Janitorial Bids: What Business Owners Need To Know

By: D. Brownlee
Submitted: 2007-01-17 12:17:02
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As a business owner, you may be asked to receive a ‘free, no obligation’ quote for cleaning your facility. You may or may not be in the market, but, for whatever reason, you agree.

What should you expect?

What questions will you be asked?

How much information should you reveal?

Below are the basic questions any reputable janitorial company will need to know in order to give you a competitive bid:

1. How many days a week do you require cleaning? Most companies have service 1, 2, 3 or 5 nights a week. However, the frequency of cleaning is totally up to the customer. Don’t be afraid to tell the cleaning company what you want. If they baulk, or try to get you to fit into their schedule, tell them ‘no thanks’ and stand your ground. If they want your business, they’ll be flexible enough to meet your needs.

2. What day(s) and time of day will the cleaning be done? The day(s) that you want service should be decided up front. Don’t tell the cleaning company, ‘It doesn’t matter’, because they’ll treat you like it doesn’t matter. One week you’ll get cleaning on Monday and Thursday, the next week it might be Monday and Tuesday. Can you see how in both cases they serviced your building twice a week? However, how much good did it do you, your employees and your customers for them to come two nights in a row? Be prepared to pay more for day cleaning, since most cleaning companies have fewer day janitors at their disposal. Also, they have to pay more per hour to retain good day janitors.

3. What is the ‘cleanable’ square footage of your facility? This is not the total square footage of your facility. That number includes closets, storage rooms and other areas that will not need to be cleaned. The ‘cleanable’ square footage is the amount of space that the janitor will be responsible for servicing. To learn how to calculate the cleanable square footage of your facility, go to http://www.breakthecycleokc.com/Figure_Square_Footage.html

4. How many restrooms will be cleaned? Restrooms typically account for less than 5% of the total cleanable square footage, and 95% of the cleaning complaints. This is especially true in facilities that have a larger number of female employees and customers, since a) women use the restroom more often than men, and b) women are usually neater than men. (Remember this is coming from a man!)

5. Who buys the restroom and break room paper supplies, as well as trashcan liners? This is the single biggest pain in the neck for cleaning companies, next to labor issues. Paper cost change so much and so often that in order to be profitable, cleaning companies try to avoid buying paper, at all cost! What cost $20/case today, could cost $25-30/case next week. Now, multiply that out by 30-40 cases per month, and you’ll see why companies never want to include the cost of paper in their monthly bid. They would rather for you, the business owner, to incur that expense. However, you can have the cleaning company bill you for the actual cost (plus their predetermined markup) for the paper that they use in your building. But be careful, once they know YOU are buying it, don’t be surprised when YOUR paper ends up in one of their other buildings, where THEY are suppose to be buying it. Inventory the usage, and always ask about ‘spikes’ in consumption. If you have the same employees as last month, then the cost should be relatively the same.

6. How many employees and customers are in the building? This needs to be discussed so that the cleaning company can project the average ‘wear and tear’ your building faces between cleans. For example, if you have two buildings that are exactly the same square footage, and have the same number of restrooms and are cleaned the same number of days per week, a novice might think that they should be paying the same amount of money for janitorial service. However, if Building A is a law offices with 10 employees and limited outside traffic, and Building B is a telemarketing center, with dozens of job hunters coming and going every day, believe me, Building B should pay more!

7. What are the problems areas you’re facing now? It needs to be said that too many cleaning companies bid on accounts when they don’t know what they’re up against. If a company does not ask you what cleaning issues you’re facing, then they probably haven’t been ‘seasoned’ long enough, and you should reject their bid. Why? Let me give you an example. Company A is a business office. They’re in a building that is adjacent to an open field. Every day, tons of dust blows into their office, covering their floors, desk, other areas leaving a thin layer of dirt. Their current company based their quote on the square footage of the building, not taking into account the open field. Now, they can’t adequately clean the building in the amount of time it was quoted for. So, instead of spending more time in the building, and getting it clean, they just stay busy for the amount of time that the salesman said it should take to clean it, and then leave.

Use common sense, and the business savvy that’s gotten you this far in life, and you’ll be fine when it comes to receiving a bid from the next janitorial company.

D. Brownlee http://www.BreakTheCycleOKC.com

D. Brownlee currently works as a Territorial Area Developer for a large janitorial company. He manages in excess of $1.5 million dollars of volume, overseeing hundreds of janitors. For more information on his company, you may contact him at http://www.BreakTheCycleOKC.com

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