If one of your pending tasks is hiring a janitorial service, you will need a quick lesson on making the right choice. There is a huge diversity of cleaning services. Some do residential. Some do commercial. Some do industrial, and some do specialty jobs like medical offices and restaurants. One of the other factors is that some are small services with a few accounts and others are large services with hundreds of accounts. It is not as easy as picking up the Yellow pages and selecting an attractive ad.

Frankly, there are good and bad janitorial services in big and small firms. Larger firms must maintain a large pool of business replacing one they lose with another account. To accomplish this, they often have sales people or account managers. In some cases, you cleaning concerns seem less valuable to a company mostly interested in account acquisition. The smaller firm can deliver a quality of service like the larger firms, but is more vulnerable to economic issues. In the business, there is always new companies starting and other companies closing their doors. Therefore, one of the considerations is the kind of commitment the service gives to your building.

Let’s be honest. It costs more to run a large janitorial firm. There is a need to hire more staff, sales people, and managers to keep the operation functioning well. Large firms may have move the 50-100 accounts. They must operate well on many levels to handle the businesses they service happy. Beware of large companies who promise the world to get your business then do poor work afterwards. These companies bid low because they do not intend to give you quality service, but to ride out the contract with as little expense possible. Conversely, small companies may be ill-prepared to handle the needs of your company, and you get the flack.

Conversely, the small company struggles to provide a level of service compared to the bigger operations. They may not have the depth of manpower, training, and equipment that you will find in the large services. If the key people are ill or out of commission, the business is directly impacted. As you can see, it is often a trade off between pricing and support. The company that can span both issues will be the winner.

Choosing a janitorial service is therefore not as simple as sending out an RFP (Request for Proposals), doing a walk-through with vendors, and selecting the lowest bid. There are a variety of important decisions that must be made before choosing a janitorial service. In my opinion, taking the lowest bid is the wrong way to select a company even though they claim to be able to service the account as described in the RFP.

Ask yourself what you really want from a janitorial service. Most people have not thought this through, and as a result, they have often been aggravated and disappointed in the janitorial service they get. I have prepared a report that I feel is an absolute necessity for anyone to read prior to hiring a service or putting out an RFP. This report can be found at www.greenjanitor.net. This is a brief and to-the-point information resource that even provides a sample RFP for those who want to do it right the first time.

The lagging question that is becoming a more important issue is that your janitorial service should be providing a bona fide Green program for your office. More and more cities and states are pressing for companies to “Go Green.” Here’s a clue. It starts with a Green janitorial service. My report at www.greenjanitor.net will explain how to get your building GCI Green Building certified as well. If you really want to find a good janitorial service, do your homework first, and you will eliminate a lot of headaches later.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Share This