We all know that regular cleaning is a must for your commercial office. The ROI speaks for itself when you take into account the increased productivity of employees (fewer sick days and more enthusiasm to give their best in a clean office that shows that high standards are valued by management) and increased new business from impressing prospects and customers when they come to your premises to consider your products or services.
But if you’re in control of the budget (and balancing the books is a must!), discussing deep cleans or additional services may be a conversation that you’d rather skip.
As this post is written by a commercial cleaning company, you’re probably thinking that we’ll, of course, suggest that you take on a regular cleaning package and a separate deep cleaning package (and any other extras we can cross-sell you!).
However, that’s not the case.
We want to give you the right advice on this one so you aren’t sweating about the budget and you’re getting the best results for the investment you’re able to make when it comes to your cleaning.
First, some clarifications….
What is regular cleaning?
Regular cleaning is usually completed on a weekly (or sometimes fortnightly basis) and includes essential items such as vacuuming and mopping the floors (of your most frequently used office spaces), disinfecting desks, phones, keyboards and other IT equipment, windexing the main glass doors to your premises (and any internal glass in your main showroom/sales areas) and of course disinfecting bathrooms, wiping over kitchen appliances and rubbish removal (changing the bin liners and depositing the rubbish in your skip bin).
What is deep cleaning?
Deep cleaning usually entails those items that don’t need to be done every week or fortnight but tend to accumulate dust and grime over time.
Typical examples include skirting boards, furniture (chairs, bottoms of tables, shelves, tops of cabinets, etc..), window sills, door architraves, ceiling vents, dusting portraits and plants, removing external cobwebs (and sometimes internal cobwebs).
It can also include squeegee washing external glass windows and/or removing and washing the flyscreens or even shampooing the carpets (especially for high-traffic areas).
How To Know What You Need For Your Premises
If you have a small office (ie. The size of a regular residential house or the regular weekly cleaning time is 2 hours or less) then deep cleaning items such as skirting boards, dusting the bottoms of chairs, window sills, dusting cobwebs in the entrance area etc. tend to be incorporated into the regular cleaning schedule and completed either once a month or as needed.
If your premises doesn’t have too many rectangular shaped skirting boards (with a flat top to accumulate dust) or it isn’t street facing (ie. Your office is inside a large strata-style complex on the 2nd floor and isn’t exposed directly to the street) then a separate deep clean may not be needed as there aren’t too many of these “suspect” areas to accumulate dust over time.
When is Deep Cleaning a Necessity?
If your office is medium to large and the regular clean takes 4 hours plus per session then we’d recommend a deep clean every 2-3 months as a separate item.
The reality is that cleaning is a physical job. You could even call it a physically destructive job, as it involves a lot of bending and movements that have a high impact on the back. After a 4-hour straight cleaning session, the body needs recovery time. This being the case, even the most fit, dedicated and enthusiastic cleaner will find it difficult to have the energy to complete all the regular cleaning items each week and address items such as skirting boards, door architraves, bottoms of all the furniture (especially if you have 50+ office chairs!) and external glass.
If your premises are an industrial facility, then it is highly likely that grime is being transferred from the workshop areas to the office (intentionally or unintentionally!) and when the skirting boards and furniture don’t just have dust on them (they have grease or oily residues as well) then wiping these down with a degreaser or heavy-duty multipurpose cleaner is a must to avoid the skirting boards becoming permanently stained and of course this takes additional time.
In these types of situations, a separate deep clean every 2-3 months is necessary and realistic to allow enough time for all the cleaning tasks to be addressed properly. Trying to cram far too much into a regular clean (to make it fit the budget) just results in client disappointment (when all the areas you expect can’t be covered) and stressed out and even injured cleaners (once the cleaning session is going over 4 hours, realistically the cleaner needs a break or they are at risk of over stretching their tired muscles, making mistakes, causing a tendon injury due to picking up heavy equipment incorrectly etc.).
Where Regular Cleaning and Deep Cleaning Overlap ….. Enter the Custom Cleaning Plan!
No two offices are the same and for many small to medium sized premises it makes sense to have 1 or 2 items of deep cleaning incorporated into the regular cleaning plan.
Here are a few good examples….
Eg. A small office in an industrial area that adds external cobweb cleaning to their regular cleaning plan as they are near the bush (eg. at Warabrook or Rathmines). They also have external toilets near their mechanical workshop so the degreasing of the skirting boards in the toilets (and removal of cobwebs) is a must on a regular basis. There are only 6 skirting boards in these toilet blocks so it is quite feasible to add this manageable amount to the regular cleaning plan.
Eg. A small office in the Newcastle CBD that adds monthly carpet shampooing to their regular cleaning schedule. Some of these office buildings are quite old and the buildings are extremely close to one another so fresh air flow doesn’t easily occur through windows or even the front door (if the front entrance is set back from the street). In order to avoid the typical musty “aged building” smell that tortures both customers and the staff that work there, the business engages in regular carpet cleaning to remove these trapped odours.
In both of the above examples, a full separate deep clean every 2-3 months of all the items on a deep cleaning list is overkill, but adding a few targeted items makes all the difference.
Flawless Clean: The Experts in Custom Office Cleaning Plans in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie
As local Novocastrians and commercial cleaning specialists, we know Newcastle and the types of cleaning issues that tend to affect the various types of premises in certain suburbs, so when we do a site walkthrough, we aim to offer advice and consultation to put together a strategic cleaning plan that fits your budget and suits the particular needs of your premises.
We also know what “works for cleaners” and how to put together realistic cleaning plans that get results. Our hands on management team will train our cleaners to perform the specific cleaning tasks that are important for your premises and make sure they have the right professional equipment for the job.
At Flawless Clean, we understand that each office around Newcastle has very specific cleaning needs, which we will discuss with you during our first free meeting when we outline a cleaning plan tailored for you. Contact us anytime at 0413 034 144 or email us at admin@flawlessclean.com.au
