Tag Archives: office manager

A How To On Cleaning Commercial Floors

Wondering how to properly clean your commercial floors? Tired of constantly looking at dirty scuffed up floors? Below, we will go over some of the most common commercial flooring and how to properly maintain them looking the best they possibly can.


Tile Floors


Commercial tile flooring is meant for longer durability especially in high traffic areas such as warehouses or manufacturing plants. You have your VCT tile floors as well as ceramic tile flooring. This can propose a more unique cleaning challenge with the grout, that can, over time, accumulate the buildup of dirt. Using a professional cleaning company can help solve this issue to restore the appearance to look brand new! With heavy duty equipment such as the CRB machine, this can affectively pick up all of the dirt and collected grime inside the grout, making them look dirt free!


Laminate Floors


First, what are laminate floors exactly? Laminate flooring consists of multiple layers of synthetic materials. The very top thin layer is what requires the most care to ensure they stay looking at their best. Albeit most laminate flooring is waterproof – water can still cause damage overtime -, the cleaning process does not use as much water as you would think to make sure the top layer does not get damaged. Commercial cleaning companies tend to use equipment such as dry mops, wet mops as well as neutral pH floor cleaner (no scent) or scented floor cleaner, depending on personal preference.


Vinyl Flooring


This type of flooring can be a little more difficult to maintain with approach and frequency. Vinyl, also known for durability and cleaner appearance needs to be cleaned regularly to maintain that look and feel. These floors can be cleaned with a traditional mop as well with neutral pH floor cleaner or added scent depending on preference. However, a professional cleaning company has proper heavy-duty equipment as well to get a deeper clean. Depending on the color of the vinyl floors – whites and greys – it may require a little more time and care to keep them looking freshly polished. Some professional equipment that can be used on vinyl as well as laminate flooring to really bring that “shine” out are a power buffing machine, neutral floor cleaner, soft mops, vacuums, brooms, and floor finish.


Hardwood Floors


Cleaning hardwood flooring requires a more delicate approach to avoid damaging the wood itself. Using the wrong equipment or cleansers can prove to be extremely costly. Professional cleaning companies tend to use – depending on the finish – a dry mop and/or a soft wet mop. You want to avoid any type of scratch marks or distortions on the wood itself. You also want to ensure you are using the appropriate floor cleaner with the appropriate pH levels. Oversaturation of any type of floor cleaner or water will result in water marks, debris being pushed around if not properly vacuumed or swept up first.


BCS Facilities Group is equipped with all of the equipment and cleansers to tackle any floor job! Call today for a FREE quote!

Janitorial Services in Southeastern PA & New Jersey – Find Out if Your Facility Needs Them!

Everybody wants a clean working environment to increase productivity and morale in the office. Business owners, Facilities Managers, Office Managers etc. can be tempted to take care of this themselves instead of outsourcing this. Why? To save money of course! This may be doable and manageable if you have a smaller facility with a handful of employees. This can get very overwhelming, very fast. This may force you to reconsider your strategy or approach on the cleaning. Below, we will go over a few touch points that may be a sign you need to outsource your cleaning services.


Larger Office Space


As your business grows or changing locations, keeping up with the cleaning along with your everyday work responsibilities can cause an abundance of added unnecessary stress. For example, if your office consists of larger windows, shelving that needs to be dusted, cobwebs in higher corners/light fixtures etc., flooring that is in a high traffic area, an outsourced cleaning service may be the answer instead of doing all of this yourself.


This all takes a lot of extra time to complete and maintain. As with anything, the larger the space the more time it will take and the more cleaning you will have to do. Don’t let your office get out of hand and finding yourself not keeping the office in the shape you once did without any resolution!


DUST


One of the, if not the biggest problem in offices is…DUST! It will build up on shelves or any other untouched surfaces that will end up circulating through the air and aggravate allergies or respiratory problems. Dusting does take a lot of time and is a bigger chore than you may think and needs to be done properly with the right amount of time and tools. Professional cleaners will know how to not just have it stirred up in the air.


There are a lot of forgotten areas to clean in an office setting. As listed above, high ceilings with corners along with tops of filing cabinets, shelving etc. can be neglected over time. This can be due to lack of time or energy or lack of resources to get high up places. Along with that, you risk safety for you and your employees.


Bathrooms


Bathroom upkeep can be challenging since they are the most used places. Bathrooms that are dirty can and will make a large impression on anybody that walks in them. It takes a lot of time, effort and quite frankly isn’t the most desirable of jobs to complete. Especially for employees who were never hired to do such that.


Keeping up with bathrooms goes deeper than what may meet the eye. Tasks such as scrubbing the toilet, mopping floors, sanitizing the sinks and restocking paper goods and soap dispensers can get very tedious. Not only that but to properly clean bathrooms you would need to close them down, and this is not always as easy during the work day.




It can be difficult to notice a lot of this in a facility that you work in everyday and not necessarily looking for it. Sometimes, you may need to just hit the pause button for a second, sit back and observe your surroundings to see all of this that others may see and you just simply don’t.


If you are in the Southeastern PA area or in New Jersey, reach out to BCS Facilities Group to get a FREE personalized quote today for your cleaning services.



Best Communication Techniques To Follow For a Growing Cleaning Company

In running a geographically distributed workforce, as most cleaning companies do, client communication is the best way for us to learn and keep a solid relationship. It is important to have both internal AND external communication as there are high-level risks and rewards associated. Below, we will go over the top means of communication so that way you can keep your cleaning business growing.



Strong Customer Service


As your company grows and obtains more and more clientele, it is all the more likely more people will want to get a hold of you. Most small startup companies’ sales reps are probably going to be the owner who provides all of their personal phone/email information. Eventually you will need to have this job delegated. It is important to follow these three steps: Hire a professional and dedicated customer service employee, tailor your experience to your client base, and live and die by what your standards are and what you want them to be dating back from the very beginning.


Reach Out ALWAYS

It is also important to make it a habit to reach out to clients on a routine basis via phone call, email, or text. They can be random check-ins or planned, but the whole idea of this is to keep building that relationship as well as to obtain as much information as you can to see if your services meet their needs. This is a simple yet great way to build that trust and rapport. It shows that you are a proactive company and actually care even when there is not a specific issue occurring. This doesn’t mean there will never be any problems to face, but when this does happen, the conversations will be much easier to have and easier to resolve.


Onboarding/Training


One way to avoid high turnover within your company is to put together a planned experience for new employees. This should include:

-A walkthrough and training of any systems your company uses
-A detailed overview of what your standards as a company are
-Training for on-site communication
-A how-to on when issues arise how to handle them and who to bring them to.


Many companies believe or not fail to execute even these simplest things. Taking the time to invest in these tasks will help ensure you and the business that these employees will develop a sense of trust and feeling like they belong. If done properly, this will prevent high turnover rates and long-term employee retention.




It will be a challenge as your company grows to live up to the standards and expectations you set, but as long as you live by the promises you make both internally and externally, who wouldn’t want to be a part of the business you are building. More clients mean more employees which means a bigger target market, and with this comes more opportunity for communication mishaps. Prioritizing communication is something that can and will guarantee higher returns.

The Top 3 Things To Look For In A Janitorial Company

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!

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!