How to Hire a Janitorial Service
June 12, 2008
You may have never considered how complicated hiring a good janitorial service can be. However, if you have had a bad experience with a janitorial service, you already know that it is very possible to make a bad choice that makes a portion of your life miserable. There is a lot of diversity in janitorial services. One of the most obvious is the smaller hard-working company that really wants your business, or the larger company that promises to take care of you better.
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.
Large companies often have a sales force or account managers. This adds to the cost because larger companies have overhead to maintain the operation of a firm that may have 50-100 accounts. The challenge of the large firm is to stay in touch with the people on the job. One lost deal is not as dramatic to a big firm as it is to the smaller service because the sales force will replace that business. Large firms must look at the big picture in gross business which can leave the client feeling disconnected from issues that concern them.
Small companies are hungry for business and often anxious to prove that they are as good as the large companies. Frankly, they may not have the resources of manpower, equipment, or training as the larger janitorial firms, but you cannot beat the value of someone who will give you their best efforts to clean your office or building. While price will always be a factor, the most valuable element of any janitorial service is the quality of job they do after they get the contract.
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.
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