4 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Cleaning Company

Question 1: Who will actually be cleaning our building?

The person who sells you the contract is rarely the person who empties your bins at night. Ask how cleaners are hired, screened and trained before they reach a site, whether they are the company's own employees or a subcontractor's, and whether the same people will be assigned to your building week after week. Then ask who supervises that crew and how often the supervisor walks your floors.

A strong reply names the screening steps, such as background checks, training before the first shift, uniforms and ID, and gives you a supervisor by name. A weak reply goes vague on who employs the crew. California requires janitorial employers to register with the Labor Commissioner, so asking to see that registration is a fair, quick test.

Question 2: What exactly does the price include?

Ask for a written scope that lists tasks by area and by frequency: nightly, weekly, monthly and periodic. Confirm whether paper, liners and soap are in the price, whether floor refinishing, carpet extraction and glass are included or billed as projects, and how extra requests and holiday shifts are charged.

The answer you want is a line-by-line scope that matches what you pointed out on the walkthrough. The answer to avoid is one monthly number next to the words general cleaning. A vendor cannot be held to tasks that were never written down, and two bids cannot be compared when only one of them lists its work.

Question 3: How will we know the work was done?

Every cleaning company says it inspects. Ask who does the inspections, how often, what gets recorded and how you see the results. Ask what happens to a failed item: is it logged, assigned, fixed and closed out, or does it live in someone's memory? Request a sample inspection report and a sample of the way tenants or staff report problems.

Be wary of the reply that amounts to calling the office if anything is wrong. That arrangement turns you into the quality control department, and it means problems are found by the people you are trying to keep happy rather than by the vendor's own supervisor.

Question 4: What happens when something goes wrong?

Cleaners call in sick, a pipe floods a restroom on a Sunday, a floor machine scuffs a wall. Ask how absences are covered so a night is not skipped, who you call outside office hours and how an urgent issue is escalated past the crew. Ask what insurance the company carries and request a certificate of insurance before the start date, not after an incident.

Good vendors describe a backup staffing plan, a supervisor or manager you can reach at any hour, and coverage for general liability and workers' compensation at a minimum. If the reply is that it rarely comes up, assume it has come up and nobody planned for it.

When to ask these questions before hiring a cleaning company

Use them at three points. Ask them out loud during the site walkthrough, where you can judge how readily the vendor answers. Ask them again in writing when you request proposals, so the replies become part of the bid you compare. Ask them a third time on reference calls, phrased for the reference: how were absences handled, how often did the supervisor visit, and what happened the last time something was missed.

How EBS answers the same four questions

EBS Maintenance crews are background-checked, uniformed and trained before a site assignment, and the same team is kept on a building wherever possible. Each scope is written after a supervisor walks the facility. Supervisors inspect through the eHub system, which tracks follow-up and corrective actions, and backup staffing, field supervision and escalation support cover the bad days. EBS is licensed and insured and sends teams from its Corona office across Southern California.