A company’s image is incomplete without clean facilities. It is easy to assume that hiring professional commercial cleaning in Melbourne is a line item, similar to buying office supplies. The reality, though, is that it is an investment. Investing in keeping your facilities clean is more than a feel-good or altruistic move. It is a way to safeguard your health, the productivity of employees, and brand reputation. If you’re aiming to reduce the costs of cleaning without sacrificing your facilities’ quality, read on.
Smart scheduling
Cleaning is obviously a service that you pay for. In essence, you pay for labour, products used, and time taken to complete the tasks required. Hence, you can lower your cleaning costs if you are flexible with your schedule. As such, you may not need a rigid roster where every area is cleaned every day.
- Adjusting Frequency to meet usage
If you stand in your facility and honestly assess how often each square metre needs cleaning, you will quickly discover that certain areas are high-traffic and require a lot of attention and other areas that are barely used will need minimal service. It is not a question of simply having a crew clean an entire facility, but in fact using that same team as a resource to inform you how often an area should be serviced. So, for example, you pay for a two times per week service, even though some of your areas don’t need to be cleaned that often.
- Off-hour scheduling for savings
Cleaning in between hours is much easier for many reasons. For starters, employees will have to contend with fewer people in the building. The team will be able to work faster and be less likely to have to re-clean surfaces that are used during business hours. Some companies also offer a discount if you are willing to have your spaces cleaned out of regular hours.
- Seasonal changes
A well-considered schedule can also be useful for amending cleaning frequencies based on demand that is driven by seasonality. For example, during flu or allergy season, high-touch areas, like door handles, kitchen sinks, and bathrooms need to be cleaned more frequently.
Bundled services
Most companies have several types of cleaning and maintenance activities that they undertake. These include janitorial services, floor care, and window cleaning. You can check with your service provider if they have packages that combine several of these solutions. Bundling several maintenance services not only helps you lower your costs but also provides you with the following benefits.
- Volume discounts
Offering several services under one roof is cheaper for the service provider in many ways. For instance, it’s easier to plan the logistics to your facility, and it’s less hassle for their operations team to coordinate the schedules. In return for these cost and time savings, they will pass on some of the discounts to you. Businesses, which usually have multiple facilities, stand to benefit the most from this cost-saving move.
- Simplified vendor management
You won’t have to juggle multiple invoices, contracts, and vendors when you use bundled services. A single vendor will perform most services under one system and operation.
- Consistency in standards
Different vendors have different quality standards and employee skill levels. This can often bring incongruence and inconsistency when it comes to the execution of your overall cleaning plan. By bundling your services, one vendor will be responsible for all services. Therefore, you will benefit from consistency in service quality.
Leveraging technology
Cleaning and maintenance have seen increasing tech adoption in recent years. The right digital solutions can reduce your cleaning costs without compromising on quality.
- IoT-enabled cleaning
Smart sensors that monitor bathroom use can help the cleaning team focus on areas that need to be cleaned. There is a great benefit to adopting digital smart solutions that can, for example, track paper towels and soap dispensers usage.
- Digital checklists and reporting
Apps and cloud-based technology also make it possible for you to track cleaning progress and reports in real-time. Digital checklists are becoming more popular to reduce miscommunication and other reporting hiccups that can be expensive and reduce quality.
- Energy-efficient equipment
Modern cleaning equipment has lower water and energy consumption rates. As such, you stand to lower your utility bills by utilising them. Additionally, such machines can also reduce cleaning and maintenance costs without reducing the quality of service.
Long-term savings through strategic partnerships
Finding the right commercial office cleaning service provider can help you cut down on your costs. However, many businesses make the mistake of working with the lowest bidder instead of the most qualified one. Some businesses also never form a long-term relationship with their provider. These two wrong steps, in combination, can cost you a fortune. As such, always work with a cleaning service with which you can build a trusting relationship.
The cleanliness of your facility is one of the most critical investments for your business. It can help cut your medical costs, prevent low productivity, and increase your sales. However, if not done correctly, it can be an unnecessary budget buster. Therefore, following the right cleaning and maintenance techniques is the best way to get the most out of your investment.
