Evergreen Building Maintenance provides daily and weekly office cleaning, and janitorial services in Kelowna, Kamloops, Vernon, Penticton, Cranbrook, West Kelowna and Lake Country regions.
Commercial Cleaning Company Gets An A-Ok At Prestigious College Of The Rockies!
Evergreen Building Maintenance Inc. was awarded the commercial cleaning company contract this summer for the College Of The Rockies in Cranbrook BC.
“It was a tough bidding process against some of the top commercial cleaning companies in BC” says Ranjit Takhar President of Evergreen Building Maintenance.
The contract for cleaning College Of The Rockies is considered quite prestigious since it is the main college serving 6 or 7 cities in the Kootenays and is also one of the primary attractions of Cranbrook, BC.
Approximately 2,500 busy full time busy students use 200,000 sq. ft. of high traffic space including classrooms, indoor and outdoor recreational areas, parking lots, food courts and medical training facilities. This is quite a challenge considering the College requires a wide variety of expertise from its commercial cleaning company 365 days a year.
Takhar says “This contract proves we are ready to take on larger federal / educational institutions that require full-time day porters and consistent high volume service.”
The RFP from the College was clear that it only wanted to deal with companies that could guarantee that “the work shall be performed by fully trained persons, competent in the particular operation assigned to them.”
Not An Easy Job For Any Commercial Cleaning Company
This is a busy college campus. They don’t have time for small companies that can’t provide “fully trained” staff for all aspects of the commercial cleaning duties.
Right from the start it was clear that the College Of The Rockies wanted competent who can clean according to “specifications” using the “best techniques of the trade”.
Meeting the “specifications” would require a mature commercial cleaning company that can consistently supply:
- All labour needed to do the job, at all times. If someone gets sick, they must be able to provide a replacement worker instantly, including another supervisor, if needed.
- All cleaning supplies, chemicals and materials like sealers, waxes, plastic garbage bags, liners, tampons, sanitary napkins and disposal bags must be of good quality.
- The commercial cleaning company must have all necessary equipment like polishers, commercial grade vacuums, auto scrubbers, buffers, carpet extractors, etc. and they have to be less than five years old.
- All materials and chemicals must meet Canada Standards of Safety.
Using the “best techniques of the trade” means each and every person on the job must be thoroughly trained and have experience. The College would not tolerate amateur “mistakes” commonly made by newbies. A thorough cleaning and sanitizing of high priority areas would be required every day including:
- Healthcare facilities such as dental labs, nursing labs and first aid classrooms.
- Cafeteria and chef’s training classrooms and kitchens.
- Daycare areas.
- Aboriginal Gathering Place
“Extras” Are Included In The Contract
In addition to all scheduled cleaning, the commercial cleaning company is expected to
- wash walls, ceilings, doors and window frames
- floor stripping and refinishing
- window cleaning inside and outside the building
- clean the atrium and glass walls
- clean light fixtures, lens and interior of fixtures
- clean dust from ceiling
All tasks must be performed without breaching security measures and in accordance with fire and emergency regulations.
Since the College Of The Rockies is a public institution they also wanted to make sure the commercial cleaning company treats its workers properly. The contract would only be awarded to a company that could prove that it pays its workers properly and on time. All workers must be covered by Workers Compensation.
Comprehensive general liability insurance would be required by the company and all employees must have a Commercial Fidelity Bond in order to protect the College, its agents and “servants”.
When you look at all the requirements and scope of service, only an established company would be able to handle the job…new companies and small companies need not apply.
Fortunately, Evergreen Building Maintenance was able to provide proof that they could meet and exceed all the requirements of the College Of The Rockies at a great price!
Congratulations to all the local people that will be working to keep the College Of The Rockies looking beautiful!
If you have a local business, whether it’s small or large, Evergreen Building Maintenance has the in-house resources to keep your premises clean all year long.
Call now for a commercial cleaning company quote 1-855-824-8450 or 250-869-5165.
We’ll do a walkthrough of your building and build a custom strategy to get the best clean every day you come to work!
How To Help Your Building Janitorial Company Give You Pricing In A Format So You Can Compare Quotes
Have you ever had a stack of building janitorial company pricing quotes for one facility that look like they are each for completely different buildings?
How do you compare commercial cleaning companies if the wording and descriptions in their quotes don’t seem to have anything in common?
This is a real problem for facility managers when trying to get the best value for their dollar.
Do you go for the lowest price not understanding that it may not cover even the essential cleaning services you need?
Maybe you pick a premium-priced quote thinking you will get a more professional cleaning company… and later you find out that the company doesn’t even have experienced cleaning staff?
This is a common problem when the management doesn’t take care of its employees so there is a lot of employee turnover. They can’t keep good employees, so their costs go up because they have to compensate for the mistakes of beginners.
