Top 10 Cleaning Service Solutions to Common Questions

 

We get asked all the time about our cleaning. Many of our competitors do different things and it can be puzzling. But we have the solutions. Most of these questions are around a problem or pain point that location is experiencing. Below is our Top 10 ranked from years of past experience.

1) What do you plan to do for our facility?

There are variants of this question but at the end of the day our future clients want to know exactly what you'll do for them. Moreover, they want to know HOW you'll do these tasks. If you're vacuuming, is it wall-to-wall vacuuming or is it just spot vacuuming? If the cleaning company is cleaning desks, is it the entire desk or are you only cleaning desks that you think are being used? 

Clean Line Janitorial Services includes a Scope of Work within each and every proposal so you can exactly see what is included and what isn't included, down to each room/area and even to the task and its frequency. We build this Scope of Work based on your expressed requests and we'll fill in the gaps based on our experience in cleaning facilities just like yours. 

2) Is your staff vetted and background checked?

We hear the horror stories all the time. There's a high level of trust placed within our industry and it only takes one bad apple to ruin that trust. Earlier this year, a Houston janitor placed cameras in staff restrooms at the elementary school he worked at.  In another example, an airport janitor stole $60,000 in Rolex watches. At least I hope he looked good while mopping...in prison.

Every worker, regardless of status, gets background checked. We use a 3-step interview process, including due diligence on contacting past contacts, work history, social media reviews, immigration status, character reference checks, criminal and civil history to determine whether or not the worker is a good fit. Moreover, you may have your own background check requirements. In addition to our own checks, we're more than open to using your system or process too. 

3) Do you use green cleaning products?

This question is asked either out of concern of added chemicals on site or is asked because that facility is pursuing a larger plan or goal of some sort of certification process, like LEED. Even if we don't have a plan for helping certify your location through some sort of process, we will still use green cleaning products at your location. These products are typically either certified by Green Seal, Ecologo, EPA's Safer Choice, and/or The Carpet and Rug Institute. We'll also apply these products using best practices in the green cleaning movement. 

4) Will you work around our dynamic schedule at our location?

Absolutely. Your needs are unique to you and your location. Because you're evolving, we have to do the same. You have a late night meeting with the team to discuss next quarter's goals? No problem, let us know and we'll adjust our time. You have the annual office holiday party on a day we normally don't clean, but you need the office clean by the next day? Perfect. Let us know a day and time you'll be done and we'll work around your schedule. Whatever is going on, we will continue to take care of your facility with little or no disruptions. 

5) Our last cleaning company never supervised. How will you keep on top of cleaning here?

This is probably the #2 asked or voiced concern. Short answer is Yes! How? We accomplish this in a few ways. First, we do routine supervision at every location. This is accomplished through our owners down to the supervisory level. Next, we are ALWAYS open to joint walkthroughs in the mornings should you like to do one with us. Some of our clients prefer that hands-on approach. Some don't and that's ok. Our communication between workers and supervisors are top notch. We do internal surveys using a 50+ point checklist we created specifically for your location. Moreover, we'll send random surveys out to you to get your perspective of the cleaning. We track these metrics on both micro and macro levels to keep the gears turning on a terrific clean. If there are shortcomings on our end, we'll do our best to correct them and we'll communicate that to you, including regular follow-ups to make sure we're on target. 

6) With the economy up and down, including the labor market, how will you keep on top of staffing?

Our many mantras include, "hire before you need to hire". We keep tabs on the labor market by analyzing what our competitors pay their staff. We pull this data from both jobs sites like Indeed, as well as Bureau of Labor Statistics data for the service industry. We also track the Consumer Price Index for Wage Earners (CPI-W) to see where the trends are going. We also pay above average. Because we know the wage data we are able to offer an above-average competitive wage. It's our experience that turnover is very low. Despite that, we do encourage our employees to go after greener pastures. We encourage it. We even tell them in our employment agreement to go after better paying gigs whenever possible. Their family comes first. But this employee-centric approach keeps us on our toes and affords us the knowledge to pay a fair wage. 

7) Will you lock us in a contract?

Have you ever signed a contract that you eventually regretted, only to learn you can't escape? I have and it's a terrible feeling! Some of our competitors are known to lock you into contacts for 1 year, 2 years, and sometimes up to 3 years, and when there's a chance to escape, you have to give them 30-60-90 days notice to do so. We think this business practice sucks! It's a terrible way to do business. 

We believe in the uncontract-contract, which makes us refreshingly different. What do I mean here? ALL of our contracts have an escape clause with NO PENALTIES whatsoever. You decide you need to hunker down on your budget and find a better alternative? No problem. Let us know and there's no penalty. You have a friend in the cleaning industry you'd like to hire instead? No problem. Let us know and there's no penalty. You decided to hire in-house instead of a cleaning company? No problem. Let us know and there's no penalty. Whatever the reason, let us know and we'll part ways with no penalties whatsoever. All we ask is a 15-day head's up so we can coordinate moving our supplies and equipment out and finding a new job for our employee. 

We do have contacts in place, but they all have this guarantee. We do a contract so we can lock in pricing for you during that time, guarantee the agreed-to scope of work, work schedule, and other aspects about our services. 

8) Do you offer transparent pricing or are there hidden fees?

Our agreements clearly spell out our monthly rate (or a rate per visit if weekly or less frequency). Sometimes there are listed upsells, like appliance cleaning, cleaning on non-scheduled days, or cleaning on holidays. But aside from that, there are no hidden fees, and our monthly invoices match the agreement. 

9) Security at our facility is very important to us. What are you doing to ensure our building remains secure?

Aside from hiring top staff, we do also have entry and egress procedures we follow at your facility. That's different from location to location, but we will work with whatever system you have in place to guarantee a safe and secured location. This includes turning off lights, setting alarms, tugging at secured doors, and walking the location to observe any suspicious activity while we're cleaning. If something were to happen, we have a process in place to report any incidents to you and to contact local authorities if needed. 

10) How expensive are cleaning services and how fast can a cleaning service clean?

Expensive is a subjective but I can speak on generalities on a local level. On average, for basic cleaning, the cost slides on a diminishing return, due to fixed costs like supplies, and a small office, like 1500-3500 sqft might be as high as $125/visit on a weekly basis. But if more frequent, then that cost slides downwards due to the added hours and could easily drop below $100/visit. More hours, the lower the rate. 

In a larger setting, then that rate goes even further because of the added time and frequency needs and nationwide a 25,000 sqft facility could average around $30/hour. There are many variables like local wages, supply needs, staffing, scope of work, and more. 

In terms of timing, that varies too by frequency, client niche, the scope of work, surface types, layout, and several others. Generally, the nationwide average for production rate is 2500 sqft per hour per person for hard floors (because they have to be mopped) to 3500 sqft per hour per person for carpet, and that includes all the time needed to do the other tasks in there as well. 

Keep in mind that cleaning services do cover expenses you were facing if you hired in-house, like insurances, labor, labor taxes, benefits, supplies, equipment, training, payroll processing, and more. Consider these expenses when interested in switching to a cleaning contractor. We can potentially save you money. 

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Clean Line Janitorial Services provides janitorial and porter services to facilities throughout the DC Metro Area. Give us a call to 703-541-9761 or email cleanlinejanitorialservices@gmail.com for your FREE, no-obligation comprehensive guide and proposal for services at your commercial office or facility.