Is Day Cleaning Right For You?

The experts at Metroclean created a list of considerations to help you decide.

It’s good to know Metroclean is always listening to serve you better, and can accommodate any special cleaning requests, either day or night.

Is it Clean?

• Day cleaning isn’t the same as night cleaning. Night cleaning is more thorough.
• With day cleaning at office buildings, some areas may go amiss as requested by the tenant’s employee. Because janitors have a limited amount of time to clean a large space during the day, special requests for janitors to come back later may not always be possible with a day cleaning program.
• Some tenants may have businesses that make it difficult to access all areas, including schools, hospitals and factories.

1. Schools have a set program schedule for students, and cleaning occupied classrooms isn’t an option. Instead, schools use day porters, with an evening crew to provide more thorough cleaning.
2. Hospitals are open 24 hours, so cleaning needs to be done with the utmost consideration and care, especially with interchanging room occupants.
3. Janitors must be specially trained to work in such conditions as factories. They can be extremely dangerous environments while machinery is being used and likewise dangerous for workers who have to navigate around a cleaning crew or wet floors.

Is it Personal?

• Day cleaning puts a face on who’s cleaning your building.
• It encourages honesty and trust between the janitors and the tenants.
• According to a study done by BOMA, day cleaning reduced  tenant complaints by 70 percent.
• Many janitors prefer day cleaning because there’s better security, they don’t have to work in an empty building, and it’s safer for them to leave the building during the day.
• Some tenants may experience language barriers with janitors. Metroclean can provide English-speaking, day-time janitors at the request of the property manager.
• There’s less janitorial turn-over with day cleaning because people are happier working day shifts and they feel more valued when they get compliments from the tenant.

Is it Green?

• There are minimal cost savings with energy, regardless of your building’s size. That’s mostly due to floor and bathroom cleaning.

1. Because floor cleaning and buffing, as well as bathroom sensitization should not be done while the building is occupied, for safety and health reasons, these areas are usually cleaned during non-business hours. Traditionally, and without being on a day-cleaning schedule, this will save you 2 hours of electricity per day, in addition to the normal practice of turning off the property lights in the evening. Therefore; the actual electricity savings, if any may be minimal, as peak electricity rates are typically during the day and not in the evening.

• Disruptions, noise and odor can be a concern for tenants with day cleaning.
• Evaluate the opportunity lost when your employees are working because a janitor is cleaning a space.
• Day cleaning requires special tools, including lower-decibel, battery-operated machines, no-odor chemicals and microfiber tools. HEPA filters are important when vacuuming around tenants to avoid distributing dust particles in the air.

Other things to consider . . .
It can take several months for tenants to adjust to the changes of day cleaning, and both the tenant ant the janitors can expect a few kinks along the way.Day or night, Metroclean can provide you with properly-trained team to do the job right the first time. For more information, contact Lesli Mann, director of business development at (713) 255-0100 or lmann@metrocleanonline.com

Sources and Excerpts From:

“Cleaning During The Day Requires New Tools And Methods”  Contracting Profits. September 2008
“Change When You Clean To Go Green” Cleaning & Maintenance Management. September 2008

### © Metroclean 2008. All Rights Reserved

Written by: Dahlia Kelada, Director of Marketing, Metroclean  dahliak@metrocleanonline.com

Tagged: customer experiences, day cleaning, energy savings, Janitorial, LEADGREEN, Operations