Lowest Bidder
According to a Contracting Profits magazine survey, an interesting point was made regarding beliefs about cost effectiveness. Facilities managers consider cost-effective services those that provide the highest quality for the best price. The lowest bidder does not always provide the best quality. When facility managers were asked what it would take to sign up a contractor who was higher than their budget, only 18.8 percent said they never go higher.
In our experience, most businesses do go with the lowest bidder, but that does not exclude the “possibility” that if they preferred a higher bidder they would go with them if they believed the cost to be justified. The most common reason for choosing a janitorial company whose price is higher than budget is if better measurable service points are evident. Higher quality materials, good references and excellent on-site inspections convince some facility managers to consider higher-priced cleaning contractors.
The article in Contracting Profits also states that “Despite popular belief, price isn’t the top concern for most decision makers when it comes to choosing the right contractor. Respondents said the No. 1 factor in accepting a bid was the extent to which the contractor meets their facility’s unique needs. A close second was the experience a contractor has in their specific type of facility. Price was third.”
These responses may not be completely honest. It goes without saying that contractors must meet the “minimal” requirements before even being considered. In our experience price usually does become the most important factor in deciding who to award the bid based on who the qualified bidders are. This is true for almost all government contracts, unless they must give priority to minority business, and it is most often the case for private contracts because the bottom line is almost always the determining criteria.
The next question is: to what extent do these bidders excel in meeting the above performance requirements? There can be a huge difference in the quality of the bidding companies’ services and performance factors, and unfortunately for the client, shortcomings in quality do not become apparent until after they have been awarded the contract and the company has been cleaning a while. As suggested in the above article, the company’s character, its business practices and the way in which their employees are treated is also something worth considering, and it undoubtedly reflects the quality of the contractor’s services and actual cleaning performance.
In our opinion, another important point to consider when evaluating cleaning contractors is how they take care of their employees. What are their employees being paid? Do they receive benefits relative to what the company can afford? Unfortunately, many businesses who pride themselves in looking out for their own employees in terms of providing living wages, benefits and good working conditions, do not feel responsible for the janitor who is cleaning their building who works for the contractor. There is a direct connection between what a client will pay for contracted cleaning services and what the contractor can afford to pay their workers. Some government facilities require that the contracted janitors be paid a certain wage before they award a contract. If private businesses practiced this policy, it may cost them a little more for the cleaning service, but they would be showing a higher level of social responsibility to the janitors who clean their buildings, and it would most probably benefit the clients themselves. Studies show that higher paid workers who receive benefits usually experience greater job satisfaction, take more pride in their work, feel greater loyalty to their employer, and this usually results in a higher quality of work performance and lower turnover rate. This applies to cleaning personnel as well.