Companies with outstanding customer service will often prioritize the needs of their customers. They’ll ask the fundamental question, “Is our product or service meeting or exceeding client expectations?” If a janitorial company isn’t taking the time to consider how the cleaning impacts the customer, then chances are the service will be of poor quality. When a workplace isn’t sufficiently clean, it’s the customer who takes on added burden. When sanitation has become unacceptable, it’s the client who receives complaints from their customers or staff. They are placed in the unenviable position of playing messenger…forced to spend time sending emails or making phone calls to get the problem solved. This is but one of the many hidden costs of bad commercial cleaning. We’ll dive in more reasons below.
How Cut-Rate or the Cheapest Services can Lead to Bad Cleaning
Often the lowest bidding commercial cleaning company will have the least responsive customer service. In order to get the price down, cut-rate cleaning companies will get creative when trying to reduce their expenses. One of the easiest reductions is managerial support.
However, various challenges can arise from time to time and this is when managerial guidance is crucial. When no one is available to respond, badly managed janitorial gets exposed. At moments when you need them the most, the cheapest cleaning service might not have anyone available. As a result, you reach someone’s voice mail or your email goes unanswered for days. Meanwhile, no action is being taken to remedy the situation. Not good!
Poor Communication = Bad Commercial Cleaning
As a business owner or manager you expect a clean workplace. After all, it’s what you’re paying for. But when a facility suffers cleaning challenges, how do you know when it’s time to pick up the phone? Most (reasonable) business professionals don’t enjoy having to make complaints. It can be time-consuming, disappointing, and frustrating.
Good communication up front is necessary in order for the cleaning service to operate smoothly. If a vendor is not proactive and does not explain the cleaning services or provide a scope of work, this can lead to an uninformed client, and a mismatch in expectations.
Conversely, a good commercial cleaning company will establish a customer service contact person up front. The customer knows who to contact and how. This crucial relationship is established early on. Any problems that arise are addressed in a timely manner.
Mismanaged Commercial Cleaning has No Plan
Ready for another hidden cost of bad cleaning? Go ahead, take another sip of coffee. We’ll wait. (This one is important). Cut-rate cleaning services can be directionless, and operate with no real plan for maintaining a quality, consistent level of cleanliness. Proactive management is what separates good cleaning companies from the bad ones.
Having a clear plan is vital for the safety and security of both the cleaning crew and your business. Cleaning involves working with, and managing people. Sometimes this is done across multiple languages. A cleaning vendor should establish the appropriate actions to take should an emergency come up.
Examples of policies and procedures that a business and it’s cleaning vendor should establish right away include:
- Alarm protocols
- After hours emergency contacts
- Fire and flood procedure
- Reporting vandalism
Questionable Quality Control: a Hallmark of Poor Cleaning
Another consequence of reduced managerial support? Nobody is checking the cleaning crew’s work. If you’re experiencing bad cleaning, you should ask yourself, when was the last time a customer service person checked in, called or stopped by? Can’t recall? Not surprising. This can be a red-flag for bad service.
At the expense of the customer, some cleaning companies will take short-cuts on the cleaning itself in order to reduce costs. The result: fast, loose, and neglectful cleaning. Let’s break down some of the most common examples….
The Biggest Hidden Cost: Permanent Damage to Flooring, Carpeting, Walls and Other Surfaces
We saved the best for last. As mentioned previously, poor quality cleaning is often full of shortcuts. This can lead to various surfaces becoming permanently degraded or damaged. Examples of time-saving shortcuts include: minimal dusting, infrequent vacuuming, or a complete lack of mopping. Overtime, this can take a toll on your facility. Here are common examples:
Carpet replacement. Eventually a lack of vacuuming and carpet spot cleaning will shorten the lifespan of the carpet. Stains become permanent. Carpet fibers become damaged via friction from foot traffic. Debris such as dirt, small rocks, and other abrasives from shoes can get repeatedly ground into the fibers.
Floor replacement: a lack of mopping can eventually lead to the degredation of hard surface floors. When neglected and left to accumulate, dirt, oils, and grime attract more dirt. Beyond the eyesore aesthetics, this can lead to a chipping away at a floor’s sealer. Restrooms that aren’t mopped can suffer from dirty tile and grout. Urine can stain floor tiles, and even erode paint from surrounding walls.
That wraps up our list of the hidden costs of bad cleaning. We don’t want to part ways without mentioning one more final hidden cost of bad cleaning: they’ll use your paper towels for the cleaning service. Hint: they should be using their own microfiber rags and paper towels. This is just costing you money.
Have questions? At Business Cleaning Solutions we’re always happy to chat!