Commercial Janitorial Company Pricing Factors
- Labor costs
- Insurance
- Taxes
- Employee benefits package
- Direct costs like cleaning supplies, toilet paper
- Equipment costs
- Training costs for employees
- Management fee
- Profit
Janitorial Quotes – Factors You Need To Consider
One of the best things you can do to make the job of comparing quotes easier is to be clear in your own mind what kind of services you are looking for. Here are some idea starters:
- What type of building is it?
- What kind of business you operate?
- What are your building’s traffic and use patterns?
- Where is your facility located?
- What are the labor costs in your area?
- What scope of cleaning do you need?
- Do you have any special requirements?
- Do you need landscaping services?
- Do you need parking lot maintenance?
- Do you need general building maintenance from time to time?
- Do you need a cleaning service that can be available during the day time?
- Do you have special projects or interim needs?
- What frequency of cleaning do you want?
Provide Your Janitorial Service With Solid Information So They Can Give You A Solid Quote
- Tell them the total square footage of your building
- Break the square footage of each flooring type (carpet, hardwood, cement, marble, etc.)
- How many people typically use your building during the day?
- How many people use the building in the evenings?
- Are people using the building on weekends?
- Are there regular “special events” that need to be built into the quote?
- How many washrooms are there?
- How big are the washrooms?
- What did your previous cleaning service miss or failed to do?
This type of information will help commercial janitorial services estimate how much cleaning supplies they will need. They can establish budgets for trashcan liners, toilet paper, paper towels and hand soap. If you have different flooring types, they can budget for time, materials and employees with specific expertise.
Remember to prioritize your “wants” and “must-have’s”. Some companies may be able to give you a price break on services of more value to you. In other cases it might be too expensive to include some services on a regular basis, but becomes affordable on less frequent basis. For example, you may get your hardwood floors waxed every quarter instead of once a month.
Call now for a free, confidential commercial cleaning and building maintenance quote from a commercial janitorial company that provides transparent pricing: 1-888-559-6870 or 250-999-2796
How The Right Commercial Cleaning Company Can Make Overall Building Maintenance Easier
A commercial cleaning company normally does not get involved in the overall building maintenance of a facility.
But whether your business caters to students in a dorm, office employees, patients in a medical facility, or travelers and guests in a hotel they will form an overall opinion about your company based on their experience of the physical aspects of the facility.
Initially, your customers expect quick and hassle-free parking. When they enter the building they expect a clean, comfortable, and well-functioning building. If they don’t get that, their attitude changes.
It’s important to make sure your building maintenance staff is trained to improve customer attitudes and provide great experiences for a long-lasting, positive impression of your company and facility.
When this occurs, they will leave with a positive experience.
Sometimes You Need More Than Just A Commercial Cleaning Company
Does your facility operate like clockwork? If you operate your facility by outsourcing each service to a different company you are going to end up wasting a lot of time. It takes up valuable time to look for someone you can trust to deliver the standard of service required by your facility. If you make a quick decision and just go with the most impressive looking sales presentation, you are likely to end up paying a high dollar and still, you may end up disappointed.
Outsourcing individual services to different companies demands more of your time supervising and explaining how your building works.
Consistency is another consideration. If you have several companies you turn to for various needs, each will have its own staff turnover. That means the quality of service is not likely to be consistent… then you are back at square one, trying to find a company that can provide the standard of service you require.
Ease Your Building Maintenance Burden With Seamless Care
Think of it this way: If you hire an established, medium to large, experienced commercial cleaning company they will have much of the building maintenance expertise you will need from time to time. You may not need building maintenance services every day, but a relatively large commercial cleaning company will have specialists “floating around” in the area that they can pull to provide the services you need.
Since this kind of commercial cleaning company is already working in your facility, their project manager will be familiar with the requirements of your building. They will be able to orient and train the building maintenance person rather than you getting stuck with that task, when you could be doing other things.
You wouldn’t have to worry about consistency of service because the people looking after your facility will know what you expect. They have been providing the standard of cleaning that you expect, so they will make sure their building maintenance people perform to that level.
Maybe its window washing, preventive maintenance or commercial handyman services. Or, it could be HVAC repair or light construction. If you already have a good relationship with your commercial cleaning and janitorial services contractor, why not work with them to coordinate other needs within your building? Skip phone calls, hiring, supervising and follow up with multiple service contractors and pass along this part of your business to a company you already have a relationship with that you trust.
Problem solved!
When you hire a commercial cleaning company look for their ability to do a variety of tasks, as a company, even though you won’t need all of their services every day.
