Maintaining a clean and organized commercial space is vital for success in today’s competitive business landscape. Cleanliness reflects professionalism and attention to detail, creating a positive impression on visitors and potential clients. However, beyond mere aesthetics, cleanliness influences the perception of a brand and contributes significantly to the overall success of a business. Many studies have shown that a well-kept establishment fosters a safe and healthy environment for employees and customers, promotes customer loyalty, and improves the business’s reputation. All these positively impact the enterprise’s bottom line.
Industries and workspaces may differ, but cleanliness remains crucial to all businesses.
This brings us to the main topic at hand: commercial cleaning services.
What Is Commercial Cleaning?
Commercial cleaning services are professional cleaning services provided to commercial and business establishments such as corporate offices, food establishments, retail stores, hospitality businesses, educational institutions, financial and banking institutions, medical, fitness, and healthcare facilities, and other establishments that offer services like beauty, wellness, crafts, and more. Professional commercial cleaning staff are trained to clean quickly but thoroughly, and they often work in teams to ensure that all the cleaning gets done before or after an establishment’s business hours.
What is commercial cleaning bringing to the table that businesses can’t get from building custodial or full-time janitorial staff? For starters, commercial cleaning companies invest in industrial-grade HEPA vacuum cleaners and other heavy-duty cleaning equipment impractical for small businesses or offices to buy.
They also know about different cleaning products and which brands are the most effective for cleaning specific areas and surfaces like glass, marble, hardwood, industrial kitchen floors, outdoor patios, wooden furniture, and steel furniture components. They are experts in cleaning and can be trusted to solve the most annoying cleaning problems, such as stubborn stains, foul odors on upholstery, and grease on kitchen surfaces.
What Do Commercial Cleaning Services Entail?
Commercial cleaning services usually entail basic cleaning, organization, sanitation, disinfection, and maintenance. Since commercial spaces’ cleaning needs differ from residential ones, cleaning professionals use heavy-duty cleaning equipment that can handle vast areas like hotel lobbies, malls, corporate office floors, and the like. Commercial cleaning professionals also wear uniforms that double as protective gear since they are more likely to handle chemical cleaners when sanitizing public places with high foot traffic than when cleaning a residential property.
A commercial cleaning service typically follows a streamlined process with elbow room for customization. Business owners that choose to hire third-party cleaning companies can expect the following:
1. Consultation with a Cleaning Specialist
First-time clients can expect a consultation with a customer service representative or manager where they can discuss their cleaning needs and how the company can provide for them.
Matters like preferred cleaning products, cleaning methods, days and hours if it’s for recurring services, and the number of technicians arriving at the establishment will also be covered during the consultation.
2. Scheduling and Booking
Most commercial cleaning companies offer flexibility in their cleaning schedule and will clean an establishment before or after business hours.
This is to minimize interruptions in the client’s operating hours. If customers in a retail store feel inconvenienced because a cleaning crew has cordoned off half of the shopping area, they can leave and go to the next store instead to shop more comfortably. Clients can consider their operating hours, and commercial cleaning companies will typically accommodate their request to clean the premises after hours.
3. Customized and Flexible Services
After noting the business’s cleaning requirements and preferred cleaning schedule, commercial cleaning companies can provide a personalized service to meet the business’s unique needs.
4. Regular and Timely Cleaning
Commercial cleaning companies will arrive at the appointed hour and date for the duration of the service agreement. Many offer one-time and recurring cleaning services, so it would be a good idea to try a one-time service first and then arrange a regular appointment if you’re happy with the results.
5. Complete Cleaning Tools and Materials
One of the best advantages of commercial cleaning services is the cleaning crew will arrive equipped with the cleaning materials necessary to make the establishment pristine. Business owners don’t have to worry about buying cleaning equipment because the cleaning company will have everything covered.
Types of Commercial Cleaning Services
Commercial cleaning companies offer various services to serve a broader clientele and address the needs of different industries. The following are the most common types of commercial cleaning services:
General Cleaning Services
These cover routine tasks like sweeping and mopping floors, vacuuming, dusting, glass cleaning, and emptying garbage bins. General cleaning services are the tasks you’d expect an in-house janitorial staff or building custodians to do as part of their everyday SOPs. They are suitable for any industries and businesses that do not have full-time janitors.
Janitorial Services
Speaking of janitorial services, commercial cleaning companies may also offer these services, which, in addition to general cleaning tasks, entail restocking bathroom supplies and sanitizer dispensers, emptying garbage receptacles and adding fresh bin liners, and mopping up spills as quickly as possible.
Janitorial staff can be counted on to report building maintenance issues and perform some minor maintenance tasks like replacing busted light bulbs and repairing broken door knobs.
Office Cleaning
These services include general cleaning services and other tasks tailored for office environments. For instance, there is a greater emphasis on disinfection and sanitation, particularly for floors, desks, conference rooms, lobbies, and counters, as well as window and glass cleaning.
