Category: Corporate Cleaning

20 Jan 2021
day porter services

How Day Porter Services Can Improve Your Business

day porter services

Do you find that as the workday unfolds your facility begins showing the wear and tear of everyday activities? Does your entryway get dirtier every time someone comes through the door? Do your restroom supplies run low by noon? Is your breakroom a mess at the end of the day? If you answered ‘Yes’ to any of these questions, you should consider day porter services.

Many businesses rely on a commercial cleaning service to manage their facility cleaning after hours. This ensures your facility is clean and fresh when you walk in the door every morning, but is that enough? Day porter services are designed to ensure that your facility remains clean throughout the day. Here are five ways that day porter services can improve your business:

1) Ongoing Cleaning And Disinfection

Cleaning and disinfection of high-touch areas is not a one-and-done proposition. Disinfection should be performed regularly throughout the day to minimize the spread of germs and viruses. Hiring a day porter service will ensure that these surfaces are cleaned and disinfected throughout the day making your facility safer for you, your staff, and your customers.

It’s not just high-touch areas that require ongoing cleaning. Restrooms, breakrooms, and entryways are all areas that tend to get dirty as the day progresses. Having a day porter at the ready helps to ensure that these problem areas are addressed throughout the day.

2) Restocking Of Restroom Supplies

Keeping your restrooms clean is just one part of a day porter’s restroom maintenance protocol. They also take responsibility for ensuring that your restroom supplies like hand soap, toilet paper, and paper towels are always restocked.

Restocking services can go beyond the restroom as well. For instance, it may include restocking breakroom and kitchen supplies, filling hand sanitizer dispensers, and even changing lightbulbs and HVAC filters.

3) Maintaining A Safe Environment

Day porters also help enhance workplace safety for both staff and guests. In addition to the ongoing cleaning and disinfecting of high-touch surfaces, they will ensure that entryways and parking lots are free of clutter and slip hazards. Furthermore, they are ready to address spills and wet floors and will even place hazard signs for damaged walkways and wet areas.

4) Liaison Services

Day porters can also provide liaison services for third-party vendors that you hire to perform more specialized tasks. Having your carpets and/or furnishings professionally cleaned? Having your building’s exterior power washed or a landscaping crew working outside? All of these tasks become much easier with a day porter on hand. Your day porter can coordinate with them, supervise their work, and ensure that they do a thorough job, leaving you to attend to the business of the day.

5) Improved Facility Appearance

Likely the greatest advantage of having a day porter on staff is the overall appearance of your facility. Your entryway and reception areas always look clean, your restrooms and breakrooms are always well maintained and supplies never run out. Maintaining a clean, safe, and functional workplace enhances customer perceptions, improves employee satisfaction, and boosts morale and productivity.

Is Hiring A Day Porter The Right Decision For Your Business?

While day porter services may not be right for every business, they can improve day-to-day business operations when you hire the right service provider. Complete Care Maintenance can help to evaluate your business needs and provide you with a customized day porter service plan that will address all areas of concern.

 

10 Jan 2021
firing your cleaning company

5 Signs That You Need To Fire Your Cleaning Company

firing your cleaning company

Are you feeling a little underserved by your cleaning service? Have they become complacent in their cleaning duties and no longer go the extra mile to make your facility shine? Has the cost of the service steadily increased without any recognizable benefit to you? If you answered ‘Yes’ to any of these questions, it might be time to consider a new provider. Here are five signs that you need to fire your cleaning service and look for a new provider:

1) Apathetic Cleaning Crews

Apathy is like a virus and it can spread like wildfire within a team. If your cleaning crew seems less than enthusiastic about the duties they perform, if they are wavering in their commitment to a job well done, it may be time to look for another provider.

Apathy leads to laziness and sub-standard performance. In a cleaning crew, it will manifest itself in unfinished tasks, forgotten trash bins, and less than clean restrooms. If you find that your facility is not getting cleaned as well as it used to, apathy may be the cause.

If the apathy that you witness among cleaning crew members is also reflected in communications with company managers and owners, that is a sure sign that it is time to fire your cleaning company.

2) High Employee Turnover

If new faces are showing up on the cleaning crew every other week, something is not right. This is indicative of a company with high employee turnover rates and high turnover rates are bad for their business and yours.

