A reader writes: “I am a Property Manager that answers to the buildings’ owners, as well as the tenants - who I admit can be unreasonable in their demands. I am not always involved in the cleaning service negotiations but have to live with the promises they make. How can I weed out these service providers who really had no intention of fulfilling the contract from the start?”

To quote a former president, “I feel your pain” although I am not sure how to assist you other than giving some general suggestions for you to implement in your particular situation. You have not provided enough information for me to give any detailed comments so hope this will get you started in the right direction.

1. Why aren’t you involved in the negotiations for each site you manage? Who knows better than you the local market as well as challenges faced by any cleaning service? Also, you probably know a lot of these companies by reputation and can provide valuable insights to the person(s) negotiating the deal.

2. Do you have a clear, up to date copy of the specifications provided to the winning bidder? If not, how can you manage to specs?

3. Do you know and meet regularly with the BSC (building service contractor) management team for each site they clean? If not, you should start such get to know meetings as soon as possible.

4. Do you know the onsite supervisor and staff assigned to each of your buildings? If not, you need to get to know them as soon as possible.

It is important that you have a handle of what is going on in each site if you are to succeed. We will continue these thoughts in a future article.

Your comments and questions are important. I hope to hear from you soon. Until then, keep it clean...

Mickey Crowe has been involved in the industry for over 35 years. He is a trainer, speaker and consultant. You can reach Mickey at 678-314-2171 or CTCG50@comcast.net


posted on 3/3/2016