Tag Archives: commercial cleaning

Helpful Tips For Disinfecting Your Office

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As offices start to reopen in the midst of Covid-19, we all must do our part in slowing its spread. This all starts with safe and informed cleaning practices. Cleanliness has always been important to maintaining good health, job performance, and the satisfaction of employees in the office. Today, there is a more particular emphasis to this, showing that the transmission of disease in the workplace through surface contact is a real threat. In some more extreme cases, it can shut down an entire operation.


This blog will provide helpful tips for disinfecting your office. Following these tips and guidelines will help ensure you keep your business running smoothly, and more importantly your employees safe.


How and When to Clean
“Cleaning” is essentially referring to the use of detergent or soap mixed with water to remove germs from surfaces. This will reduce the risk of spreading infectious diseases. Yes, cleaning removes dirt, grime and debris as well as reducing germs, but it does not necessarily kill the germs.


Cleaning should take priority for everyday office use. Per the CDC guidelines, it is recommended for daily cleaning even when there are no potential instances of infection. Hight touch surfaces, which we will go more in depth below, should be cleaned regularly. If an office co-worker is sick, you may want to add a time to disinfect these surfaces as well.


Disinfect High Touch Surface Areas


Bacteria and viruses alike can live on surfaces on a number of different materials. For example, Covid can live on plastic for as long as 3 days! With this, comes a high risk of spreading infection on high touch surfaces by employees. If there is a sick employee, it is important to disinfect these high touch surface areas throughout the day:


-Doorknobs

-Desk, tables, and countertops

-Computer monitors, mice and keyboards

-Shared office equipment (fax machines, printers, phones)

-Light switches

-Elevator buttons

-Faucet handles and toilets

-Breakroom equipment (vending machines, coffee makers, etc.)


Maintain a Safe Office Space


Safe habits are essential in preventing the spread of Covid-19 or any disease for that matter. To keep the office running without exposure – or to limit exposure at the very least – make sure you remember 2 things: isolating and reacting to instances of illness. Below are a couple ways to maintain a safe and germ-free work space.


Hand washing is and will continue to be the best way to prevent the contraction and/or spread of germs. Regularly communicate what the best practices are to employees. As needed, employees should be washing their hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.


It is also important to keep cleaning supplies and disinfecting wipes available. It is crucial to react quickly to sickness. Always maintain a log of your cleaning supplies so you have them properly stocked at all times. What has been seen more and more, and is a great idea as well is to install hand sanitizer stations in convenient locations along with disinfecting wipes to encourage their use.

The Importance of Schools Hiring Professional Cleaners Post Covid-19

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The Importance of School Cleaning Services for a Healthy Environment

At long last, summer is coming to a close and schools are reopening their doors and welcoming back the bright students of tomorrow. Thanks to Covid-19, there has been A LOT of hygiene changes on top of all the confusion on how to protect our schools the best we can. So, I ask you this, how clean are the schools that you and/or your family are attending? No need to fear since professional cleaners are here to save the day! With all of these increased practices for cleanliness, hygiene, etc., schools all across the country are having trouble keeping up with all of these new responsibilities. Thus, leaving copious amounts of added stress and anxiety on both students and staff members alike.


How exactly can professional/commercial cleaning services help protect against Covid-19? And what new cleaning rules are being applied to our schools? Below we will cover why schools NEED to hire professional cleaning services now, and when this pandemic is fully in the rear view.


How Professional Cleaners Protect Schools


Step 1 – the most important step – is to outsource and hire professional cleaning services if not done so already. The key to this before fully deciding on a service is to make sure that the school’s custodial and maintenance staff are thoroughly educated. Professional cleaners have been extensively trained for these tasks and are in compliance with CDC recommendations. Professional cleaning companies – for the most part – are able and willing to establish their own personal cleaning regimen that is uniquely fit to your school, facility along with the virus that was introduced to the school in the first place.


In short, school cleaners may not be fully aware of the proper things to use in certain areas.


Benefits of Using Professional Cleaning Services


Simply put, if there is a spike in Covid-19 cases, professional cleaning services should be the first to be contacted. We, as professional cleaning companies are capable of following all of the procedures and requirements needed to decontaminate the area. From start to finish this can be completed a lot faster than the school districts themselves, all while following the local and state CDC regulations. All of the sanitation equipment can and will be provided along with following procedures which allow for the ease of cleaning the entire school inside and out.


