What Should a Commercial Cleaning Quote Itemize?
By Justin Murray · Chief Executive Officer Pinellas Park, Fla. — 2 min read
A monthly figure with nothing behind it is not a quote, it is a number you cannot hold anybody to. Here is what should be on the page, and the four questions that separate one vendor from another.
A single figure is not a quote
If a proposal says a price and a frequency and little else, every disagreement you have for the next two years will be about what was included. That is the reason most buildings change cleaning companies.
A scope document is worth more to you than a lower number, because it is the only version of the deal that is checkable.
What should be on the page
Six things, and none of them is unusual to ask for.
- The areas, named. Not "the premises": the floors, the restrooms, the break areas, the entries.
- The tasks, against each area, in the words somebody doing the work would use.
- A frequency per task. Nightly, weekly and quarterly work do not belong in one paragraph.
- Consumables: who supplies them, who monitors them, and whether they are in the price.
- The supervision arrangement, and how often somebody senior is actually in the building.
- Who to call, and the response time when something is missed.
The four questions that separate vendors
System4 and Stathakis both publish hiring guides for facility managers, and both land on much the same short list. It is a better filter than price.
- Is supervision documented, and will I receive the inspection rather than have to ask for it?
- What is your crew turnover? Continuity of people is continuity of standard.
- Who is my point of contact, and what happens when they are away?
- How quickly is a missed task fixed, and is that number written down anywhere?
Why we price a building after we have walked it
Two buildings of the same square footage can be different jobs by a factor of two, so a price produced from a floor area has to guess which one it is looking at. Guessing high loses the work; guessing low is worse, because the scope gets quietly cut later to pay for the mistake.
We walk the building, write the scope, and put a price against it.