Why Is It So Hard to Find a Decent Commercial Cleaning Company?

Seriously, why is it so hard to find a cleaning company that just does what they’re supposed to do?

You’d think it’d be pretty simple, right… you find a company, they come out, take a look at your building, give you a quote, and you agree on what needs to be done. Pretty straightforward.

And at first, things are going great, the office looks good, the bathrooms are clean, everyone’s happy. Then a few weeks go by.

You notice a trash can wasn’t emptied, okay, no big deal, maybe someone forgot. Then it’s the floors. Or the bathrooms. Or that same dusty windowsill you’ve mentioned three times already.

So you send a message.

“Hey, just a heads-up, looks like a few things got missed last night.”

They apologize, tell you they’ll take care of it, and sure enough, the next cleaning looks great. Problem solved.

Well, until it happens again. And again.

At some point, you’re thinking, Come on, guys. Do I really need to keep reminding you?

Now You’re Basically Managing the Cleaning Crew

It gets old really fast. Not that you expect everything to be perfect, no one does anyway, But when you’re paying someone to take care of something, you kind of expect them to … TAKE CARE OF IT.

You shouldn’t have to walk around the building every morning looking for things they missed, or keep sending pictures of dirty bathrooms, or explain the same thing to three different people because apparently nobody passed the message along.

And the funny thing is, you probably don’t even want to complain. You’ve got enough going on, employees need things, customers are calling, something’s broken, someone’s out sick. The last thing you want is another conversation about why the trash didn’t get emptied.

I mean, that’s why you hired a cleaning company in the first place, to get it off your plate… not to add something else to it.

So You Start Looking for Another Company…

And good luck with that.

If you manage a commercial property or office in Portland, chances are you’ve already had plenty of cleaning companies reach out, calls, emails, people dropping by.

“Hi, we’d love to give you a free estimate!”

“We provide top-quality janitorial services!”

“We’re reliable, professional, and affordable!”

Yeah, yeah, you’ve heard it all before.

And to be fair, some of those companies probably do great work, but how are you supposed to tell? Everybody’s got a nice website, everybody says they care about their customers, everybody promises they’re different.

Then someone calls claiming they were just cleaning a building down the street. Okay, which building? You see where this is going.

After a while, you don’t even want to pick up the phone. And the frustrating part is, you might actually need a new cleaning company, you’re just tired of being sold to.

Here’s What I’d Actually Want to Know Before Hiring Someone

Forget the fancy presentation for a minute. Who’s actually going to clean the building? Because the person giving you the quote isn’t necessarily the person showing up every night, and that’s fine, most companies have crews.

But does that crew know what you discussed during the walkthrough? What happens if someone calls out sick? What if the regular cleaner quits? Who’s making sure the bathrooms get cleaned properly and the little things aren’t being skipped?

And if something does get missed, can you just send a message and get it handled… or are you going to spend the next three days chasing someone down?

Those are the things I’d want to know, not how many times the word “quality” appears on their website.

And About That Really Cheap Quote…

Look, everybody has a budget. If you’re managing an office, apartment building, or medical facility, you’re probably trying to keep costs down wherever you can, nothing wrong with that.

But say you get three cleaning quotes, two are around the same price, and the third is way cheaper. Of course you’re going to look at the cheaper one, who wouldn’t?

But it’s worth asking a few questions. Are they actually including everything the other companies quoted? How much time are they planning to spend cleaning? Are they sending one person to do a job that really needs two?

Because here’s the thing, if the price is too low for the amount of work involved, something usually has to give. Maybe they rush. Maybe they skip things. Maybe they keep changing cleaners because they can’t hold on to people.

Not always, of course, a lower price doesn’t automatically mean bad service. But it’s worth finding out what you’re getting before you sign anything, otherwise six months down the road, you’re right back where you started.

You Know What Would Be Nice? Not Having to Think About Cleaning.

That’s really it, isn’t it?

You come in Monday morning, and the building is clean, the bathrooms look good, the trash is gone, the floors are taken care of. Nobody’s complaining.

You don’t have to send a message or check whether someone showed up, you can just get on with your day. And if something does go wrong, you know who to call, and they actually take care of it.

That shouldn’t be asking too much.

A Little About Us

We’re RKA Cleaning, a family-owned commercial cleaning company here in the Portland area.

And look, we’re not going to tell you we’re the greatest cleaning company in the world, you’ve probably heard enough of that already.

What we can tell you is how we work. We come out, walk through your building with you, talk about what you need, and put together a cleaning plan so everyone knows what’s expected.

We use written scopes and document completed cleaning visits, that way, there’s something to go back to if a question comes up. And if we miss something, we want to know about it so we can make it right… we’re human, mistakes can happen.

But you shouldn’t have to keep having the same conversation over and over.

If you’ve already got a cleaning company you love, hang on to them, they’re hard to come by. But if you’re getting tired of dealing with the same problems and you’re thinking about making a change, give us a call, we’ll talk about your cleaning needs and budget, after all this might be great for both of us!

Schedule a walkthrough with RKA Cleaning

Serving Portland, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Tigard, Lake Oswego, and surrounding areas.