This will provide all of the parents of students with the peace of mind that they desperately need.


How to Take Care of Schools Without Disruption


All schools alike are very important institutions, so when it comes to management, there are going to be different rules for each school. If the funds for a school allows them to outsource their cleaning, they can assure that it is going to be clean and safe! Just like any facility or office manager, cleaning issues such as mold or allergens you should and will not ever have to deal with. On top of this, any schedule the school needs to be worked can be worked! This will avoid any disruptions during the school hours.


Any emergency that arises, professional cleaners are going to be prepared as they have additional training along with special equipment and most importantly, specialized equipment for mold. This is one of the main culprits that can make people ill if not properly taken care of.


These school cleaning services will come with high quality and reliable services, and may be more reasonable than you may think. The bottom line is that we all have to remain vigilant when it comes to keeping viruses and hygiene practices in check.

The Top 3 Things To Look For In A Janitorial Company

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It can be a challenging task now more than ever to find a reliable commercial cleaning company. Sure, you can go on your Google machine and search for “commercial cleaning near me” or “janitorial services near me”, but what exactly are you getting yourself into when you do that? Whether it be Yelp, Bark, Home Advisor, etc., some (not all) are simply marketing companies that pose as a commercial cleaner, and what exactly do they do? Some examples are Vanguard, Executive Cleaning Services and Jensen Brothers that simply gather your information and subcontract the work. All you want to do is find a REAL cleaning service without all the additional hassle, and unfortunately can be more tough than need be.


However, once you do find a REAL commercial cleaning company, your work is only halfway done since there is a slew of companies in the cleaning market. Are you starting to weigh the idea about outsourcing your cleaning? Click here for more information. Are you currently outsourcing your cleaning and think it may be time for a change? Click here to find out more. So, the million-dollar question, how can you find a commercial cleaning company that can give you the best and most consistent results? Read on for the top 3 things to look for during your search.


Problem Solving – I’m sure at one point in time or another you have heard the common phrases such as “We have been in business for over 30 years”, “customer service is our #1 priority”, “we use the latest technology”, or “our core values are x,y,z”. Who cares? The one thing you are looking for is for your problems to be solved so you have one less thing to worry about on your busy plate. It is super important for a commercial cleaning company or anyone for that matter to understand your problems and provide swift solutions to them! This involves reducing the number of distractions caused by janitorial issues, and having the peace of mind knowing that your facility will be properly staffed each and every day while bringing solutions to you without even having to ask.


Local Presence – In other words, it can be challenging at times to find a service that can provide consistency. To put it simply, janitorial work is not overly complicated to the point where it requires years of experience or all of this extensive training to go along with it. Sweeping, mopping, dusting, emptying trash, cleaning the restrooms, kitchens, etc. doesn’t sound super overwhelming right? What it all boils down to, is the adequate oversight. This mainly stems from the management level (i.e., field managers) that are relatively close to your facility. This is very important when you bring in a cleaning service since it A.) reduces risk and B.) it builds TRUST! A good cleaning company will always be looking to improve their work, encouraging their teams while coaching them!


Industry Leadership – As mentioned at the beginning of this post, there is a slew of commercial cleaning companies in this market that can easily blend into the crowd. Look for a company that goes above and beyond. For example, they are heavily involved in the local community, they genuinely care about the industry and providing the necessary services for your own well-being first, they are involved in the industry through association memberships along with learning and spreading helpful information.


Let’s face it, the internet today is FILLED with anything you can possibly think of. This ultimately can be and is a very good tool with seemingly anything you desire right at your fingertips. However, with a tool such as this providing such ease in our lives it can also be layered with fraudsters and an extra layer of caution with office/facilities managers alike. By learning these few items listed above, this will be able to help lead a decision maker in the right direction to eventually make the correct decision for their company.

Don’t Let Dirty Windows Obstruct Your View!

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All facilities, offices, buildings have one thing in common: windows. There comes a great deal of importance to clean windows with your business, but when exactly is it time to have them cleaned? What are the advantages of having clean windows? Clean windows are a win-win situation for all offices and facilities alike and is crucial for maintaining not only the cleanliness of your facility, but simply creates a healthier and happier environment.
In this post, we will discuss the importance of window cleaning with numerous advantages of having clean windows along with how often you should invest in getting your windows cleaned!


