Is my office cleaner doing a good job?
If you run a business, you'll need professional office cleaners. It makes sense – to be successful, you can't be a jack (or jill) of all trades – you need to specialise; you need to do what you do best.
But how do you know if your office cleaning is getting done right? Cleaning a workplace is different from cleaning a home – it needs extra attention to detail to make sure that everything will pass muster when a customer crosses your door.
Floors need to be spotless; trash needs to be regularly collected, windows need to be crystal clear, and let’s not go into how pristine a public bathroom should be if you want customers to remain loyal.
Word of mouth about dirty business premises spreads fast (particularly if you are running a restaurant or beauty business) – if your office cleaning company isn't doing a great job, it could be costing you money. Here are five ways you can tell if it's time to hire someone else.
Management just doesn’t care. Often, you’ll hire an office cleaner on the strength of their management company’s bona fides. But if you never see or hear from the company's representative again, it could be cause for worry. The best cleaning services will follow up with you every few weeks to make sure you're happy with the cleaning and get your feedback about what they could improve. Those that don't aren't concerned with excellent customer service – which means you could be in for problems down the track should you have an issue.
Your cleaners are will-o-the-wisps. Not to be confused with extra efficient office cleaners who seems to have a superhuman ability to get the job done beautifully in next to no time, the will-o-the-wisp cleaner will spend as little time as possible on your premises before running out the door to their next booking. Their boss could overbook them, or they simply don't care – either way, you're getting a cleaning service that’s subpar.
They’re not prepared. Most office cleaning companies equip their staff with the right tools to get the job done. If your cleaner arrives without these tools or products to do the work to your complete and contracted satisfaction, it’s time to find one that is more prepared.
They miss stuff. This is a no-brainer: if you're regularly noticing things that aren't being cleaned – the odd floor is still dirty, bins are overflowing with rubbish, there are dirty tiles in the bathroom or dust on the reception desk – then you're not getting your money's worth. Call the company and ask what's going on – it may be that you need to get the cleaners in more often or they're just not doing what they said they would in the time allotted.
Stuff goes missing. It's normal that things get mislaid in an office environment – there's a lot of people coming and going, and sometimes things get broken. But if you’re finding things go missing or get damaged on a regular basis, your cleaning staff might be to blame. A professional office cleaning service will be happy to walk you through their employee screening process for added peace of mind and will have indemnity insurance to cover any major damage done by their people. If you’re still not satisfied, request a different cleaner service your premises, or change companies.