Frequently Asked Questions - Cascadian Building Maintenance, Ltd.

Cascadian Frequently Asked Questions Header

Cascadian Building Maintenance, Ltd., is a locally owned and operated janitorial services company providing a full-range of
janitorial services to commercial customers throughout the Seattle/Bellevue/Tacoma/Everett area for over 16 years!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

Herein are examples of questions that we typically receive from prospective customers during the account analysis
phase of the RFP process. If you have a question that is not listed, and you would like to know the answer before inviting
us to bid on the janitorial services for your commercial property/business, please email Kelly Foster by clicking HERE.

	1.) The quality of my previous janitorial services was always poor and inconsistent. Will Cascadian give me better results?
	Yes, we will (and, please, check with our customers to see if we live up to what we say). We insist on thorough training for all of our staff, from the CEO to the part-time janitor. Through our many training programs, we teach Managers and Supervisors how to monitor cleaning trends and results, as well as teaching janitorial staff team members how to clean effectively and efficiently. We also give our Managers (see second question below) and Supervisors a manageable amount of customer locations to manage on a daily basis. This allows them to spend "QUALITY TIME" with our customers and our employees to ensure that we are providing the quality service levels that we agreed to provide. We also try to keep turnover low, by giving our janitorial staff team members an amount of work that is actually attainable and sustainable. To keep their costs down, many janitorial service companies expect their employees to perform an amount of work each night that would be impossible for even the most experienced janitor. This leads to poor or inconsistent service, and it is also demoralizing for the affected employee, leading to high turnover. High turnover also leads to inconsistent and poor service quality, and if the company providing your service expects their Supervisors to be responsible for too many accounts (another cost saving technique), the new employees coming in are not trained properly...leading to more turnover and more quality problems. As you can see, this can be a viscious circle that never ends if it is not addressed properly by your contractor. Ask your current janitorial contractor, or, if you are in the process of bidding out your janitorial services, ask each potential service provider the following questions to get an idea of what you can expect in terms of consistent, quality service.... QUESTION #1 - What type of production rates do you have for the janitors working in my location (how many square feet per hour, how many minutes are set aside per work station, etc.)? QUESTION #2 - Describe the training each janitor gets that works in my location. QUESTION #3 - Is there a "roving" Supervisor responsible for my location, and, if so, how many other locations is he/she responsible for (and how many employees)? QUESTION #4 - How many customer locations is my Account Manager (the person you interact with during your business hours if you have a request or a problem) responsible for, and how often will I see them in person in my account per month? QUESTION #5 - Are inspections done during the day (to see what you see) and during the evening hours (to see what the janitors see)?
	2.) I never saw a representative from my previous janitorial company after the initial sale. Is Cascadian any different?
	Absolutely! Managers with account sales and management responsibility at Cascadian (Tim, Kelly, Greg, Ira, Mike and Ben) do not have an unmanageable amount of accounts that they are ultimately responsible for (unlike many other commercial cleaning companies in our industry in the Pacific Northwest). It is not uncommon in our industry for account managers to have 50 to 75 different accounts that they are responsible for. When you consider that there are only 20 to 23 work days in a typical month, you can begin to see why you don't see an account rep very often.
	3.) I always end up having to manage the janitors in my facility instead of my previous janitorial companies managing them. Will Cascadian make me do this too?
	We believe in and actually monitor ourselves. Many companies will tell you the same thing, but in reality, will fall short. Whether you have time to talk to us or not, you will consistently see us in your facility during the day and at night checking on the quality of our cleaning and working with our staff. We feel that we were hired to take care of your cleaning needs so that you can spend more time doing the things that you need to do to make your business successful.
	4.) It seems like I always have cleaning-type issues that my previous janitorial companies couldn't help me with.
	At Cascadian, we strive to be your "ONE STOP SHOP"! Along with standard janitorial services, we also provide an extensive list of additional services (such as pressure washing, ceiling tile cleaning and restoration, window washing, etc.). Please check out our "Available Services" page for details and a more complete list of some of the additional services that we have available. Also, with a management staff that has over 130 years of combined management experience in the commercial janitorial industry right here in the Pacific Northwest, we don't run across many cleaning situations that we haven't seen before, but if we don't have experience with a particular issue that you are dealing with, chances are we know someone who can take care of it.
	5.) My previous janitorial companies always had huge turnover in staff (sometimes it seemed as often as every other day) and this led to very inconsistent results in the day-to-day quality of our cleaning. How do you handle turnover?
	(Please see question #1 for additional details) We try to keep turnover at a much lower rate than the average in our industry in this area by giving our staff an amount of work that is actually attainable and sustainable. We also train each of our employees when they begin working for us and continuously work with them on a regular basis to show that we care about them and the work that they do...and to show them that we want them to be successful! We also try, whenever possible, to promote quality employees from within (for example, we've had night janitors that have gone on to become Day Porters, Supervisors, Operations Managers and District Representatives). This philosophy gives the motivation to those of our staff that want to work hard and advance the opportunity to do so. To keep operational costs down, many janitorial contractors expect their employees to perform an amount of work each night that would be impossible for even teh most experienced janitor. This is demoralizing for teh affected employee, leading to higher turnover and poor or inconsistent service because the employee simply cannot get everything done each night that they are supposed to and they look at their job as an impossible task. When they ask for help or training, more often than not their supervisor is "too busy" to get to them and they finally quit...leading to the same cycle all over again with a new or inexperienced employee. By asking our employees to perform in a range that is actually possible, we are able to keep turnover down, thus giving us even more of an opportunity to work with our employees...turning "GOOD" employees in to "GREAT" employees!
Cascadian - Proudly serving the Greater Puget Sound Area since 1994

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