What Services Should a Janitorial Business Offer?

If you are new to the cleaning business, you may have myriad wishlists, spreadsheets, and goals, but try to take one step at a time. An essential task at the beginning of your journey is to make decisions about which services you will provide in your janitorial business.

Start with basic services and work on the pricing for those and then decide which additional services will be both appreciated by your clients and practical and profitable for you.

One step that every owner of a new janitorial business takes is to look at what the competition is offering. You want to be able to fulfill those services as well as to add something extra to make your company stand out.

Be practical. Which types of commercial spaces and buildings are your workers going to be cleaning? Obviously, you will have a different checklist of basic services depending on whether your business is cleaning a school, a church, retail space, car showrooms, or offices, for example. You will also have a different checklist depending on how often you have been contracted to clean. A daily clean is not the same as a weekly or biweekly clean.

Having multiple services as a Janitorial Business can give you a leg up on your competition.

In general, your cleaners will always empty wastebaskets, clean bathrooms, and make everything look professional and spotless. Here is a sample breakdown for various office spaces:

Kitchen and break room areas:

• Discard any food wrappers or food receptacles (like pizza boxes)
• Follow the recycling plans you are given
• Clean the kettle or coffee maker (throw away coffee grounds)
• Clean and disinfect counters and other surfaces (especially important because people prepare food in this space)
• Wash and dry mugs and replace them
• Empty trash and recycling. Replace bin liners.
• Sweep and mop floor
• Clean the outsides of appliances such as toasters, refrigerators, or microwaves 

Extra services:

• You may periodically clean and disinfect the inside of the microwave and the inside of the fridge, discarding any out-of-date perishables.
• You may be responsible for replacing the large water bottles with bubblers.
  
  

Restrooms:

• Clean all toilets, both inside and out.
• Wipe down and sanitize counters.
• Clean mirrors
• Empty waste receptacles
• Replace paper towels and toilet paper
• Empty feminine waste receptacles
• Stock feminine products (if that is something the office provides)
• Refill soap dispensers
• Fix any broken dispensers - or report to maintenance
• Test hand dryers - fix or report any problems to maintenance
• Mop floors

Extra services:

• Clean discolored grout
• Clean the insides of any storage cupboards
  
  

Offices, cubicles, and conference rooms

• Dust bookshelves, cabinets, and all other surfaces (Read our article, 10 Secrets to Dusting an Office Building for detailed tips.)
• Use polish to dust desks, tables, or any wood surfaces
• Wipe down desk chairs
• Empty waste bins and replace liners
• Vacuum carpets and soft furnishings
• Disinfect all surfaces that people touch, such as door handles, light switches, remote controls, telephones, keyboards, staplers
• Clean surfaces of office copiers
• Empty recycling
• Stock paper near the copier
• Use microfiber cleaning cloths to remove dust from monitors or tv screens
• Neaten any books or magazines in the reception area
• Dust blinds
• Replace any burned-out light bulbs

Extra services:

• Shampoo carpets and upholstery
• Wax floors
• Water and/or fertilize plants
• Wash blinds
• Provide seasonal services. For example, your clients may have parties during holidays that need extra cleanups. If your cleaners have to spend extra time vacuuming up pine needles, removing multiple post-festivity garbage bags (or empty bottles), removing trodden in buffalo chicken dips and chocolate cake stains from carpeting and upholstery, or (the worst!) eradicating stray glitter, you may wish to establish seasonal cleanups as an extra service. For more information on this, read our article, Tips for Cleaning Offices During the Holidays.
  
  

Entrances and lobbies

• Make sure any glass surfaces (like doors) are gleaming and streak-free
• All welcome mats should be clean
• Wipe down any door plaques or building signs
• Sweep entranceways and exits

Extra services:

• If there are hallways, buff floors monthly
• In a school, clean out lockers
• Dust display cases
• Wash walls, and paint as needed
• Control pests
• Maintain parking lot
• Arrange for removal of debris, such as leaves, sticks, or downed branches

Many of these daily, weekly, or monthly services need specialized training, but The Janitorial Store has that covered. We offer an extensive online video training library, downloadable training programs, and janitorial certification programs. When you combine written training, video training, classroom and on-site training, your chances of lowering employee turnover increase dramatically.

But that isn't the only benefit: not only are you more likely to retain employees who have been trained, but you are also more likely to attract clients when you can assure them that your janitors are certified and knowledgeable.

Our janitorial training programs comply with training best practice elements and commercial cleaning industry standards. All programs have independent, Third-Party Assessor Verification by a commercial cleaning industry expert. To ensure the information provided in each program is to industry standards, each program has been reviewed by a Cleaning Industry Third-Party Assessor.

At the beginning of this article, we mentioned the many steps you need to take as you begin to set up your commercial cleaning business. Making a checklist of the basic services you will offer is one very important step, but now you need to establish pricing. You will want to consider such factors as the following:

• What is your competition charging?
• Where is your business located? You can't charge the same prices in Lafayette, Louisiana as you can in San Francisco, California, for example.
• Will you charge by the square foot or by room?
• What tasks will you be performing and how often?
• How much public traffic is in the building?
• Will your office be cleaning many small offices or cubicles or large open areas (this is called density)?
• Is the building Class A, B, or C?

For more details on how to price your services, please read our article, How to Price Janitorial Services -- by the Hour or by the Square Foot.

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