Finding the right cleaning services company is often treated as a box-ticking exercise. You look at three quotes, pick the one that fits the budget, and hope for the best. But if you’ve been in facility management or operations for long enough, you know that the "cheapest" option often becomes the most expensive one in terms of headaches, missed shifts, and poor quality.
Whether you are managing a high-traffic corporate office or a sprawling manufacturing plant, the cleanliness of your facility is the invisible backbone of your operation. It affects employee morale, client impressions, and even safety compliance.
Before you lock yourself into a year-long agreement, you need to dig deeper than the price tag. You need to understand the philosophy, the systems, and the people behind the bid.
To help you vet your next partner, we’ve compiled the five critical questions you must ask before signing a contract. These questions will help you separate a fly-by-night operation from a partner capable of delivering consistent commercial janitorial services.
Not all cleaning is created equal. The skill set required to maintain a pristine corporate office in downtown Toronto is vastly different from the safety protocols needed for industrial janitorial services.
Many companies will claim they can "clean anything," but a lack of specialization is a major red flag. If you run a manufacturing facility, you need industrial cleaners who understand WHMIS, safety zones, and the specific chemical requirements for heavy-duty grime. Conversely, if you are in a Class A office building, you need a team trained in high-touch point sanitation, security protocols, and unobtrusive daily janitorial services that don’t disrupt your staff.
Why It Matters: A generalist cleaner might use the wrong chemicals on your warehouse floors, leading to damage, or they might lack the security clearance processes required for sensitive corporate environments.
In the old days, quality control meant a supervisor walking around with a clipboard once a month. Today, that’s not enough. You need to ask your potential provider how they prove their work.
This is where the philosophy of your cleaning partner matters. George Boutsalis, President of Impact Cleaning Services and author of the industry-leading Substack The Janitor’s Journal, advocates for a shift away from rigid, antiquated models toward data-driven efficiency.
As Boutsalis notes regarding industry contracts:
"The idea that contract hours are set in stone is something I disagree with. We should be able to recoup costs by finding cheaper and more efficient ways while maintaining standards."
What to Look For: Does the company use technology to track attendance and task completion? Do they have a digital portal where you can log complaints and see real-time resolutions?
A forward-thinking janitorial service provider should be transparent. They should be willing to show you how they achieve their results. If they are incentivized to be efficient, they will invest in better equipment (like autonomous scrubbers or IoT sensors) that ultimately results in a cleaner facility for you at a sustainable cost.
The cleaning industry is notorious for high turnover. However, a high turnover rate at your cleaning services provider becomes your problem. New faces every week mean security risks, inconsistent cleaning standards, and a constant need for you to retrain the cleaners on your specific building quirks.
The Critical Question: "Do you hire your own staff, or do you subcontract everything?"
While subcontracting is common, you need to know how those subcontractors are vetted. Are they background-checked? Do they wear uniforms? Do they speak English well enough to communicate with your facility manager during an emergency?
Red Flags:
Ambiguity is the enemy of a good contract. A proposal that simply says "clean washrooms" is a recipe for disaster.
Does "clean washrooms" mean restocking toilet paper? Does it mean scrubbing the grout weekly or just mopping the floor? Do daily janitorial services include dusting high vents, or is that an extra charge?
What to Ask: Request a granular Scope of Work (SOW) that breaks down tasks by frequency (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly).
By defining these upfront, you avoid the "nickel and diming" game later on. A reputable industrial cleaning service will want this clarity just as much as you do, as it protects them from scope creep.
No service is perfect 100% of the time. Cleaners get sick; traffic accidents happen; spills occur. The measure of a great janitorial service partner is not perfection, but recovery.
The Question: "What is your escalation process?"
If a cleaner misses a shift, do you have a floater crew ready to step in? If I have a complaint about the quality of the vacuum, how long will it take to get a response?
The Ideal Answer: You should have a dedicated Supervisor/Operations Manager—not a call center. You should have a guarantee of response time (e.g., within 2 hours).
George Boutsalis frequently discusses the importance of building a reputable brand in his writing. A reputable brand doesn't hide from mistakes; they own them and fix them immediately. If your current provider ghosts you when there’s a problem, it’s time to move on.
At Impact, we don’t just clean buildings; we manage environments. We combine the personal touch of a family-owned business with the scalability and tech-forward approach of a national leader.
Whether you need heavy-duty industrial cleaners for your distribution center or polished staff for your headquarters, we tailor our solution to your needs. We are transparent about our pricing, obsessive about our quality, and deeply invested in our staff.
If you found yourself nodding along to the Red Flags in this article, it might be time for a change. You shouldn’t have to micromanage your cleaners.
If you are unhappy with your current cleaning company, get in touch with us ASAP. Let us show you what a transparent, efficient, and high-quality janitorial partnership looks like.
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