How to choose a commercial cleaning company: a no-nonsense checklist

Every cleaning company’s website says reliable, professional and trusted, including ours, so that’s no help to you. What separates a dependable cleaner from a cheap quote with problems attached is checkable, though. Here’s the checklist we’d use if we were hiring, written knowing full well you might point it at us.

The ten checks

1. Proof of insurance, not mention of insurance. Public and employers’ liability, with a certificate they’ll show you before you ask twice. If something breaks or someone’s hurt on your premises, this is the difference between a claim and a dispute.

2. A site visit before the quote. Anyone pricing your building without seeing it is either guessing high to be safe or guessing low to win, and correcting later, on your invoice. A free site visit is the minimum standard of seriousness.

3. A written, task-level scope. Not “offices cleaned to a high standard”, but a list: what happens every visit, what happens weekly, what’s periodic. The scope is what you’ll point at when something’s missed. No scope, no accountability.

4. Vetted, consistent staff. Ask who actually turns up: the same people, or whoever’s available? Consistency is quality: a cleaner who knows your site outperforms a stranger with the same checklist. For schools and similar settings, DBS checks are non-negotiable.

5. Honest about what they don’t do. A firm that says “that’s not our specialism” about anything earns trust for everything else. One that says yes to every question is quoting first and thinking later. (Ours: we don’t take domestic work, and we don’t serve medical premises.)

6. Fair contract terms. Month-to-month after a trial period is confident; a twelve-month lock-in from day one tells you how they expect to keep clients. Read the notice clause before the price.

7. A named point of contact. When something’s wrong at 7am, “email our info@ inbox” is not an answer. You want a person, a phone number, and a habit of replying.

8. Their own kit, properly managed. Colour-coded cloths and separate equipment for washrooms versus kitchens is basic hygiene discipline. Ask the question; the reaction tells you plenty.

9. Evidence of visits. Sign-off sheets, logs, or photos: anything that turns “we were there” into a record. It protects both sides, which is why good firms volunteer it.

10. How complaints are handled. Things go wrong at every company, including good ones, including us. The question is the mechanism: who do you tell, how fast is it fixed, and does it stay fixed? Ask for a straight answer to exactly that.

Red flags worth walking away from

A price over the phone for a building they’ve never seen. Reluctance to show insurance. “Everything’s included” with nothing itemised. Reviews that all read like the same person wrote them in one afternoon. Pressure to sign today.

The honest summary

Cheapest rarely wins over a year: the savings come out of corners, and the corners are your premises. Pick the company whose paperwork is clearest, whose people are consistent, and whose answers to awkward questions are straight. If you’d like to run this checklist against us, we’ll bring the certificate and the sample scope to your site visit.