Welcome to ICS Office Cleaning Services' Blog
ICS Office Cleaning Services are one of the UK's leading contract cleaning company, we are at the forefront of changing how office cleaning and contract cleaning should be carried out.
We are constantly striving to improve and innovate our industry.
For example we were the first cleaning company to change over to using solely eco friendly cleaning products (and still remain as competitive on price).
We have now implemented so many new procedures and ideas whilst keeping the high cleaning standards our client's expect that we thought we'd start putting them all together here.
Please feel free to have a look around here and see what we are doing to improve and challenge how commercial cleaning should be done.
If you are interested in our eco friendly office cleaning services visit Office Cleaners ICS or
ICS has recently been voted once more as one of the top 10 office cleaning companies in London and the UK for 2008-2009.
The survey carried out on behalf of Darwin Clayton (one of the leading cleaning company insurers) ranks uk office cleaning companies not just on turnover but takes into account such things as customer satisfaction, customer services and provision of services.
By continuing to offer exceptional office cleaning services combined with great customer satisfaction has lead to ICS being voted as one of the top 10 cleaning companies.
Many of our client's when asked were very impressed with our overall service levels, attention to detail and our embracing of green cleaning.
If you are interested in using one of the best cleaning companies in the UK, why not get a free online quote now ICS will provide you with trained office cleaners who are regularly supervised and monitored by our managers. ICS's office cleaning systems are designed to get it right all the time and are proven and tested.
The outbreak of swine flu is of considerable concern at the moment. Contract cleaning companies can help fight against swine flu by using hygienic preventative methods.
Some examples of the ways office cleaning companies can offer to help their clients are;
Ensuring a good supply of tissues for office desks. This must be backed up by employees knowing and carrying out the CATCH IT, BIN IT, KILL IT message concerning sneezing and using tissues.
Ensuring sufficient stocks of soap and hand drying supplies are always available and educating good hand hygiene will drastically reduce spreading of flus and colds.
Supplying hand sanitizer gels which are available for all. Advise of good hand hygiene procedures and on hand drying equipment.
Adjusting cleaning frequencies of hard surfaces/light switches/door knobs/keyboards/phones etc so they are cleaned and sanitised more frequently.
The above methods combined with good hand hygiene can help fight not only swine flu but colds and other infectious diseases. Read more
We are constantly striving to improve and innovate our industry.
For example we were the first cleaning company to change over to using solely eco friendly cleaning products (and still remain as competitive on price).
We have now implemented so many new procedures and ideas whilst keeping the high cleaning standards our client's expect that we thought we'd start putting them all together here.
Please feel free to have a look around here and see what we are doing to improve and challenge how commercial cleaning should be done.
If you are interested in our eco friendly office cleaning services visit Office Cleaners ICS or
ICS voted top cleaning company once more
ICS has recently been voted once more as one of the top 10 office cleaning companies in London and the UK for 2008-2009.
The survey carried out on behalf of Darwin Clayton (one of the leading cleaning company insurers) ranks uk office cleaning companies not just on turnover but takes into account such things as customer satisfaction, customer services and provision of services.
By continuing to offer exceptional office cleaning services combined with great customer satisfaction has lead to ICS being voted as one of the top 10 cleaning companies.
Many of our client's when asked were very impressed with our overall service levels, attention to detail and our embracing of green cleaning.
If you are interested in using one of the best cleaning companies in the UK, why not get a free online quote now ICS will provide you with trained office cleaners who are regularly supervised and monitored by our managers. ICS's office cleaning systems are designed to get it right all the time and are proven and tested.
The outbreak of swine flu is of considerable concern at the moment. Contract cleaning companies can help fight against swine flu by using hygienic preventative methods.
Some examples of the ways office cleaning companies can offer to help their clients are;
Ensuring a good supply of tissues for office desks. This must be backed up by employees knowing and carrying out the CATCH IT, BIN IT, KILL IT message concerning sneezing and using tissues.
Ensuring sufficient stocks of soap and hand drying supplies are always available and educating good hand hygiene will drastically reduce spreading of flus and colds.
Supplying hand sanitizer gels which are available for all. Advise of good hand hygiene procedures and on hand drying equipment.
Adjusting cleaning frequencies of hard surfaces/light switches/door knobs/keyboards/phones etc so they are cleaned and sanitised more frequently.
The above methods combined with good hand hygiene can help fight not only swine flu but colds and other infectious diseases. Read more
Employing a high ratio of Managers to cleaning staff means we can deliver the attention to detail that makes all the difference in commercial cleaning...
Commercial cleaning everyday is one thing, cleaning to a high standard everyday is something very different and difficult to achieve.
Achieving a consistently high standard of cleaning is something ICS pride itself on, but what does this mean and how do we attain this?
