comparison.
You request a walkthrough consult
We reach out and schedule it
We come and visit with you and tour the facility
Here’s where you would typically get a bid packet without further interaction. Here’s what we add:
We send you a draft checklist, custom built for your facility. This will become your official scope of work.
You either accept the checklist or make changes as you need.
Once we have finalized the scope of work, we issue your bid packet based on your actual needs and what it takes to meet them.
Ready to get started?
Amber Starling, Author
Founder and President of
Good Witch Cleaning Services, LLC
IICRC Journeyman Textile Cleaner