Extends the Life of Windows

– Windows, especially external can take on a lot of contaminants (think bird poop, pollen, etc.) and regularly cleaning your windows can help maintain removing these. – I am sure we all can attest to this one, but dirt, debris, dust LOVE to stick/cling to windows. Over time this can cause permanent damage and ultimately will require a full window replacement sooner rather than later.


Clear Visibility

– Clean windows with visibility are just more attractive to put it simply. Whether you manage an office, retail store, of any other type of commercial facility, your results to attract happy customers wanting to spend money or even employees working with a more positive mindset. – With glass clear of any and all fingerprints it helps engage potential customers and passer biers as they feel more invited into your business.


Eliminates Pests

– Are you constantly seeing webs in the corners of windows? Yeah, it can be a real downer! It can be pretty horrifying realizing that they come from spiders or even a worse cause. – Regular window cleaning will eliminate pests by getting into every nook and cranny, ultimately forcing them to move on.


Reduces Infection Risk

– As mentioned in our last post, germs are spread through high touch surfaces, and glass doors, windows or any glass surfaces are not exempt from this. Regularly cleaning these surfaces will ultimately help prevent the spread of viruses, colds or other illnesses. – Clean windows are beneficial in a way where it helps prevent the development of mold and mildew. Stale windows allow for the growth of bacteria, which leads the way to rust and other discoloration.


How Often Should My Windows Be Cleaned?

With all of this being said, you may be asking yourself how often do my windows need to be cleaned? Well, there are many factors that need to be taken into consideration when discussing windows. Factors such as, exterior quality of the windows with other materials that can be affected by the climate of your specific area.


The ideal window cleaning schedule can vary depending on your office, building size and location, internal and external conditions. The best approach to this would be to develop some sort of regular detailed cleaning schedule. This comprehensive plan will help you determine how often your windows need to be cleaned and how this can save you MONEY and TIME.
If you can keep a regular schedule, you will have a set of windows free of all dust, dirt, etc. and windows you can be proud of!

Allow BCS Facilities Group to work with you to come up with the perfect window cleaning schedule!

What Are the Reasons For A Site Visit

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One of the most important steps in the sales process for any commercial cleaning company in general is a site visit and/or a tour of your facility. Yeah, it is possible to receive a pricing proposal from your potential vendor within reason without even laying eyes on your facility, but how accurate will the results be? Below, we will discuss a little deeper about the purpose of a site visit along with some best practices to prepare for the visit.


Purpose of the Visit


– 90% of the costs affiliated with a commercial cleaning program stem from direct labor and labor related costs.

-Obtaining the most accurate number of labor hours needed to properly meet your expectations is single handedly THE most important factor when estimating the cost to clean your facility. -Seeing your facility first hand helps us create the most personalized experience possible!


What Items are Cleaning Vendors Seeking to Discover?


– Space density: This is essentially looking for the “tightness” of the area needing cleaning. A perfect example would be a call center office type. An office with cubicles everywhere tends to be very dense. Denser spaces tend to take more time to clean due to reduced efficiencies.

-Working Conditions: While not necessarily having a direct impact on the number of hours needed to clean, it could play a part in the wages needed to attract cleaners to work in certain conditions. This typically is the case with certain places like manufacturing facilities where working conditions may require extra personal protection equipment.

-Flooring Types: One of the main parts of any commercial cleaning program is, you guessed it, cleaning your floors! Cleaning companies need to see what types of flooring (i.e., carpet, tile, wood, etc.) are in your space along with measurements of each type. Hard surface flooring generally takes longer to clean with sweeping and mopping as opposed to carpeting which typically requires only vacuuming.

-Current State of Cleanliness: Potential cleaning vendors tend to look for a couple of items here. Firstly, they will look to see if the space/building has been cared for well. If not, it will require more labor time to bring the space back to a manageable level. Secondly, as stated above, cleaning companies want to assess your expectations. If there is a very high level of cleanliness expectations, then this will come into play when developing an estimate for work hours needed.

-Location and Size: This one is pretty simple, how big and how spread out are the spaces. Things a cleaning company must consider is how much time a cleaner will spend traveling from one space to the next or one building to the next and so on.


How You Can Help Making the Site Visit Productive and Efficient.


-Directions/Instructions: It can be helpful to provide some things to the potential vendor prior to the visit such as where to park or enter the building, who to ask for upon arrival, and any visitor safety requirements.