Having walked around 100's of sites when quoting for work, the complaints client have are usually along the same lines; the cleaning company started off ok and now...
The clients then go on to list the usual suspects; dust on skirting boards/ledges/fire extinguishers, dirty pipes in the toilets , build up of lime scale on taps and many more but usually of the same elk.
These details often are the reason why cleaning contractors win or lose contracts.
How do we at ICS keep the daily cleaning standards up to the required levels and thereby have a fantastic client retention rate?
Attention to detail.
Attention to detail in every aspect of our organisation, firstly we recruit good staff and then we ensure we train them so that they know what we and the clients expect on a daily basis, then our management and supervisors monitor and supervise the site and the cleaning staff. We recruit our managers and supervisors internally, they have all worked on sites as cleaners and proved they can deliver great cleaning everyday and know what our clients and ICS expect. With this experience they know how to train cleaning staff to clean to a high standard to deliver the service levels we set.
By employing a high ratio of managers to cleaners (far higher than the industry standard) means we can ensure, through excellent training and monitoring, that our cleaners on site can attend to the details that make all the difference in delivering a great cleaning service 24/7 365 days of the year.
Having staff, and a company who know exactly what the client expects then being able to deliver is what separates ICS - find out more or get an online quote here.
Looking for a new cleaning company read this first
If you are looking for a new cleaning company have a read through here to help you decide.
There are plenty of cleaning companies on the market will offer you variety of choices which you have to review according to your requirements.
Before considering the office cleaning company you wish to hire you have to determine the cleaning needs you want to receive. For example, how big is the space you want to be cleaned, how often you want the cleaning to be performed, especially how much money are you ready to spend and when do you wish the cleaning to start. Some of the companies can begin the same day you sign the contract but there are others which may need longer to recruit and train up staff.
One thing you should always ask for when you choose one of the cleaning companies is do they have adequate insurance cover. If the company doesn't have one you put yourself in serious risk because something might be damaged during the cleaning process and if the cleaning services provider isn't insured you can't be sure you will receive the money for the damages. Other thing you should think about is to ask for cleaning check list which includes the areas to be cleaned and the task that will be performed. You should know which of the activities are included in the price and which of them are additional and you have to pay for them more.
Another important factor is reliability, does the cleaning company have the infrastructure and ability to be able to cope with your cleaning requirements? Does the cleaning contractor have enough staff and managers to cover when your regular cleaners go on holiday? Can the cleaning company cope if a cleaner leaves suddenly? A one man band may offer a personalised service but what happens when they need to go on holiday themselves or an emergency comes up?
ICS have full public liability and employer's insurance and can start as soon as you make a decision, we also have invested in our infrastructure to ensure we have the right managers and staff to be able to cope with whatever cleaning requirements you have, please contact us for references or further information.
There are plenty of cleaning companies on the market will offer you variety of choices which you have to review according to your requirements.
Before considering the office cleaning company you wish to hire you have to determine the cleaning needs you want to receive. For example, how big is the space you want to be cleaned, how often you want the cleaning to be performed, especially how much money are you ready to spend and when do you wish the cleaning to start. Some of the companies can begin the same day you sign the contract but there are others which may need longer to recruit and train up staff.
One thing you should always ask for when you choose one of the cleaning companies is do they have adequate insurance cover. If the company doesn't have one you put yourself in serious risk because something might be damaged during the cleaning process and if the cleaning services provider isn't insured you can't be sure you will receive the money for the damages. Other thing you should think about is to ask for cleaning check list which includes the areas to be cleaned and the task that will be performed. You should know which of the activities are included in the price and which of them are additional and you have to pay for them more.
Another important factor is reliability, does the cleaning company have the infrastructure and ability to be able to cope with your cleaning requirements? Does the cleaning contractor have enough staff and managers to cover when your regular cleaners go on holiday? Can the cleaning company cope if a cleaner leaves suddenly? A one man band may offer a personalised service but what happens when they need to go on holiday themselves or an emergency comes up?
ICS have full public liability and employer's insurance and can start as soon as you make a decision, we also have invested in our infrastructure to ensure we have the right managers and staff to be able to cope with whatever cleaning requirements you have, please contact us for references or further information.
Cutting cleaning costs and delivering a great cleaning service
No doubt about it, commercial cleaning is an extremely competitive industry. With over 10,000 contractors in the UK alone. Often the sole deciding factor for choosing one cleaning contractor over another is price and by the fact that many cleaning companies under price contracts to win business.
cutting cleaning costs more
cutting cleaning costs more
Professional cleaners deserve professional rates of pay
In these difficult economic times cleaning companies are coming under even more pressure than normal to reduce their rates. