A clean office does a couple of things for a business; it provides a safe space for employees to conduct their work, it gives clients a great first impression, and, most importantly, it allows for more productivity. Work doesn’t get done in cluttered, unkempt spaces, and so to keep your business running smoothly, you hire what you think is a professional cleaning service.

What you don’t know is what your commercial cleaning crew isn’t doing when they pop in on nights and weekends. Discover 5 things your commercial cleaner doesn’t want you to know, as well as the steps you can take to make sure you get what you’re paying for.

1. Experience is lacking, but the price is great. You might feel like you’ve hit the jackpot with a cheap cleaning crew, but you could be missing out on quality service. Cleaning crews deemed “more affordable” tend to cut corners when they come in to do a job. They also tend to lack the experience needed to properly clean a commercial space. Most cleaning professionals don’t actually receive professional training.
2. Keeping up can be a problem. A lot of cleaning companies take on more cleaning projects than they have the man power to handle. When this happens, crews are often over-booked, tired, or simply frustrated, leaving your office looking lackluster. On the other hand, you may have hired a cleaning company that has the proper staffing but lacks the proper scheduling tools needed to stay on top of which locations are being cleaned and when.
3. Speediness trumps thoroughness. Although cleaning is part of their job description, your cleaning crew may not show up happy and ready to work. Your cleaning personnel may feel as though they’ve been treated unfairly on the job, or aren’t being compensated fairly. When they show up to clean your office, they clean as quickly as possible instead of taking their time, leaving your space less than sanitary for the coming week.
4. Snooping is always a possibility. Sometimes the members of your cleaning crews aren’t who they say they are. You may think you’re hiring a professional, but without criminal background checks, you could be paying someone to rummage through (or even take) your property. When your employees’ personal effects and private information are tampered with, it can leave them with an unsettling feeling and cause overall distrust, which is detrimental in the workplace.
5. Responsibility isn’t part of their vocabulary. Not all janitorial companies are insured, nor do they take responsibility when something goes wrong during a job. If a member of your cleaning crew damages the property, whether they break something on a desk or damage a surface with chemicals, you’ll have to foot the bill to have it fixed.

To find the janitorial service that’s right for you, it’s important to do your research! Knowing what you want out of a commercial cleaning company is the first step.