The Guide to Choose The Best Office Cleaning Company in London

Clean and pristine workspaces have always been a major concern for office managers and business owners. Their solution to this concern is outsourcing cleaning needs to office cleaning companies. But there is a huge challenge for office managers. How can they choose the right office cleaning company when there are thousands of them?

In this article, we’re going to show you how to select the right commercial cleaning company for your daily office cleaning requirements.

Benefits of Daily Office Cleaning

If you look at every successful business, you will soon realise they have one thing in common. They all have a clean and spotless office thanks to their office cleaning contractor or in-house cleaning operatives. The reason several companies in the corporate sector invest in professional daily office cleaning services is the benefits of such services for the workspace, employees and clients.

Several studies point to the significant impact of a clean office on employees’ health & well-being. This translates into a better working attitude, better morale and higher productivity. Therefore, it impacts their interaction with clients and customers, improving the conversation rate and increasing the company’s revenue.

There are other benefits as well. A clean office is a professional-looking and pristine place. This creates a better first impression when clients step into the office. The sum up of every benefit that a clean office brings is an incredible brand image in the eyes of both clients and employees working in the office.

Read More: Benefits of Daily Office Cleaning

Office Cleaning Company Criteria

In London alone, there are over 11,000 commercial cleaning companies. Therefore, choosing the right office cleaning company and signing a cleaning contract is the first and major step in providing a cleaner workspace.

No one wants to get stuck with a cheap and unreliable office cleaning service. Therefore, it is crucial to know the important criteria of an office cleaning company and conduct thorough due diligence by auditing and interviewing contractors. This way, you can shortlist the best companies and choose the most appropriate one to enjoy a clean office every time you enter your workplace. The following 7 are the most important criteria that draw the line between a good and bad cleaning company.

Experience & References

Experience is one of the reasons some commercial cleaning companies have better company profiles compared to others. A company with over 20 years of experience has more refined and efficient cleaning practices and provides better training for its operatives. They are also more flexible in terms of time and can quote more affordable services as their operation are more streamlined and optimised.

The company’s references are also important. They should provide multiple reference letters from their current or previous clients as a testimony of their service quality and reliability. Without a doubt, a company that cleans several corporate offices is a better candidate for your office cleaning needs than a cleaning company with a few house cleaning clients in its profile.

Company Accreditations

Regardless of which commercial cleaning company or office cleaning contractor you’re hiring, they should be accredited by authorities in the commercial cleaning industry. In the United Kingdom, there are certain accreditations and qualifications that cleaning companies should hold.

They should be a member of BICSc or a similar organisation. They should also hold qualifications like ISO, Citation or Alcumus that show the quality of their cleaning practices and compliance with Health & Safety regulations and employment laws.

Another accreditation is The Living Wage Foundation, which shows the cleaning company is an ethical employer and pays a fair salary that covers its operative’s living expenses completely.

Other countries have similar authorities and organisations that approve the services of commercial cleaning companies in their jurisdictions. These accreditations are on top of general business licenses, premium insurance coverage and other similar licenses.

Full Range of Support Services

Office cleaning is just one of the services a typical commercial cleaning company provides for its clients. When signing a cleaning contract, office managers expect the cleaning contractor to cover their cleaning and support-related needs. Therefore, it’s crucial to make sure the company you are choosing is a one-stop shop for your office’s requirements. This means a wide range of cleaning and support services, such as:

Window cleaning
Carpet cleaning service
Upholstery cleaning service
Handyman & repair services
Commercial laundry services
Deep cleaning service
Bulk refuse & waste collection
Janitorial & cleaning supplies
24/7 caretaker & concierge services

Bespoke Cleaning Plans

Hiring a commercial cleaning company starts with requesting a quote. For preparing a quote, the cleaning contractor visits your office to survey it. Afterwards, they’ll send you a cleaning plan. This step is important as the cleaning plan should be tailored to your office layout and cleaning needs and not just a template with a name and address changed.

Always check if the office cleaning plan is bespoke and if the contractor invested time into preparing it. Bespoke cleaning plans have detained cleaning tasks or a daily office cleaning checklist.

These details should also show how many office cleaners will clean your workspace, how long it take, what areas will be cleaned and so on. These are the factors that affect office cleaning rates and without them, you may unknowingly pay extra for services you won’t receive or don’t even need in your office space.

Professional & Reliable Cleaning Staff

An office cleaning company without professional cleaning operatives is like a car without a steering wheel. Contractors depend on the expertise and skills of their cleaners. Therefore, they do their best to provide extensive and professional training.

Their training should include Health & Safety, COSHH, colour coding and cross-contamination prevention, identifying dust hiding spots and cleaning hard-to-reach areas.

Office Cleaning Companies Employing Reliable & Professional Cleaning Staff

Reliability of office cleaners is also important for a thorough and hassle-free service. Cleaning companies in the UK regularly check their employee’s records against the DBS database. Other countries have similar background check procedures that add to the reliability and credibility of the commercial cleaning company.

Ask the office cleaning service provider you are interviewing to provide you with their staff’s qualifications, whether they run background checks before hiring their cleaning operatives and what are the content of their training course for their cleaning operatives.

Time & Cost Flexibility

Time flexibility is an important requirement of every office cleaning service. Cleaning contractors should be able to provide their services at a time their clients are more comfortable with.

Several companies require office hours cleaning and others may need cleaning before employees arrive or after employees leave the office. They may also require additional cleaning sessions for special occasions like office parties or before an important event.

Cost Transparency on Commercial Office Cleaning Proposals

Cost flexibility is also important. Not all businesses have access to large budgets for office cleaning services but they still need thorough cleaning services for their workspace. Let’s take a charitable organisation as an example. They tend to spend their budget more on helping others rather than keeping their office clean.

This is where better cleaning companies shine brighter as they prepare a cleaning plan that is affordable but still results in the same high-quality cleaning service. This shows the company know how to make its services cost-efficient and affordable for any type of client regardless of the size of the office or the setup of their client’s business.

Environmentally Aware

Several businesses are trying to meet their environmental and sustainability goals. Therefore, they may require the use of certain cleaning products like eco-friendly and green cleaning solutions. They may also have specific requirements for their cleaning like weighting the waste output.

Commercial office cleaning companies should be able to help such companies reach their goals. Their cleaning practices should be optimised and tailored to meet their client’s sustainability goals and help them reduce their environmental impact.

Conclusion

Choosing the right office cleaning company among thousands of contractors has proven to be a difficult task. To ensure the cleaning service you are choosing is reliable and professional, you have to ensure they meet certain criteria. In this article, we have identified and explored the most important criteria that every commercial office cleaning company should have.

The information provided by this article can help you make a better decision when auditing and choosing a commercial cleaning company and signing a new cleaning contractor for your office space.

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