If your cleaning company is having a hard time finding, keeping, or managing employees they are costing you money. New hires require training and a company that is scrambling to meet client demand is likely putting staff in the field who are not fully trained. These individuals are learning on the job and you are paying for their education.

Untrained employees are less likely to perform as well as seasoned staff and that means some areas in your facility are not getting the attention they deserve. In addition, poorly trained cleaning crews are less familiar with cleaning and safety protocols which can lead to damaged surfaces or worse, injured staff.

If your cleaning company can not maintain seasoned staff, it may be time to let them go.

3) A Lack Of Communication

Nothing is more frustrating than trying to communicate with an unresponsive provider. If you are waiting days to hear back from your cleaning company, if there is no clearly defined protocol for issue resolution or complaints, or if issues are met with empty promises that never come to fruition, it’s time to fire your cleaning company.

Any reputable provider will have clear lines of communication and a hierarchy of command. This means that if a crew member is unresponsive you can approach their team leader. If the team leader can not resolve an issue, you can approach their immediate supervisor. All issues, requests, and complaints should be resolved in an efficient and satisfactory manner and someone should follow up with you to ensure the issue was addressed.

4) Lack Of Accountability

If your cleaning company’s management staff fails to conduct routine inspections and quality checks, they are doing you a disservice. Regular inspections and quality checks help enforce accountability for cleaning crews and allow management to address issues and inconsistencies before they become commonplace.

In addition, regular inspections, quality checks, and employee evaluations help management to identify training opportunities which in turn promote better training and more efficient processes. Smart companies provide oversight in an effort to continually improve their services through better training, better management, and employee accountability.

5) Reckless Security Practices

Let’s face it, you have to be able to trust your cleaning services provider. In many cases, these individuals have access to your facility outside of normal business hours. They must be trusted to honor your facility’s security protocols. Failure to lock up, set alarms, or respect the privacy of you and your employees is a serious breach of trust that can not be tolerated.

If your cleaning services provider fails to respect your company’s security policies and protocols, fire them.

Looking For A Professional Cleaning Service?

If you find yourself shaking your head in agreement with any of the points above, it may be time to fire your current provider. Of course, before you do, you will want to vet prospective companies to replace them. Complete Care Maintenance offers a variety of commercial cleaning services to meet any business need. Call or contact us today to get a free quote.

30 Dec 2020
disinfecting retail space

Commercial Cleaning Helps NJ Businesses Rebound From Pandemic

opeen for business

A new year is upon us and many New Jersey businesses are glad to see 2020 in the rearview mirror. The pandemic made it a difficult year for businesses across the country with many having to close up shop for extended periods of time. With new vaccines being distributed in 2021 there is hope that the pandemic is now behind us and many business owners are making plans to reopen their doors. The question is how to reopen safely and successfully. Many businesses are looking to commercial cleaning services to help them rebound from the pandemic.

BUILDING CONSUMER CONFIDENCE

It is not just a matter of ensuring the health and safety of employees and customers, it is a matter of regaining consumer confidence. The pandemic has changed the way people shop, dine and consume products and services and for many consumers, a return to their former way of life is a little scary. Consumers need to know that a business can be trusted to protect their health and that means seriously upgrading their cleaning and sanitation protocols.

For businesses reopening in this ‘new normal’ commercial cleaning services are becoming an integral part of their campaign to earn trust and build consumer confidence. Cleaning crews are taking on a new role in the eyes of both businesses and consumers and what was once a hidden workforce performing their duties after hours will likely become a much more visible, public-facing workforce that will help to reassure customers and employees.

TRANSPARENT CLEANING PROTOCOLS

Business leaders and property managers have a huge incentive to make cleaning highly visible. This kind of transparency will go a long way toward boosting the confidence of consumers and workers who worry about returning to public life. In a post-pandemic world, there may be nothing quite as reassuring as a uniformed janitorial service and the pronounced smell of Lysol.

In a recent study commissioned by Vital Vio 76% of respondents said they’re going to hold businesses accountable for how they clean their spaces and 51% won’t patronize establishments that aren’t transparent about their cleaning practices. StudyFinds reported a whopping 82% of Americans “said they are now more aware of, and concerned about, cleaning protocols in public areas,”.

