4 Common Problems You Can Find With Commercial Cleaning Companies

If you’re considering hiring a commercial cleaning company and have done any research on Google, you’ve probably seen some discussion of the problems associated with cleaning services.

The purpose of this article is to address, with full disclosure, 4 of the most common problems that arise with commercial cleaning. But we won’t leave you there. We’ll also discuss how these problems can be avoided by you and your cleaning service.

I do however want to point out that these “problems” are rare and are typically associated with specific types of cleaning companies.

At In-Tec, we are passionate about advocating the importance of having a commercial cleaning service for your business. With over 27 years of experience serving clients in Brisbane, we have intimate knowledge of the good and bad that can come along with a cleaning service.

Now, we can share this information with you in the hopes that you’ll never end up having to stress about constantly changing cleaning companies.

The most common cleaning service problems and solutions

Problem #1: Quality of Service

Like any service out there, there can be issues with the quality provided to you.

In terms of the cleaning industry, this can relate to:

• Missed cleaning tasks
• Uncompleted cleaning tasks
• A lack of communication

The first two points are simple.

If the cleaner has no scope of works to follow, they may forget to complete specific tasks or only half complete them.

Whenever we hire an individual or organisation to do a job at our house or workplace, we expect a certain level of communication. After all, communication ends up being a big part of the overall service provided.

With franchisee and contractor-based cleaning companies, you can often find that communication is non-existent. Or, it takes ages for your inquiry to actually be delivered to the appropriate person in the team.

Granted, these instances are typically isolated, but they can happen.

What’s the solution?

A good commercial cleaning company, typically those that are employee-centric, will have a solution in place if ever the quality of service wasn’t up to par.

Whether it be freshOps (In-Tec’s preferred application) or another form of tracking and monitoring system, this is the best way to solve the problem.

A system like freshOps allows the cleaner to check in and check out of the site which is visible to the administration team in the office. Most sites will also have small electronic checkpoints at each specific area e.g. lunchroom, downstairs amenities, that enables the cleaner to scan and check-in, and then scan to check-out once they’ve completed that area.

Another important feature of freshOps is that the cleaner’s entire scope of works for every site is included in the app. Once they complete a specific cleaning task, they can tick the box and move on to the next.

Not only this, but clients also have their own client portal of freshOps that shows them a run-down of all the completed activities done on their site, the next scheduled clean, and also a list of past services.

By having this form of access, the client can keep up to date with their regular cleaning. They also have the opportunity to leave any comments for the cleaner next time they turn up.

You can cross out those 3 problems above as a monitoring and tracking system takes care of it all!

Problem: quality of the service delivered.

Solution: ensure your cleaning company has a monitoring system that tracks the cleaners whilst on-site.

Problem #2: Modern Slavery

Unfortunately, some parts of the cleaning industry are riddled with what’s known as modern slavery.

This typically (but not always) refers to cleaning companies severely underpaying their staff below the standard award rates set by the Cleaning Services Award 2020. It can also include withholding their oncosts and leave entitlements.

In other words, they shortcut.

What does this mean for you (the client)?

Well, if the cleaning company you have employed are participating in modern slavery, then there will probably be less consistency and quality of service delivered to your site. Because the cleaners are underpaid, they most likely won’t have the drive, enthusiasm, or motivation to perform their job properly.

Think about it. If you were paid less than the minimum, would you still put in all the hard work 24/7?

And don’t get us wrong. It isn’t the cleaners fault for not consistently delivering a good job, it’s the cleaning companies responsibility for not paying them appropriately.

What’s the solution?

For your reference, the full cost for a commercial cleaning company to engage a cleaner (after considering leave entitlements and oncosts) is $39.07 an hour.

If you’re looking at hiring a cleaning service and want to find out what they pay their employees, ask them to show you a timesheet of one of their cleaners. If they aren’t willing to be transparent and show you, then they could be underpaying their staff.

So, if your current cleaning company is offering you around $39.07 or less for your hourly cleans, then they are underpaying their cleaners.

The solution to this would be to find a cleaning company that pays their staff correctly and by the award. After all, you don’t want to be in a partnership with a company that doesn’t respect or treat its staff properly.

Problem: cleaning companies underpaying their staff.

Solution: hire a cleaning company that will show you a real timesheet that proves they pay their staff correctly.

Problem #3: Cleaners Not Showing Up On Time

We all tend to get a little frustrated when something or someone doesn’t show up at the agreed time. What’s worse is when they don’t even show up.

Yes, sometimes things happen that are out of our control, and that’s totally fine.

But when there is no phone call or email to let us know that they’re running late, that’s when it gets a bit iffy.

In particular, for sole operator (mum and dad) cleaning companies, cleaners not turning up can sometimes be an issue. For instance, your cleaner could disappear overnight with no word of warning – this could leave your workplace without a cleaner for quite some time. This may be due to the cleaner receiving a job elsewhere, going on holiday, or getting sick. Because sole operators have just one person working or a duo, there’s generally nobody to replace them.

Though this can happen in a rare instance, it could be a problem you come across.

What’s the solution?

Similar to Problem #1, freshOps or another type of monitoring system is one of the best solutions for this.

FreshOps enables the cleaning company and client to see a live feed of when the cleaner turns up to the site and when they leave.

Another solution is ensuring your cleaning company has backup cleaners that are familiar (have been previously trained on your site) with the site and understand all your expectations. This is one of the best ways to guarantee that someone will be attending your site at the scheduled time.

Again, ask your current or potential cleaning company whether they have these measures in place if this problem ever occurs.

Problem: cleaners running late or not turning up at all.

Solution: monitoring system and/or having backup trained cleaners.

Problem #4: Lack of Training

This problem is quite straightforward.

When it comes to lack of training, it often refers to cleaners not receiving an adequate amount of training on all the latest cleaning equipment, products, and technologies. This could include things like microfibre cloths, electronic mops (i-mop), sustainable cleaning solutions (Tersano, Enviroplus), and many more.

It may even include the proper cleaning process or techniques such as making sure the amenities are cleaned first as they are generally the dirtiest section of a workplace.

So what is the best way to overcome this problem?

What’s the solution?

Quite simply, if you want a cleaning service that’ll do a good job, you’ll need to find a company that trains their cleaners on the best current cleaning practices and also trains them when new practices come along.

It’s important to ask your current or potential cleaning company whether they take the time to train their cleaners on your site, or just throw them immediately into the deep end.

Problem: cleaners receiving limited training.

Solution: ensure your cleaning company keep up with best practices and train their cleaners on them.

Problems happen – but you want a cleaning company that have the right solutions

No one’s perfect, and if they tell you that they are, then they’re probably wrong.

Of course, sometimes things go wrong, and that’s okay. It happens in any company.

But, the thing that makes a good company stand out from a not so good one is that they:

A: own up to their mistakes

And

B: have the appropriate strategies and solutions in place to solve any problems if they occur.

A good employee-based commercial cleaning company has just this. They take any issues that arise into their own hands and sort them out immediately for the client.

Hopefully after reading this article, you have a better understanding of what types of problems you might encounter with a commercial cleaning business, and how In-Tec’s solutions mitigate them.

If you have any questions at all, schedule a call with Paul today.

But before you do, you probably want to know what you should be looking out for when it comes to a good commercial cleaning service. To find this out, read our article 6 Signs Your Commercial Cleaner is Doing a Good Job.