Have you ever thought to yourself - If I only made sure of all the facts before I went ahead?
If you are like me, I am sure there are many times this has happened.
Recently, my partner and I built a new house and not knowing that everything was included became a big thing. Some of the things we encountered were:
- The allocation for the tiles. All builders work off a set amount per square metre for the cost of the tiles and in our case, this was $35.00 per square metre. Now I am not sure about you but the variety of tiles that falls within this range is very limited and in the end, the tiles ended up costing a lot more than what was budgeted for. To add more cost to this it was also raised that the waterproofing covered the most basic area and if we tiled a larger area then this would cost more – another budget blowout.
- The lighting in the house, or should I say the lack of it. When it came to the fit-out of the electrical work in the house it quickly came to light (no pun intended) that the allocation of one light in a large room was in no way sufficient. We were uneducated when it came to the cost of adding in a light, however, we were quickly educated, and believe me, it costs a lot.
Now you may ask what does this have to do with cleaning. From many years in the commercial cleaning industry, I have seen many times that if there was clarity in what is to be cleaned, when it was to be cleaned and the expected standard to be achieved then you, the client, would be clear and more than likely happy with the cleaning being performed.
Having clarity with what is supposed to happen, when it should occur, and the expected outcome will result in everybody being able to get the cleaning done.
So, how do you achieve clarity? Here are 3 steps you should take before hiring a commercial cleaner:
1. Scope of works
It seems obvious, and like the example above if we only had a clear scope of works for the building of the house, we could have prevented the budget blowouts, and this is the same when it comes to the cleaning scope of works for your business.
I understand that it might be simple to just say “I just want my office cleaned”, however as there are many people involved in the process, having a well laid out, detailed and clear scope of works will benefit everyone involved in the process.
After all, cleaning can be quite subjective – if you ask ten people to define cleaning, you will get ten different answers.
Without going into the many details that a scope of works should contain, I will add it needs to be broken down and detailed, room by room and area by area. One of the most important things to be included is the frequency of each area to be cleaned. However, our experience is that it also needs to be clear how much labour is to be allocated to the site each clean.
2. Scope creep
This is the one thing that does seem to cause the most frustration. Whilst it is important to have a clear scope of works, it is even more important to keep it up to date. One of the mistakes we did make when building the house was not getting everything in writing, you know “trusting the builder” and we see this a lot when we are talking with a prospective client. The scope of works, if any, has been changed frequently over time without having it in writing.
At In-Tec Commercial Cleaning Brisbane, our experience has taught us that no matter how small an item may be, if it is to be added to the scope of works then it must be noted in writing.
After all, there are many people involved in delivering the cleaning to your site and things can easily fall through the cracks.
If there is a change to what is to be cleaned or how often it is to be cleaned, have it noted and added to the scope of works. This way, if someone moves on, either from your team or ours then everything is clear.
3. Price adjustment
I know, none of us want to talk about money, especially the cleaning company asking you for the budget to increase.
This can be the most important part of the whole process. Hopefully, the original scope of works was costed and then priced correctly. However, if the additional items being added are going to have the flow-on effect of extra labour, equipment or materials then you should expect the budget to change. I see so many times that things are added to the scope of works and there is no budget increase, resulting in the added items trying to be included in the labour allocated to the site. This always results in something not being cleaned properly or simply put, a drop in the standard across the whole site.
This is not to say that sometimes things can be included and have no effect on the budget, items as simple as an extra bin in an area, or the introduction of something like an iMop that can result in a productivity gain across the whole site resulting in a labour-saving that covers this, however, both you and your cleaning company need to cover off on what changes it may have and again, have it in writing.
I hope the above has explained why we all need clarity. If you would like to talk to a cleaning company that values clarity, especially when it comes to the scope of works, scope creep or the pricing, then reach out to the team at In-Tec Commercial Cleaning Brisbane and we can start the conversation.