The bottom-line for business owners, property management firms, and office managers is that heightened cleaning and disinfection protocols (and being transparent about those protocols) is the key to bringing a wary public back into the fold. Hiring a commercial cleaning service can go a long way toward achieving this goal.

HOW COMMERCIAL CLEANING CAN HELP

There are many advantages to hiring a commercial cleaning company but in a world suddenly hyper-aware and germophobic consumer perception has risen to the top of the list. While assigning in-house staff to manage cleaning and disinfecting duties at your place of business can help, hiring a professional cleaning service is likely a smarter move.

People trust a commercial cleaning company to know how to clean and disinfect. While they will appreciate staff members cleaning and disinfecting high-touch areas during their visit, seeing uniformed commercial cleaners diligently at work will instill more confidence. In addition, the mere fact that a business is willing to invest in commercial cleaning services sends a very strong message about their commitment to keeping their customers and staff safe.

The reality is that people’s perceptions with regard to commercial vs in-house cleaning are correct. Commercial cleaning companies have a great deal of expertise with cleaning products, processes, and protocols. Regardless of how efficient your in-house staff is, without proper training and experience, they will never be as effective as a commercial cleaning crew. And while perceptions are important, effective cleaning and disinfection is really the primary goal and nobody does this better than a quality commercial cleaning service.

 

 

 

 

29 Nov 2020
office cleaning

Winter Office Cleaning Tips

office cleaning

Winter is a messy time of year. Snow and slush, salt and mud, germs and viruses all converge on your office building when Winter rolls around. And as the season drags on your regular office cleaning protocols start to fall behind. Winter is messy and it is difficult to keep up. In an effort to help out, Complete Care Maintenance has put together a few tips to help you maintain a clean tidy office during the winter months.

1) STAY ON TOP OF YOUR ENTRYWAY

In the winter months, it is important to maintain a clean and safe entryway. Snow and ice present serious slip and fall risks for you, your staff, and your clients. You can mitigate this risk by regularly sweeping or shoveling the entryway or applying salts or deicing chemicals. It is also a smart move to place rubber-backed floor mats inside the entryway to allow people to wipe their feet. This is especially true for offices with hard-surface flooring.

In addition to maintaining the ground at your entryway, be sure to clean the windows on a regular basis as slush and muck have a tendency to splash the glass, making for an unsightly entry. With the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the onset of cold and flu season, it is vital that door handles and knobs be regularly sanitized.

Placing hand sanitizer inside the entryway is a great way to encourage hand hygiene and reduce the spread of germs. It also makes your staff and your guests more comfortable and confident that you are doing your part to maintain a healthy office environment.

2) KEEP THOSE FLOORS CLEAN

Winter weather is harsh on floors. People are going to track snow and ice, salts, chemicals, and dirt in from the outside and these contaminants can quickly damage hard-surface flooring and wreak havoc on office rugs and carpets. In addition, wet floors are a constant issue during the winter months and present a serious safety hazard. Be sure to keep the floors in your office well maintained with regular cleaning and consider posting ‘Caution Wet Floor’ signs in areas where wet floors are a problem.

Thorough daily moppings are essential to remove grit and grime from hard floors and carpets should be vacuumed regularly to prevent excessive wear.

3) CLEAN AND DISINFECT HIGH-TOUCH SURFACES

Again, with Covid-19 still wreaking havoc and cold and flu season in full swing, it is vital that you clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces regularly throughout the day. These surfaces include doorknobs and handles, telephones and computer equipment, desktops and counters, and any other surface that is regularly used by multiple individuals. Consider providing sanitizing wipes in key areas throughout the office to encourage regular disinfecting and train your staff on their proper use.

4) HIRE A COMMERCIAL CLEANING SERVICE

If ever there was a time of year to consider hiring a commercial cleaning service, Winter is it. Because Winter is one of the dirtiest seasons and because it is one of the busiest seasons, it pays to have a professional office cleaning service manage your office cleaning needs.

A quality office cleaning company will save you time and money and will help ensure that your offices are thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. They will also ensure that your offices always make a good impression and can help protect the health and well-being of you, your staff, and your clients.

