Choosing a
Janitorial Service Provider

Choosing a provider of janitorial services can be a daunting task. You want to get the best possible value for your money, while at the same time getting consistent, impressive results that don't compromise quality. How can this be accomplished? By examining each potential janitorial services provider with a keen, critical eye, you can ask yourself questions about each potential company to help you weed out the poor choices and hone in on the best choice for your business.

The first thing you should do when contacted by a janitorial services provider is to ask for a website URL. If the company is too small to take the time or expense to create a quality website, then they are probably going to be too small for many jobs. What's more, they might not be able to afford full-time employees, due to the insurance costs, payroll taxes, and other costs associated with having full-time employees on staff. If this is the case, then they are probably using subcontractors. This means that the people cleaning your business are not actually employees of the cleaning company, and therefore are not covered by insurance, and might not be getting paid fair wages. Without worker's compensation insurance, you can be held liable and financially responsible for any injuries the subcontractor sustains at your facility. What's more, the company might not even know these subcontractors, and it is unlikely they have trained them in their standards and common practices in any way. This is inadvisable for your business for a number of reasons. The cleaning is more likely to be substandard, theft or unauthorized use of your office equipment (phones, computers, etc.) is more likely to occur, and if you do have a problem with an individual's performance or behavior, your concerns might never even get relayed to the actual person cleaning your office. For these reasons, it is inadvisable to choose a company that gives the impression of being a small, fledgling company. You may be charged less, but in the long run you will most likely regret not choosing a larger, well-established company that has been around long enough to perfect its approach.

If you are searching for companies in search engines, then of course every company you find will have a website. Explore the website a bit. Are they Licensed, Bonded, and Insured? (Three important words to look for!) Do they have sufficient contact information? Will they be available to take your calls or e-mails after hours or on weekends? What may seem like minor, unimportant details now may become extremely important if an emergency arises, so take the time now to make sure there won't be any problems communicating.

Lastly, when it comes time for collecting price quotes, or bids so that you can make a decision, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, never even consider a company that is not willing to come out to your physical location and calculate a free estimate for you. If they are willing to make you an offer based on square footage alone, without even seeing the facility, then they are going to overestimate the price in order to compensate for any unforeseen obstacles that may exist and cause cleaning to take longer. Also, if a company shows such laziness and lack of effort before you are even their customer, do you really want to enter into a contract with them? While we're on the subject of contracts, never enter into a contract that is extremely hard to get out of. Requiring more than 30 days notice in order to get out of a contract, or demanding money if the contract is broken, are scenarios that you do not have to and should not put up with. There are plenty of companies out there that will not ask these things of you, so why trap yourself in an unreasonable contract if you don't have to?

Now that you know
what to look for,
you should be able to use
a discerning eye 
to choose the best janitorial services company available
that will give you the
best bang for your buck.

Good luck!