Not all commercial cleaning bids are the same. This post will help you separate the pros from the amateurs.

There are three things that you should look for in a janitorial commercial cleaning or day porter bid. It’s incredibly important to understand them
clearly in order to properly evaluate a proposal effectively.

The first item in a commercial cleaning bid to question your vendor about
is the budgeted hours for the scope of work. This means that when you
look at the itemized list of tasks they will perform on a daily or weekly
basis, you can fully understand what they mean. The reason this is
important is that there is a high correlation between the budgeted hours
and performance quality.

The more time the vendor schedules for activities to be completed, the
higher the quality of service you will receive. Conversely, if they
schedule less time for services to be completed, the lower the quality will
be. This is even more important for work that is completed after hours when
your staff is not there to observe it.

The second most important question to keep in mind when reviewing a
janitorial bid is understanding how they arrived at those budgeted hours.

Very few vendors will take the time to express how they arrived at their
quote in budgeted hours and how that maps out to their pricing. The ones
that do create transparency and clarity for a better understanding of
what’s happening within the working budget.

The final question to keep in mind when reviewing a janitorial cleaning bid
is, what if they are wrong? What if the vendor is incorrect in the hours
they budgeted for the project?

Secondarily, what if they were wrong in how they arrived at those
hours?

These questions are important to ask because the vendor will be forced to
make changes to compromise on quality. Vendors who incorrectly manage or
propose poorly budgeted hours put themselves and their team in a position
where they might not make a profit. When they don’t make a profit, they
will be forced to cut corners in their service.

To summarize, here are the three most important questions to ask when
you’re reviewing a janitorial bid.

1. What are the budgeted hours for this project?

2. How did you arrive at those hours?

3. What if you are off on those projected hours?

If your vendor is professional, they should have no problem answering those
questions.