-When to Clean: It is good practice to help prospective cleaning vendors when you desire to have your space cleaned, even though your may have an RFP (request for proposal) that covers this. This would cover if you wish to have your space cleaned after hours, weekends, requiring a day porter during the specific days, etc.

-What to Clean: Circling back, you may have already provided this summary of work to potential cleaning vendors. This is very important to help understand what you wish to have serviced and how frequently. A good example of this would be, some places wish to have their bathrooms cleaned every day or every service, while let’s say dusting would only be required on a weekly basis.

-Specific Information: This would entail any unique and specific information pertaining to YOUR location and YOUR needs. Certain types of buildings require specific needs that others do not require. Or even just something that is a nuance to you that you wish was fixed and never has been.

FAQs With BCS

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Purchasing a janitorial service can come with a high degree of risk. Here at BCS Facilities Group, we strive to help build YOUR trust while reducing as much risk as possible. Below is a compiled list of the most frequently asked questions received during the purchasing process. If you are unable to find an answer to your questions, please do not hesitate to contact us here.


Service

How much notice do you need to get started?

Typically, we require at least 3 weeks to launch our services in order to properly staff your facility so we can accommodate your needs as efficiently as possible.
What types of services do you provide?

While we specialize in daily/weekly janitorial services, we are well versed in carpet cleaning, tile maintenance, window washing, as well as disinfection services.
Do you supply all of the equipment?

This will vary on a case-by-case basis. We leave this up to you and what is preferred by you. We are fully capable of providing all equipment and cleaning products for the cleaning of your facility.

Personnel

Who will I contact if there is a problem?

Your account holder. BCS prides itself that you will NEVER have to worry about who to contact as your point of contact will never change from day 1.
What happens if we don’t like one of your employees?

If there is an issue with one of our employees cleaning your facility, we will make certain to make the necessary changes where need be in staffing your facility. We at BCS pride ourselves on providing the best customer service in the industry.
How many people will you have in my facility?

The answer to this varies by each facility after the initial and final walkthroughs are completed. Once we have a good outlay of your facility and have a clear understanding of the desired services, we will inform you of how we will staff your facility and an estimate of how long the process will take.


Company

How long have you been in business?

BCS Facilities Group was founded in 1987 and since then has been perfecting the science of facilities maintenance.


Are you local/regional?

Yes. We are a local family owned and operated commercial cleaning company based out of Newtown, Pennsylvania servicing Eastern PA, New Jersey and Delaware. BCS is in what we like to call the “Goldilocks zone” of janitorial cleaning companies
How is your company different from all of the others?

Probably one of the most important questions ever asked. We are not just a janitorial service. It goes deeper than that here at BCS. Our main priority is building your trust, reduce risk, give you peace of mind. We take care of your business so you don’t have to! We view ourselves as an extension of your staff and a partner that will provide you a place that you can be proud of.

Tell-Tale Signs That It Might Be Time To Change Your Cleaning Company

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When it comes to finding the right cleaning service for your office space, you want to make sure you get the best quality of cleaning you deserve! Too many times do we all fall under the trap of a good first impression, however when the work begins the service seemingly falls off to the point of wondering if they even show up. And to top it all off you are more than likely stuck and locked in with some sort of contractual agreement with what seems like is forever and a day. This is seen to happen far too often when a cleaning company starts cutting corners because they either underestimated time to complete the scope of work and/or they estimated wages due to “low-balling” the price initially leading to additional difficulty in finding higher quality staff.
Here are just a few tell-tale signs that your cleaning company no longer is making you a priority and that it may be time to make a change:
Slow Reactions to Calls, Service Issues or Complaints There will be times where things are missed or an issue occurs. It happens. We are all human beings and human error is bound to happen. However, when issues or complaints do happen your service contractor should be prompt in their response time. If the issues are happening more frequently or you just straight up are not receiving timely correspondence, this could be a tell-tale sign that your cleaning company may be stretched too thin. Not to mention it could be a red flag that there may be deeper problems within the respective company itself. Ask yourself when was the last time you received proactive communication from your cleaning service?
Staff Is Starting To Complain More Than Usual The whole purpose of outsourcing your cleaning is to (let’s face it) make your job AND life a whole lot easier. The goal here is to not be bothered by mundane cleaning issues. If you are starting to get bombarded with comments from employees in regards to the toilet paper running out, no paper towels, if your office ACTUALLY GETS DUSTED, etc. then it may be a warning sign that your cleaning company is no longer dedicated to you.
Unrecognizable Faces Cleaning Your Space Each office, warehouse, facility is not ever one in the same and with this come specific nuances that must be handled appropriately. This is something that will be figured out by a dedicated contractor and its staff that is assigned to the task at hand. As with anything else, there will be some turnover expected since the cleaning services industry specifically has a high turnover rate of nearly 200%. If this is happening fairly often, this could point to a possible HR issue within the company with the inability to keep its employees. Not to mention it will cost YOU in the quality of service provided and could lead to a potential security issue.
Your Primary Contact Changes Often This is probably going to be the greatest tell-tale sign of all that there are some lingering issues with your current cleaning service provider. You have absolutely no idea who is in charge or who to call if you need to get in contact with the company. As just previously noted, turnover is higher in this industry, but in the manager-level positions this is a sign that there may be trouble ahead. This is an indicator of a troubled and unhealthy culture lying within the company.
If some or all of these problems persist, then it may be time to start preparing for a change. Develop a game plan and set a list of expectations not only for the next service contractor to walk through your doors but for yourself and your business’s safety in mind.


