Cleanliness is essential to the day-to-day operations of everybody. Customers and clients always appreciate a clean location, and the employees who are there every day are always more productive when professionals handle the cleaning. A clean workspace is a productive workspace, after all.

With so many cleaning companies just a phone call away, it can be hard to know which one to contact when you are in need. General Facility Care LLC is here to cut through the clutter and give you tips on what to look for in a commercial cleaning company. Before long, you’ll know how to distinguish the good ones from the best ones.

Do They Offer Numerous Cleaning Services?

No matter the type of facility you operate, you need a cleaning company that offers a wide array of cleaning services. You need someone to vacuum, steam clean, deodorize the carpets in the office, and buff the floors in the lobby. You need someone that can clean the hard-to-reach ducts and vents without issue. The best cleaning companies make life easier for you by offering all of these services and more.

When a company offers a list of the services they offer and the equipment they carry,  you get a sense that they’re more than capable of undertaking any cleaning assignment that comes their way. If they seem hesitant to perform certain services, it might be a sign that they aren’t the right cleaners for the job.

Do Your Cleaners Value Health and Safety?

It is in every professional cleaning company’s job description to worry about the grit, grime, and visible stains on surfaces—but is that all they should care about? In this day and age, being health-conscious should be every cleaning company’s top priority. Look for the cleaning company whose team explicitly states that they abide by current health guidelines and more. It isn’t enough to just worry about the visible stains. Cleaners should take the lingering germs and bacteria into account, too.

Sanitization and disinfecting services are more than essential today. Make sure your cleaning company is up to date on the latest protocols. How diligent they are should tell you how diligent they are in other aspects of their profession, too.

Are the Cleaners Experienced?

With experience comes expertise. Browse a cleaning company’s website to find out when they entered the world of commercial cleaning. If a cleaning company has been operational for quite some time, it is a good sign that they’ve refined their practices over the years.

That said, there are a lot of new cleaning companies that bring years and years of past work experience to the table, so don’t pass up a company just because they only recently opened their doors to the public. Professional experience is just one of the many things to take into consideration!

What Are Their Hiring Practices?

A cleaning company might have one single founder, but underneath the team leader are a host of employees. Feel free to ask the cleaning company about their hiring practices. Do they perform background checks on their employees, offer insurance to protect individuals—and clients—on the job? Information like this will tell you a lot about the cleaners and the company as a whole. The integrity of the company’s workforce depends on the integrity of the company’s founders and managers.

Do They Use Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products?

Cleaning companies bring their equipment and cleaning products to your facility. It is worth finding out what sort of products they use to sanitize and scrub the surfaces in your facility, especially if you operate an industrial facility with exposed metals vulnerable to corrosion. Do they know which cleaning products are best for your expensive countertops or the carpet installed throughout the office areas? Never hesitate to ask them.

What Is Their Online Presence Like?

A cleaning company that has a strong online presence is a company that cares about its reach and visibility within the community. Do they update their website regularly? Is it easy to find their contact information? The more you can find out about a company before contacting them directly, the easier it will be to determine which cleaners are worth calling.

Read Their Online Reviews

Whether or not a company has a strongly managed online presence, they should have a decent number of online reviews on websites like Yelp, Facebook, or their Google My Business page. On these websites, you’ll get a chance to see exactly what discerning customers think of their cleaning services. Are the cleaners thorough? Do they overcharge and tack hidden fees onto the regular invoices? Do they follow proper health guidelines? With any luck, you’ll be able to find more than a few answers to these questions.

The cleaning companies that are active on social media will often follow up with responses to these customer reviews. Reading these responses is a great way to see how a company deals with customers on a day-to-day basis. Do they thank the appreciated customers for their rave reviews? Do they take criticism in stride, offer apologies, or invite the clients to speak further over the phone to discuss refunds? Any cleaning company that treats its clients with respect and consideration is always a company worth working with.

Ask for References

Unless they are a newly established cleaning company, any solid team of cleaners should have a number of previous commercial clients whose names they could offer as references. If they’re unable to provide you with references, that might be a sign that they’re not a company people enjoy working with.

Speak to Professional Cleaners

Do you feel a little more confident in your abilities to vet the commercial cleaning companies in your area? Are there some other tips that you feel we should mention in an upcoming blog post? Sound off in the comments below, or contact us at (813) 280-5300 to speak with our team. Whether you are a potential client or a fellow cleaning aficionado, we always pick up the phone.