How to evaluate a commercial cleaning vendor: 7 questions to ask.

The cleaning industry has wide variance in quality. The questions below help expose those differences before you commit. They’re not “gotcha” questions — they’re operational questions that any well-run cleaning vendor should answer easily and any poorly-run vendor will struggle with.

Question 1: Will I have the same crew every visit? Good answer: “Yes. Your account is assigned to a specific crew.” Warning: “We send whoever’s available.”

Question 2: What’s your staff retention rate? Industry average for turnover is 200%+ annually. Good vendors are dramatically better. Good answer: specific numbers (70-80% retention). Warning: deflection or “we have great training programs.”

Question 3: Are your cleaners background-checked, bonded, and insured? Good answer: “Yes — every cleaner passes criminal background check, $500K liability, COI within 1-2 business days.” Warning: vague claims without specifics.

Question 4: How do you handle building access and key security? Good answer: documented key logging, alarm code restrictions. Warning: “we give our cleaners the keys” with no logging.

Question 5: Will I receive cleaning logs and monthly reporting? Good answer: “Visit logs with date, crew, time, observations. Monthly summary reports in PDF/Excel.” Warning: “We don’t usually do that.”

Question 6: What’s your process when something goes wrong? Good answer: “Tell us within 24 hours; we return at no charge.” Warning: “We rarely have problems.”

Question 7: What’s your scope, and what’s outside of it? Good answer: explicit about what they do and don’t do, refers to specialists for outside-scope work. Warning: “We do everything.”