Evergreen Building Maintenance has been a leader in the commercial cleaning business in BC and Alberta. With a full time crew of 156 fully trained personnel and growing; we can provide a wide variety of building maintenance services on an “as needed” basis. Some of our services include:
- Building Maintenance
- Commercial Cleaning
- Janitorial Services
- Property Caretaking
- Landscaping Services
- Parking Lot Maintenance
- Bundled Services
- Technology & Innovation
Call now for a free, confidential commercial cleaning and building maintenance quote: 1-888-559-6870 or 250-999-2796
We are a Kelowna commercial cleaning company that can help make overall building maintenance easier!
Kelowna Janitorial Services – Get Better Results With The Same Budget!
Commercial Cleaning Service Security – Can You Trust Them To Be In Your Building At Night?
Your commercial cleaning service company will often need to get into your building after business hours. You don’t necessarily want someone vacuuming or mopping in the presence of your clients and busy staff.
Sometimes the nature of your work demands a great deal of security. You can’t let just anyone wander around completely unsupervised.
Banks have that problem. So do police stations and jails. In fact, because of our privacy laws and customer confidentiality, a lot of businesses would lose the confidence of their clients if there was a security leak.
Here are a few things your commercial cleaning service should be doing to make sure your interests are secured:
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All Commercial Cleaning Staff Members Must Have Background Checks
You don’t want people with criminal records in your building at night. Your commercial janitorial service must provide assurance that they do a thorough background check of their employees including getting police reports.
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Commercial Cleaning Service Security Requires Mandatory Drug Testing
A reputable commercial cleaning service must be able to provide some sort of evidence that they do drug testing on ALL employees. Even though privacy laws may prohibit providing information on specific employees, ask for evidence of drug testing procedures including names of the drug testing companies they use.
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Communication With Non-English Speaking Staff
Commercial cleaning companies often employ non-English speaking staff. When you want to communicate information about hazards and sensitive areas you need to make sure everyone clearly understands. It is important for your janitorial company to provide someone on the cleaning team that is fluent in English and is smart enough to understand what you are saying. They must also be able to communicate that information to the rest of the staff.
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Fully Bonded And Insured
Things can go wrong. Employees can make mistakes. Sometimes the wrong person can get the job on the cleaning company’s team. Make sure your cleaning company is fully bonded and insured. If something goes wrong, including theft, you don’t want to end up with the bill.
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Check References
In addition to all of the above make sure you get several references. Check to see if your cleaning company has consistently held long-term contracts with several of their clients. Find out how long the employees have been with the company on the team that will be handling your contract. Ask around among other facilities managers about what they have heard about the company you are considering hiring. Do a check on the Internet to see if there are reviews or media reports about the company.
Screening a commercial cleaning company for trustworthiness can never be perfect, but you can get a good “feel” for the attitude of the management from the consultant you are working with. Keep good communication lines open with that person to address any concerns and adjust practices to suit your business.
Evergreen Building Maintenance has long-term experience working with banks and government offices. They have provided commercial cleaning staff for police services and criminal detention centres. Sometimes it can take six to eight months to go through the enhanced security clearance.
Whatever your needs, Evergreen Building Maintenance can provide the commercial cleaning service security cleared staff to look after your building responsibly.
Call now for a free, confidential quote: 1-855-824-8450 or 250-869-5165.
Evergreen Building Maintenance hires and trains people you can trust.
Top 3 Things To Look For When Hiring Commercial Cleaning Services
The right commercial cleaning company provides more than just a professional appearance. Research shows that if the working environment is dirty there are long term cognitive effects on employees. If your work environment is not clean it can have a negative effect on your bottom line!
A study published in the Journal Of Occupational And Environmental Medicine shows that the right commercial cleaning service will strengthen the well-being and morale of your employees. This has direct implications for increased productivity.
Nobody wants to do business with a company that has dirty facilities. It’s a direct reflection of your office and your company. No matter what kind of company you are, hiring the right commercial janitorial service is very important for your success. This makes choosing the right commercial cleaning service one of the most important decisions you, as an owner, or your human resources department can make.
It can be very tempting to choose the least expensive cleaning company when comparing quotes but remember: you get what you pay for.
Hiring a commercial cleaning company is not an easy task, but if you do it right, you can find a commercial janitorial company that will be an asset to your business for years to come.
Here are the top three things to look for when you want a reliable commercial cleaning service for your building:
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Every company has different needs. Make sure your cleaning company offers the services you need based on the type of work you do.
Work with the cleaning company’s consultant and map out the exact services you need. Here are some examples of what to think about:
- Maybe you just need a simple vacuuming and dusting service
- Carpet and upholstery cleaning
- Cleaning of the toilets and washroom facilities several times a week
- Hardwood floor cleaning
- Power washing
- Parking lot cleaning
- Window cleaning
- Special event cleaning
- Special cleaning of certain rooms that are used in the evenings or early mornings
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Find out how many years they have been in business and what accounts they have with a business similar to yours.