10 Nov 2020
corporate cleaning

Commercial Cleaning and Your Business Assets

corporate cleaning

Regular commercial cleaning provides many benefits to your business; from improved employee morale and productivity to enhanced customer perceptions and even increased sales. One benefit of commercial cleaning that is often overlooked is the preservation of your facility’s physical assets.

Let’s face it, your business is made up of a variety of physical assets. carpets, flooring, upholstery, wood furnishings, electronics, and other physical assets all have a healthy price tag and the longer you can make these assets last, the more value you receive from them. Routine professional cleaning can extend the life of these assets while adding value to your business.

CARPET CLEANING AND MAINTENANCE

Ask any carpet manufacturer and they will tell you that proper care and maintenance is the key to extending the life of your carpets. Without proper care and maintenance, dust, dirt, and other abrasive materials build up and break down the fibers that make up your carpet. This means increased wear and a shorter lifespan.

Daily vacuuming and regular deep cleaning of carpets help to mitigate the build-up of harmful abrasives and extend their useful life. In addition, regular cleanings help to remove allergens and bacteria, providing a healthier environment for your staff and customers.

CLEANING AND MAINTENANCE OF HARD SURFACES

Hard surfaces like floors and countertops come in a variety of materials, from hardwoods and granite to marble, linoleum, and tile. These assets are extremely expensive to replace and proper care and maintenance are key to making them last.

Over time, dirt and debris will build up in seams between tiles and hardwood slats causing a slow almost imperceptible deterioration of these surfaces. The same is true for expensive marbles and granites which can become marred and scratched without regular cleaning.

Each of these materials has unique maintenance requirements and a qualified commercial cleaning company will know to properly clean and maintain them. Using the wrong chemicals or cleaning techniques can permanently damage your hard surface assets leading to costly repairs or replacement.

UPHOLSTERY AND FURNITURE CARE

Your facility’s furnishings are another physical asset that will benefit from regular cleaning and maintenance. Like floors and hard surfaces, these assets come in a variety of materials, from leather and fabric to wood and glass. Knowing how to clean and maintain these materials is vital to their longevity.

Fabric furnishings require daily vacuuming and regular deep cleaning much like carpets and leather upholstery needs to be properly cleaned and maintained to avoid drying and cracking. e furnishings also will dry and crack without proper care and glass-top desks and conference tables are prone to scratching if not cleaned on a regular basis.

A professional cleaning company will know how to meet the unique requirements of each of these materials and can help ensure that these assets enjoy a long and useful life.

CLEANING ELECTRONICS THE RIGHT WAY

In today’s world, electronic equipment is at the heart of our everyday life. Computer equipment, printers, fax machines, and phones are essential to our daily business operations and they are one of the most valuable physical assets in your facility. Proper care and cleaning of these items can extend their useful life and help eliminate downtime.

Dust is the enemy of all things electronic and by their very nature, electronics attract dust. Without proper maintenance, dust can build up on your electronics and cause them to overheat, leading to expensive repairs, replacement costs, and downtime.

Electronic equipment should be wiped down with a quality microfiber cloth on a daily basis and compressed air should be used to remove dust and debris from hard-to-reach places like between the keys on a keyboard or hinges on a laptop.

THE BOTTOM-LINE

Proper cleaning and maintenance of your business’s physical assets can increase their useful lifespan and help maintain their appearance. The longer these assets are maintained the less often they require repair or replacement and that saves you money in the long run.

Complete Care Maintenance can help you to properly maintain your business assets with knowledgeable and qualified commercial cleaning. Call us today for a free estimate.

 

 

10 Oct 2020
facility cleaning

Top Tips For Reopening Your Facility During a Pandemic

facility cleaning

As many states throughout the country begin to reopen, facility managers need to plan ahead to ensure as safe an environment as possible. Staff and customers alike should feel safe in the knowledge that you are making every effort to protect them. Here are some tips for reopening as safely as possible:

1) Promote Social Distancing And Safe Behavior

Rearranging desks and other furnishings to promote social distancing is a good start. In areas where people tend to congregate or stand in line, consider marking floors with tape or stickers to indicate safe intervals. Post signs at the entrance to your facility reminding people to practice social distancing and encouraging the use of masks. Limit or eliminate in-person meetings and other in-office gatherings and encourage remote work when possible.