BCS Facilities Group can help you with cleaning of your commercial or industrial facility. We strive to build and grow a world class service organization.

Top 5 Cleaning Myths You NEED to Stop Believing

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It seems that today more than ever we are bombarded with different so called “hacks” that help create some form of short cut for even the simplest of things. Cleaning being one of the most popular out there! Whether you are clicking on a random article on the front page of Yahoo, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter you name it it’s on there. Now, most of these are meant to be for a “that’s pretty cool I might give that a try!” type of response and I’m sure we’ve all tried at least one of these so-called hacks at one point in time.
Read on as today I will be putting on my fancy “myth buster” hat to debunk some of these outrageous myths on cleaning that could be doing you more of a disservice than actually helping. Because who wants to live by taking short cuts in life am I right?

Vinegar is an Effective and Appropriate Cleaner for All Surfaces This one is a popular one that I have been seeing float around the internet and this is a huge NO! While vinegar may be able to help with certain tasks like removing grime on certain surfaces, it is not appropriate for everything. It can cause damage or corrosion to metal, glass or even certain ceramic and stone surfaces due to the acidic acid in the vinegar. It can strip the wax on the wax floors and even unseal tile grout over time. Pete He, PhD, the chief scientist and co-founder of Dirty Labs also notes that the EPA does not recognize vinegar as an antimicrobial agent for sanitization or disinfecting.
Using Newspaper to Clean Windows and Mirrors Another NO! This myth used to have some validity to it as newspapers used to be made with thicker paper than what they’re made with today. The thinner newspapers today will quickly deteriorate when they are wet and leave spots on your glass mirrors or windows. As if we all want to see last week’s headlines on the window when we want to take that much needed break from work and stare out the window wishing we were outside instead of inside.
Baking Soda to Remove Odors From Carpets Don’t hold your breathe on this one if you think baking soda can help you out with this. Yes, it seems like it comes in handy a lot for us all and has many uses but not for this. And yes, even myself included have done this before so guilty as charged but it’s a lazy way out. While it can absorb unwanted odors, it does not attack the main source of the odor and only masks the smell for a brief period. Just get your carpets cleaned once a year people!
Bleach Cleans Everything I know this one may anger a lot of people but the truth must come out and you can always count on me to have all of your backs! Yes, on its own it can be good for spot stain removal but still needs some sort of surfactant to lift the actual dirt out. And check this out, according to Caroline from Winc, bleach “degrades the layers of a surface, making them more susceptible to bleach resistant superbugs which breed when bleach is overused or used as a sole cleaning agent”. I am just going to leave that one there for all of you. Just use disinfectants that are less harmful.
Using Coca-Cola to Clean Your Toilets As with just about every single myth listed above including this one it may seem like an interesting cost-effective idea, it may not be the smartest. The sugar contained in the soda is actually very harmful as it attracts more bacteria. You vinegar folks this may be your moment as a good alternative to this with your toilet bowl is actually vinegar!
Any of you out there have any other fun cleaning myths that have been debunked? Or just myths in general? Please provide in the comments below and let us know!