Resources
The First 30 Days With a New Office Cleaning Company
A month-one plan for the office side of a new cleaning contract: what to settle before the first night, how to check the early visits, and what to cover when you sit down at day 30.
Printable checklist
Why month one needs a plan
A new cleaning crew spends its first weeks learning your office: which door to use, where the trash goes at the end of the night, which conference room fills up on Tuesdays, which restroom runs out of towels first. Most of that knowledge lives in people’s heads on your side, and the faster it reaches the crew, the sooner the visits settle into a steady routine.
The plan below is for the office manager or facilities contact. It is organized by week, ending with a short review at day 30. The printable version turns each step into a box to tick, with room for your notes, so the month has a record you can refer back to later.
Before the first night: confirm the task list
Everything in month one is measured against the task list, so make sure it says what you expect. Read it against the walkthrough notes and your own room list before the start date, while changes are still easy.
- Every room is on the list under the name your staff use for it
- Each task has a frequency, and the visit nights match what you booked
- Rooms to skip, locked offices and anything left untouched on desks are written in
- Periodic work such as carpet extraction has a target month, not just a mention
- Who furnishes restroom paper and soap is settled, and where the stock lives
Tell your staff when service starts, which nights the crew comes in, and who to tell when something is off. A one-line note saves a week of complaints going to the wrong person. Still need the rooms and tasks on paper? Start with our scope of work guide.
Keys, codes and the alarm
A crew that can’t get in, or sets off the alarm on its way out, makes a poor first impression for everyone. A little paperwork up front prevents both.
- Keys, fobs or badges handed over in person and logged, with who holds each one
- The alarm procedure explained, and codes given directly rather than written into shared documents
- The building’s after-hours rules shared: entry door, security desk, freight elevator, parking
- A plan for a tripped alarm or a door that will not lock
- Keys and fobs from any previous company collected and checked off
Every Loop crew member is background-checked before receiving any key, fob or code for your office.
Week one: check the basics
For the first several visits, walk the office early the next morning before most staff arrive. Keep it short and look at the items people notice: restrooms, the kitchen, trash and the entry. Fifteen minutes with the printable is plenty.
- Restrooms stocked, clean and dry
- Breakroom counters and sink clean, appliance doors wiped, bins emptied
- Trash and recycling out of every room on the list
- Entry glass and reception tidy
- Floors vacuumed or mopped, edges included
- Building secured on the way out: lights off, doors locked, alarm armed the way you asked
Jot down the rooms that look right, not only the misses. Periodic tasks will not show yet, so leave them for the review.
Weeks two and three: the feedback loop
By the second week the crew has a route through the building. This is when feedback has the most effect, because habits are still forming. Route every note through one person on your side, so the crew hears a single, consistent picture instead of five separate requests.
- Report a miss the morning you see it, with the room and the task
- Separate one-off slips from things that keep happening
- Ask for a task to be added or moved, rather than mentioning it in passing to whoever is on site
- Keep a dated note of each request and when it was resolved
Loop can be reached 24/7, and we reply to requests within one business day. Because supervisors check rooms on scheduled quality inspections using that same task list, a change you ask for is written where it will be checked, not left in one night’s memory. Our guide to the signs office cleaning is slipping covers what to watch once the month is over.
The 30-day review
At the end of the month, set aside half an hour with your notes and look at the month as a whole. The aim is to adjust the plan, not to grade it.
- Which misses were resolved and stayed resolved
- Which rooms need a higher or lower frequency than you first booked
- Whether supplies are lasting between visits, and which item runs out first
- Whether the visit time still suits the building, given late meetings or early arrivals
- Which periodic jobs should go on the calendar for the coming months
- Whether busy areas need daytime help between evening visits
Put the changes you settle on into the task list so month two starts from an updated version. Busy areas that slip by mid-afternoon can get a day porter round, leaving the evening routine as it is.
A few useful answers
Common questions.
What should we hand over before the first cleaning visit?
Keys, fobs or badges, logged by who holds each one, plus the alarm procedure and the building’s after-hours rules. Give alarm codes directly to the crew contact rather than writing them into shared documents.
How soon can we judge a new cleaning company?
Check the basics from the first week, then judge the routine around day 30. By then the crew knows the building, your feedback has had time to land, and the task list has been adjusted once.
Should one person handle feedback in month one?
Yes, one person on the office side. Collecting notes in one place keeps requests consistent and gives you a dated record for the 30-day review.
Will our task list change once the first month is over?
Often, yes. The first month shows which rooms need more or less frequent attention and which supplies run low, and those changes go into the list for month two.