Do you really want your facility to be a training ground for your new commercial cleaning company? Experience matters. When you work with a company that has been around for a while they will have long term employees and quality.
Experienced companies are just better at what they do. You want a company with years and years (preferably, decades and decades) of experience. Mistakes that the new companies are stumbling through haven’t been an issue for the bigger, older companies forever. Techniques perfected by the older companies have been molded by wisdom and elevated by experience. The new guys are still struggling to master the basics of their craft. Sure, their work may be cheaper, but that’s because it’s of far less quality.
Same thing applies for your industry. If your cleaning company has experience with your industry, you will have a far better experience than if they don’t.
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Do they have the right kind of insurance? Not only do they need to have insurance, but your commercial cleaning company needs to have the right kind of insurance.
Fly-by-night commercial cleaning services won’t be able to provide proof of insurance. Look for clauses that ensure that protect you from legal liability if something happens to their workers while on your premises. Make sure your cleaning company has general liability insurance, worker’s compensation, automobile liability and an umbrella policy. Verify coverage so you have peace of mind that you won’t be liable for mistakes made by your cleaning company.
Evergreen Building Maintenance has over 30 years of commercial cleaning services experience. They have many experienced teams that have been with them “forever”. All employees are specially trained with the latest “green” commercial cleaning techniques and have the right tools for the job.
Call now for a free quote.
Our professional consultants will walk through all the steps needed for your business and design a custom solution so your building looks good, feels good and reflects the high standards you value.
Kelowna Janitorial Services – Get Better Results With The Same Budget!
Morning Or Evening Office Cleaning – What’s Best?
Your employees spend a lot of time at the office. Clients come and go, there are meetings, food, lots of things going on that can create an unsanitary situation at work.
In order for people to feel comfortable at work you need to have a clean place. But when is the best time to bring in the commercial cleaning staff?
The first thing you need to decide is if you need daily, weekly or just monthly cleaning. It’s not so much a matter of budget, but it’s more about what’s needed to make your working space comfortable. An unclean office can become a source of stress. Nobody needs that.
Maybe in your office there are certain areas that need cleaning daily and other areas where once a month would be ok.
The other thing to consider is if people often end up working late, at the office. If that’s the case, is it ok to have commercial janitorial staff come in at the end of the day? Or, will it be too much of a disturbance for employees that have already put in a long, hard day.
Cleaning equipment can be quite noisy, so if the type of work people end up doing late in the evening or night requires concentration, then maybe it’s not good to disturb them?
The morning can be a good time to bring in the cleaning crews if people come in at a consistent time and things are generally a little slow in the mornings. You don’t want cleaning crew getting in the way of clients or staff frantically scrambling to meet deadlines.
Another thing to consider is if people in your office often have client or other meetings at night time and the office needs to look clean first thing in the morning.
All things considered, it’s important to have a clean working environment. Your circumstances would determine whether you should have a commercial cleaning crew come in in the morning or evening.
Evergreen maintenance has crews that can do the job at any time of day or night. If you have a special event happening at your office and need us to come in extra, we can do that too.
Give us a call for a free quote. All our services are 100 percent guaranteed.
Quality Commercial Cleaning Plays A Big Role In Keeping Your Break Room in Order
Many offices have a break room or a kitchen where employees and staff can heat their food up and eat lunch together. In modern offices, they can even consist of fun activities like pool tables and games. These spaces are so important to have a break from your desk, reflect on your day and catch up with other people in the office. An office’s break room, however, requires frequent and regular maintenance and cleaning due to the high volume of people traffic. Here are some important considerations to help keep your break room in order.
Maintaining food debris
Food debris can cause a huge mess if it isn’t properly cleaned in an office. If your office has carpeting, this can also be a breeding ground for germs and debris build-up. In the break room, it’s important to have a designated area for food that is kept clean at all times. This area should also have towels, paper towels, sponges, and soap and sanitization products to encourage people to clean up after themselves.
For those who choose to eat at their desks, include an area in the office where people can have access to items to clean up their desks and sanitize their hands and surrounding areas. This will ensure that there is always a strong standard of cleanliness in all areas of the office where food may be consumed.
Sanitization
Sanitization is also important for break rooms and lunch areas. The kitchen area is one of the number one areas where germs can spread quickly. If somebody, for instance, is carrying a cold virus but has not yet felt its symptoms and touches let’s say, a coffee maker, this virus could spread easily to other people.
How to remedy this: Ensure that areas are sanitized frequently by a professional quality commercial cleaning company. A regular and thorough sanitization process can make a huge difference to the spread of germs. Meanwhile, encourage your employees to sanitize their hands frequently even if they aren’t sick!
Could your office use some better quality commercial cleaning practices? Get in touch with us today to talk about scheduling regular cleaning and maintenance initiatives for your business!
Memberships and Accolades
