Why You Should Create a Preventative Cleaning Maintenance Plan for Customers

So you've got a daily or weekly cleaning schedule that you've set up with your clients for routine tasks like trash removal, sweeping, mopping, and vacuuming. But everyday-level cleaning doesn't take care of caked-on dirt or grime, and it doesn't preserve your client's assets the way a more thorough preventative cleaning would. Below, we'll go into what a preventative maintenance plan is and why it's important to have a preventative cleaning maintenance schedule with your clients.

Comprehensive preventative cleaning for your business

What's a Preventative Cleaning Maintenance Plan?

A preventative cleaning maintenance plan is specifically tailored to your client's space, meant to give specific assets or items periodic thorough cleanings to prevent deterioration that would otherwise go unchecked. It saves your clients money and prolongs the life of their assets.

Each client will need a unique preventive maintenance plan based on their space, assets, and business nature. Depending on how much traffic comes through their space, they may want a deep cleaning of their carpet every other week or only twice a year. Maybe they want extra cleaning after a big event or in the summer when more people are on vacation. It's something you'll discuss with them to figure out what works best.

Here are some examples of what you may include in your client's preventative cleaning maintenance plan:

1. Hard Floors
   
   Over time, the foot traffic through a space grinds small particles of dirt and dust into any hard floor, leaving thousands of tiny scratches. Combine that with the movement of heavy furniture, rolling carts, and other large objects, as well as spills, rain, and snow; hard floors take a lot of abuse, much more than many people (except cleaning crews) realize. A fairly regular deep cleaning, including waxing and polishing, will keep them looking shiny and new. You and your client may decide that they want their preventative maintenance cleaning to fall just before a big event so the place looks its best when the company arrives.

2. Carpeting
   
   Carpeting, especially in heavy foot traffic areas, also takes a lot of abuse. Dust, dirt, odors, and allergens get trapped in a carpet over time, and when the carpet has taken up as much of these particles as it can, these particles then remain in the air and aggravate people's allergies or lungs. That's why preventative carpet cleaning is important – it's not merely aesthetic, because it can help clear the air in the space and get rid of odors that have been trapped in the carpet too.

3. Grout
   
   Grout is porous by design so that it expands and contracts with changing temperatures and humidity. But this also causes it to absorb dirt and liquids, leading to discoloration. And the last thing you want is to be scrubbing grout that hasn't been cleaned in 10 years. A regular deep clean of all of the grout in space – between floor tiles, bath tiles, countertops, and sinks – will not only make the space look spic and span, but will also remove a layer of dust and dirt, and your clients will greatly appreciate that.

4. Upholstery
   
   Upholstered furniture will wear out quickly if not well-maintained. And no one wants to sit in a chair or on a couch that looks like it's been moth-eaten, even if it hasn't! And you can't throw any cleaning product onto upholstered fabric, so you'll need to make sure you have all of the specialized cleaning products you need to take care of your client's upholstery, depending on how often their space is used and by whom.

Why Do I Need a Preventative Cleaning Maintenance Plan for My Clients?

So why all of the detailed plans? It's pretty simple:

• You get more regular business. If your client has a preventative cleaning maintenance schedule on the books, that means you also have a regular workload you can depend on. In this case, you're building a relationship with an existing client, so you don't have to spend as much time or energy finding and onboarding new ones.
  
  
• You build a trusting relationship with your clients. If you take the time to establish a preventative maintenance plan with your clients and explain to them what kind of care their space and their assets need, they'll trust you as a cleaning company and feel that you're looking out for them. This may even prompt them to recommend you to someone they know.
  
  
• You have fewer “big cleans” to worry about. Beyond getting more business and developing relationships with clients, if you're preventing assets and spaces from getting critically dirty or worn, you don't have to spend hours of frustration when a client calls you in to deal with a carpet that hasn't been cleaned in years or a tile floor that hasn't been scrubbed since they first occupied the space. It's in your best interest to keep the deep clean regular so that you don't have a REALLY deep clean project that may or may not turn out well for you.

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