How Do You Go About Employing A Contract Cleaner Into Your Business

Having spotlessly clean business premises is a sign of a well-run business, and a good contract cleaner! It gives a good impression to visitors, provides a good environment for staff to work in, and more and more is a legal requirement due to ever stricter Health and Safety Regulations.

So how do you go about finding a good contract cleaner that suits you and can provide the level of service that you want, at a price that you like?

What do you want?

The first thing to decide is what you actually want. The basics of any contract are what you want cleaning and how often. Obviously this will depend on what kind of business you are running, and how much ‘traffic’ you have coming through your premises during a working week. You could be looking at cleaning at the end of every business day, or maybe once a week or less, if you have a very small workforce.

The next thing to consider are what’s know as the ‘add ons’. Do you want sanitary services provided, along with consumables such as soap, hand towels and air fresheners?

And what about things like entrance mats? And do you want your windows cleaning?

Being able to answer all these questions will help you build up a specification that you can get people to quote on.

Who do you ask?

Obviously, the first port of call for people looking for a service these days is a Search Engine, but Yellow Pages, and other business directories are still widely used. You will find that there will be a selection of local suppliers along with companies that operate nationally, although generally speaking, the cleaning business is still pretty fragmented.

Needless to say, it’s always good to get a recommendation. If you’re on a business estate, it’s good to quiz your neighbours and check out who they are using. The nearest Chamber of Commerce is also a good source of local knowledge.

What should you be looking for?

The most important thing with any cleaning company is their staff. You need to ask them about their employment record and get some idea of the culture that they have with their employees. After all, it is the employees who are actually going to be in your offices, probably working unsupervised for most of the time, so you need to be confident that these people will do a good job and not be a security risk. You will also need to know that the staff are checked upon regularly, and it’s vital to determine what the ratio of supervisors to cleaning teams is.

In addition, you should investigate their quality control systems. Some companies profess to use Quality Audits, but in reality, they are only paying lip service: you must be confident that the company is making formal checks on the quality of the work that is being carried out, so that you in turn can monitor quality.

Having got an idea of the quality of the operation on offer, you can then start investigating price, and like most things in life, don’t automatically choose the cheapest one!

You will also need to ascertain how responsive the company will be to any issues and problems that may crop up. It’s inevitable that things won’t happen exactly as you want from time-to-time, so you’ll need to know that you have open lines of communication with the company, and that you will get a prompt response.

And don’t forget…

Of course, don’t forget to take up references – this is a crucial part of the process and is an area that should never be skimped on.

For further information on Contract Cleaning in the Northamptonshire area, please ring 01604 638 648 or email sales@calibercleaning.co.uk