2) Promote Better Hand Hygiene

Providing sanitizing solutions or wipes throughout your facility helps promote hand hygiene and surface sanitization. Additionally, making these items accessible near high-touch and shared surfaces like doors, elevators, and reception areas allows for easy hand and surface sanitizing. Furthermore, ensure that restroom soap dispensers are filled regularly with disinfectant soaps.

Be sure that the products your use meet the CDC guidelines for proper sanitization. Look for labels with at least 60% ethanol or 70% isopropanol.

3)  Utilize Porter and Matron Services

Porter and matron services allow for ongoing cleaning and disinfecting throughout the day. These professional cleaning personnel can continuously clean and sanitize high-touch surfaces, restrooms, and other common areas throughout the facility, helping to ensure a safe and sanitary environment for staff and customers.

4) Consider Regular Cold Fog Disinfection

Cold fogging is a process where a disinfectant is put into a machine and atomized into the air. Unlike a spray, a fog saturates the air in a mist and covers virtually every surface in your facility. Therefore, even hard-to-reach areas that are typically overlooked with traditional cleaning methods become saturated in a disinfecting fog, effectively killing bacteria, viruses, and germs. Cold fogging can be performed during non-business hours so as not to interrupt regular business operations.

5) Hire Commercial Cleaning Services

Probably the best way to ensure a clean and safe facility is to hire a reputable commercial cleaning company. High-quality commercial cleaning companies understand how to properly clean and disinfect your facility and are trained to address high-touch areas, properly use disinfectants and cleaning chemicals, and avoid cross-contamination.

Need Help Planning Your Reopening?

Complete Care Maintenance can help you to prepare for reopening your facility in the midst of the pandemic. We can provide for you a custom commercial cleaning plan, schedule regular cold fogging services, provide porter and matron services, and ensure that your soap dispensers and hand sanitizers never run dry. Call or contact us today and let us help you to reopen your facility in a safe and sanitary way!

20 Sep 2020
security

Security And Your Janitorial Company

security

Every business has some type of security protocol. Whether it is as simple as a lock and key or as in-depth as a full-on security system with cameras, keypads, and burglar alarms – all businesses have things they need to protect. For retail businesses, it may be merchandise, cash, or credit card numbers. For medical and legal offices it may be data, records, and personally identifiable information.

When considering a commercial cleaning company, security concerns may not be top-of-mind, but it is something that requires serious consideration. Commercial cleaning or janitorial staff have access to nearly every area of your business and they often work outside of normal business hours. This is why it is so important to make security considerations a priority when vetting potential providers.

What To Look For In Janitorial Service Providers

When hiring a janitorial service provider for your facility you need to understand their level of commitment to security. A reputable provider will have training and protocols in place that help ensure that its staff understands the importance of security. There are many ways that smart janitorial services can mitigate security risks and bolster client confidence.

Employee Background Checks 

Any reputable janitorial service understands the importance of employee background checks. Background checks help to eliminate potential security risks by weeding out applicants with checkered pasts and less-than-honorable intentions. Make sure that your provider only employs staff that has passed a background screening.

Security Protocols and Training

In addition to employee background screening, set security protocols and regular employee training reinforces in the employees’ minds, the company’s commitment to security. In addition, it helps ensure that employees understand and follow security protocols. Ask prospective providers about their security policies and the level of security training their staff receives.

On-site Supervision

Ensuring that cleaning crews are supervised by a responsible individual provides several benefits. A supervisor represents a single point of contact, meaning that keys, alarm codes, and other access points are entrusted to only one individual. In addition, a supervised cleaning crew is far less likely to breach security protocols, knowing they are being watched.

Bonded and Insured

If your janitorial service provider is not bonded and insured, you need to find another provider. Bonding and insuring is the most important step a janitorial service provider can protect both themselves and their clients. It ensures that if a cleaning staff member damages or steals property from a client that the client will be reimbursed.

Low Employee Turnover

If your janitorial service provider experiences high employee turnover it can present a security risk for you. Cleaning staff that has had access to your building and inside knowledge of your security protocols and are no longer bound by the cleaning company, can represent a real security threat. Ask potential providers about their turnover rates and avoid companies that can not seem to retain staff.

Uniformed Staff

While this may not seem like a security precaution, uniformed cleaning staff are easily identifiable, making non-staff members easily identifiable as well. Ensuring that cleaning staff is required to wear name badges or IDs is another way that janitorial services can show their commitment to security.

