| How to Hire a Janitorial Service |
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| Written by Wayne Pozdol |
| Thursday, 24 July 2008 20:33 |
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If one of your pending tasks is hiring a janitorial service, you will need a quick lesson on making the right choice. There is a huge diversity of cleaning services. Some do residential. Some do commercial. Some do industrial, and some do specialty jobs like medical offices and restaurants. One of the other factors is that some are small services with a few accounts and others are large services with hundreds of accounts. It is not as easy as picking up the Yellow pages and selecting an attractive ad. The fact is that a small or a large cleaning service can do the job for most normal buildings. Smaller janitorial firms will generally be less expensive, but larger janitorial firms promise more in support and associated services. It is easier to check the track record of an existing firm, whereas smaller firms may have only a year or two of business to research. Looking for quality of workmanship is an important factor in any company that you hire, and you want more than a spurt of good service at the beginning. Few firms will do more than check references (which are hand picked from their best customers), but it would be good to know how they handle a company like yours before you make your choice. Let's be honest. It costs more to run a large janitorial firm. There is a need to hire more staff, sales people, and managers to keep the operation functioning well. Large firms may have move the 50-100 accounts. They must operate well on many levels to handle the businesses they service happy. Beware of large companies who promise the world to get your business then do poor work afterwards. These companies bid low because they do not intend to give you quality service, but to ride out the contract with as little expense possible. Conversely, small companies may be ill-prepared to handle the needs of your company, and you get the flack. The debate over small versus large janitorial services will never be resolved. Big cleaning services have more to offer, and small cleaning services will often be more price competitive while promising to bring superior cleaning effort. Large or small, quality is the prime issue, and it is one of the hardest issues to discover as you look over the proposals that you will receive. Advertising, by the way, is not about telling the truth, but impressing the customer with their promise. The classic way of choosing a janitorial service is to prepare an RFP (Request for Proposal) or collect a variety of quotes for the job. The RFP is a prepared report that details the job, expectations, and requirements so that everyone is bidding on a equal footing. Quotes generally ask the service to do the job using standard processes. Both methods collect final pricing to determine who will be considered for the contract. Unfortunately, this reduces the task to the "low bid" mentality that frankly sends the wrong signal to the competing firms. Most people aren't looking for cut-rate service, but the best service for the money. There is a need to raise the more valuable question to the top in any janitorial bid situation. Can or will the selected company do a good and reliable job for you at a reasonable price? Life has enough confusion already. Why hire a company that will add to your aggravation and leave you will disappointed expectations? I suggest that you read my report on "How to Hire a Janitorial Service" as a free download at www.GreenJanitor.net. I have prepared a ten page report that includes a sample RFP so that you can make a better choice of janitorial service this time. There is another issue that must be including in any janitorial choice. States and cities are now pressuring area companies to "Go Green." This start, quite frankly, with your janitorial service. In conjunction with your other considerations, you must insist on a janitorial service that does more than mouth service for Green services. In the report found at www.greenjanitor.net, I include an important section on how to determine if your janitorial service is really Green, or a Green pretender. Believe me, the pressure for companies to Go Green is going to be a huge issue, and your cleaning service is an important key to the solution. About the Author: Before you hire a janitorial service, you must to download my report on "How to Hire a Janitorial Service. Avoid mistakes and make the smart choice that will make your life better, your office cleaner, and your workers healthier. Your company depends on a clean workplace and a healthy environment. Kindly provided by MoneyHunter.org You are welcome to use this article on your own website, if you include the link just before this text. |