There’s usually a low risk of messes like spilled food and drinks because office workers typically spend most of their time working on their desks. Professional cleaners devote more time to cleaning vents, work areas, bathrooms, and pantries and ensuring the reception areas, hallways, cubicles, and bathrooms are fresh-smelling and clean.
Disinfection Services
Any commercial establishment, from food service businesses to corporate offices, can require deep cleaning and disinfection services. They are highly recommended for enclosed workplaces or establishments with high foot traffic. However, disinfection services are necessary for companies whose employees get sick simultaneously or in succession.
Disinfection specialists target high-traffic spaces, high-touch surfaces, and any spot on the premises that can be a potential breeding ground for bacteria and viruses. Professional cleaners use sprayers to dispense disinfecting products more effectively throughout an establishment and sanitize hard-to-reach areas like the hidden corners behind heavy office furniture, the spaces above tall cabinets, and the tiny spaces beneath refrigerators and furniture.
Specialty Cleaning Services
Sometimes, businesses have unique cleaning needs that require a more specialized approach. Here are some examples of specialty cleaning services for commercial clients:
- High-Rise Window Cleaning: This service requires highly-trained professionals and robust machinery that can hoist cleaning technicians several stories up or hold them safely as they rappel several floors down from the rooftop of a high-rise building.
- Pressure Washing: This service uses pressure washers, which only trained professionals should use. Pressure washing is usually done for outdoor cleaning, such as removing grime from a walkway or a building’s facade. Pressure washing can remove stubborn stains and dirt built up over the years and refuse to go away using standard cleaning agents. Pressure washing applies to brick, pavers, concrete, vinyl, and wood surfaces.
- Carpet Cleaning: Companies that offer carpet cleaning have dedicated facilities for pressure-washing and drying carpets of all sizes, thicknesses, and materials. They also have experts who can clean different carpet types without damaging the threads, losing the softness, or making the colors run.
- Upholstery Cleaning: Just like carpets, upholstered furniture requires a different approach to cleaning. Cleaning professionals take dirty upholstery to their facilities, where they have the space and equipment to extract the dirt and grease in the fabrics and foam.
- Hard Floor Care: Hardwood, natural marble, ceramic tiles, and concrete are some hard floor materials that require special care from cleaning professionals. Hard floor care may include stripping old finishes, waxing, deep cleaning for porous floors, and buffing.
- Waste Removal and Recycling: Sometimes businesses must dispose of materials like construction debris, cut-down trees, biohazards like mold-infested sheets, animal waste, and dangerous chemicals. Commercial cleaning companies that offer waste removal and recycling will know how to handle these materials safely and in compliance with local safety regulations. It’s best to entrust the disposal of these materials to professionals than to be discovered violating rules.
Reasons to Hire Commercial Cleaning Services
Why should businesses opt for commercial cleaning services instead of hiring janitorial staff? We discuss the benefits of professional commercial cleaning below.
1. More Thorough and Effective Cleaning: Commercial cleaning companies train and equip employees with the best tools and cleaning products. They can clean establishments more effectively and efficiently than in-house staff who aren’t trained to use sophisticated cleaning equipment. Cleaning professionals will do a better job than office staff and employees who can only spend a few minutes a day to help clean their workplace.
2. Safer for Employees: Delegating cleaning chemicals and heavy-duty equipment to untrained office staff is risky. Additionally, some tasks should only be done by professionals. Cleaning the outside panels of windows in high-rises, unclogging kitchen sinks, and cleaning up after a backed-up toilet are perfect examples.
3. Creates a Healthy Environment for Employees and Customers: With the help of cleaning professionals doing an exceptional job cleaning and sanitizing the workplace, employees and customers will reap the benefits. Sanitizing commercial spaces prevents the spread of germs and bacteria and lowers the risk of people catching diseases.
4. Employees Can Be More Productive: Even if employees spend only 10 minutes a day cleaning their work areas, they will have spent 50 minutes cleaning by the end of the week instead of working on their tasks. Allowing employees to focus on their primary tasks will help them become more productive and contribute to the business’s success.
5. Gives the Business a Positive Image: Clean surroundings reflect positively on any business and its management. Cleanliness, or the lack thereof, is one of the first things people notice when walking into an establishment. If they are happy with what they see, they will be more inclined to notice the business’s other positive qualities.
Choose a Reliable Commercial Cleaning Service to Boost Your Business
JAN-PRO Cleaning & Disinfecting, a highly-rated commercial cleaning company with locations nationwide, can provide the exceptional services and benefits you seek from commercial cleaning professionals. JAN-PRO Cleaning & Disinfecting has provided professional cleaning services for over 30 years and has been Entrepreneur Magazine’s #1 Commercial Cleaning Franchise for 14 consecutive years.
The local cleaning franchises are fully equipped and ready to serve your business’s cleaning needs. Contact your local office today to get started.
*Cleaning and disinfecting services provided by independently owned and operated JAN-PRO Cleaning & Disinfecting franchisees.