How to Switch Office Cleaning Companies

When switching is the right call

One missed visit is a conversation. A pattern is a reason to switch. The patterns that rarely get better on their own are missed visits with no notice, a different crew every week, no written scope to hold anyone to, and a provider who does not answer when something goes wrong. If you have raised the problem twice and it has come back, the third conversation is with a new company.

Price is usually not the reason. Offices that switch to save money often get the same drift at a lower rate. Switch for reliability and communication, then compare price among companies that can deliver both. Our switching page covers what the switch looks like with us specifically.

The order that avoids a gap

1. Read your current agreement. Find the notice period, usually 30 days, and whether notice must be in writing. Note the billing date so the last invoice is clean.
2. Get the new company's walkthrough first. Do not give notice until you have a written scope and price in hand from the company you are moving to. Bring the list of what the old service misses; it becomes the new checklist.
3. Approve the written scope. A room by room checklist, visit nights, a flat monthly price and the term. If any of those are missing, you are about to repeat the problem.
4. Give notice in writing. The same day you approve the new quote, so the overlap week lands inside the old provider's notice period.
5. Run the overlap week. The new crew's first visit, a detailed reset, happens while the old company is still responsible for the schedule.
6. Change access on the last day. New alarm code, keys and fobs returned, building security told who is allowed in.

Giving notice

Keep the notice short and factual. State the final service date, ask for the return of all keys, fobs and parking passes by that date, and say that alarm codes will change on that date. You do not need to explain why. If the agreement requires a specific form of notice, email and a mailed letter together cover it.

Expect a retention call. A discount is often offered; weigh it against the reason you are leaving. If the problem was reliability, a lower price for the same missed visits is not a better deal. If you do decide to stay, get the new terms and a written scope from them, which is what you should have had in the first place.

The overlap week

The overlap week is the single step that makes a switch painless. The new crew does its first, longer visit while the old provider still has visits on the calendar, so the office is never uncovered. During that week, walk the office the morning after the new crew's visit and send one list of anything you noticed. That list goes straight into the checklist before the old company's last day.

If the old company has already stopped showing up, skip the overlap and start the new crew as soon as the quote is approved. Tell the new company you have no coverage; a company that cannot move quickly in that situation will not move quickly later either.

Keys, codes and access

• Give the new crew its own alarm code or key card rather than reusing the old one, so access can be tracked and revoked per person.
• Change the old code on the last service day, not before, so the old provider cannot claim a missed visit was an access problem.
• Collect every key, fob and parking pass. If one is missing, rekey the suite; it costs less than the uncertainty.
• Tell building security and the property manager who the new vendor is and on which nights they come.
• Write the access arrangement into the new scope so it survives staff turnover on both sides.

Avoiding the same problems again

The protections against drift are all things that go on paper before the first visit: a room by room scope, the name of the crew assigned to you, who the backup is, a single phone number that answers, and a check-in after the first week. Ask for each of them. Then hold the new company to the checklist from week one, because standards set in the first month are the standards you keep.

For the full list of questions to ask any company you are considering, read how to choose an office cleaning company, and use the office cleaning checklist to compare scopes line by line.