Evaluating a Janitorial Company’s Performance by their Quality Control Program
According to a survey published in January 2001 by Contracting Profits Magazine, 40 percent of business service contractors said they lost accounts because customers just weren’t satisfied with their services. Often, when a company gets a new cleaning contract, they will go in and do a start up and really deep clean the building. The ideal goal then is to keep it as clean as it originally was at the start up. This does not always happen. “It’s no secret that after the first few months in a new job, service tends to taper off, but contractors who have quality checks in place to catch that slide and correct it, will benefit from longer lasting relationships than the industry average,” says CEO Steve Healis of Avalong Building Maintenance, Anaheim, California.
“Quality Checks”, or a quality control program is key to maintaining a consistent, high quality cleaning service year after year. Without a systematic and effective cleaning routine and regular supervision to ensure that the routine is carried out, it is inevitable that the quality of work will slide, or at the very least fluctuate in quality. This can be very frustrating to the business owner or facilities manager who has every right to expect that the quality remains consistent.
As a part of the bidding process, business owners and managers should ask the companies about their quality control procedures before deciding who to award the contract to. How do they train and motivate their employees to do quality work? What constitutes their cleaning routine? Does it track the regular basics and extra detail work that needs done at regular intervals? Do the cleaning personnel follow a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly check list of required cleaning tasks to ensure they are not skipped or put off? How are employees supervised; how often is their work checked? What cleaning products and equipment are used in the cleaning; are these chemicals effective and conducive to a healthy environment and good air quality?
Choosing a cleaning contractor is no easy task. References are one of the best indicators to ensure that a company is at least “good and reliable” for the most part, but that is only a part of the picture. References do little good if the references are from businesses who are satisfied with mediocre cleaning. Believe it or not, many people really are not that concerned with how clean their building is, and they do not notice when the cleaning is substandard. Other aspects of a good working relationship are more important to these clients than a high standard of cleanliness in their facility. References from these folks will be very misleading.
Without an effective quality control program in place, even “good” companies can experience fluctuations in the quality of their cleaning. The best way to avoid these “slides” in quality is to make sure that the company you contract has a quality control program in place and has a proven track record that they can carry it out.
Tags: Choosing, Cleaning Company Search, Quality