A Little Forethought Goes A Long Way

It pays to be vigilant when hiring a commercial cleaning service and hiring the wrong one can cost you in a big way. Take your time, vet your prospects, and hire a firm that will add value rather than cost.

17 Aug 2020
office cleaning

10 Things To Look For In An Office Cleaning Company

office cleaning

Hiring a professional office cleaning company for your business is a great idea! It provides a clean and healthy environment for your staff and customers, makes a great impression, and can even reduce absenteeism and improve productivity. The key is hiring the right office cleaning company. Here are ten top tips for selecting an office cleaning company that will bring the most bang for your buck:

1) Hire a Company That Has Commercial Cleaning Experience

Your office represents your business; this is not a job for residential cleaning crews. You want to hire a reputable commercial cleaning company that has experience with office environments. Office environments have very specific characteristics that require specific cleaning processes and techniques. You want a business cleaning company that understands the value of first impressions, knows how to safely clean electronics, and understands the importance of sanitizing high-touch fixtures and appliances.

2) Expect Flexible Scheduling

Let’s face it, your nine-to-five business hours are set aside for conducting business. You need an office cleaning company that has the resources and flexibility to accommodate your business needs. You can not have people trying to clean while others are trying to work. Regardless of your business hours, a professional office cleaning service will be able to work around your productive hours and ensure your workplace is clean and sanitary at the start of every workday.

3) Inquire About Extended Services

You may not need your floors stripped and polished every week, but you do not want to have to hire another contractor to manage this task when the time comes. It is far easier to work with a trusted partner for all of your cleaning needs. Make sure your office cleaning provider offers all of the services that you require and has the equipment and resources to get the job done.

4) A Well-Trained Staff

Cleaning may seem like a mundane task that ‘anyone can do’, but you’ll be surprised at the difference proper training and experience can make. If you think your office is being thoroughly cleaned when assigning the cleaning to your staff, you are sorely mistaken. A well-trained office cleaning crew will produce results well beyond your expectations and will make you wonder why you ever assigned those duties to your office staff. Nothing against your staff; we’re sure they are very good at their jobs, but their job is not office cleaning.

5) Ask About Customizable Cleaning Plans

Every office is unique and every office has unique cleaning needs. From special requirements and budgetary restraints to security and privacy concerns, it is important that you hire an office cleaning company that can customize a plan to meet your unique requirements. Can they develop a plan that allows for daily cleaning, weekly deep cleaning, and quarterly floor stripping and polishing? These are the questions you need to ask.

6) Defined Communications Protocols

A well-organized office cleaning company will have in place set communications protocols that ensure that you are able to address issues, change plan parameters, and get answers when you need them. Communication is the foundation of good partnerships. Make sure that your office cleaning company understands and implements defined communication protocols.

7) Supervised Cleaning Crews

Regardless of the work environment, unsupervised staff often fail. It is vital that your office cleaning company provide supervised cleaning crews. There should always be a recognizable chain of command that is respected and adhered to. This requirement goes hand-in-hand with communications protocols. You should be able to reach out to a crew supervisor who is directly responsible to a division manager, quality control supervisor, or company principal.

8) Safety Training

Is your office cleaning staff fully versed in and expected to adhere to OSHA safety guidelines? If not, you need to hire a different office cleaning provider. Safety guidelines are in place to protect both workers and those who congregate in the environments in which they work. A wet floor without a sign can spell disaster for both your reputation and your bottom line.

9) Licensing and Insurance

Whatever commercial cleaning company you choose needs to be licensed to operate in your state or community. They should also have liability insurance to cover any potential issues that may arise while they’re in your facility and you should ask for proof of both. This is no joke! An unlicensed contractor will likely not be covered by your insurance and an uninsured contractor is not worth your time or money.

10) Trust

A level of trust may be difficult to determine during the hiring process, but there are resources that you can use to your advantage. Online reviews, word-of-mouth, and gut instincts are all valid measures of trust. Most important is the post-hire data that you gather from your relationship with your provider. Do they follow through on promises? Do they meet expectations? Are they responsive and supportive? If you can answer ‘Yes’ to these questions, you have found a provider that actually provides an office cleaning service that will better your business.