A cleaning contract fails quietly, in the first month, for reasons that have nothing to do with the price. The spec was a room list. The keys did not work. The day cleaner and the night cleaner had different ideas about the kitchen. Nobody had met the facilities manager. Cleanamotion has held commercial contracts across the Home Counties since 1978 — offices, warehouses, schools, retail, hospitality — and the contracts that last are the ones that are mobilised, not simply started.

This is not an argument for or against keeping cleaning in house. That piece is already on the site. This is what the first thirty days should contain once a contractor is doing it.

Before the first shift

– A walk-through with the person who will manage the site, not only the person who sold it. They should see the plant room, the bin store, the cleaners’ cupboard and the floor that floods when it rains.

– A written spec by area and by frequency. Daily toilets are not weekly carpets. Periodic window cleaning and a machine clean of a warehouse floor do not belong in the same line as a desk wipe.

– Fobs, alarm codes, parking, and what happens if the code changes. A cleaner locked out at 6am is a missed clean.

– Who buys the soap, the bags and the centrefeed, and where they are stored. Running out is the complaint that arrives before any complaint about the floor.

– Security and induction. A cleaner on a site with the public, with children, or with food needs to know the rules of that building. DBS, where the site requires it, is arranged before the start, not after the first week.

– A named contact on both sides, and a deputy. Holiday and sickness are not emergencies if the numbers are already exchanged.

The first cleans will find things the walk-through missed. A meeting room used as a storeroom. A kitchen that is busier on a Tuesday. A warehouse aisle the forklifts do not leave until four. The spec should be amended in writing. A contract that cannot be changed in week two will be argued about in month six.

Staff on site should know the cleaner is coming, and roughly when. A desk that is cleared is a desk that can be cleaned. A desk that is a filing pile will be dusted around, and then complained about.

A month in, walk the building against the spec. Toilets, kitchens, entrance glass, the warehouse floor, the bits nobody photographs. Agree what is in the daily clean and what is a periodic — carpets, upholstery, high-level dusting, external windows. If something is wrong, say so then. A contractor would rather correct a site in week four than lose it in month eight.

When you ask for a quote, ask who walks the building, who holds the spec, and when the first review is. Call 01525 234113 or email sales@cleanamotion.co.uk. A quote without a mobilisation plan is a price. A quote with one is a contract.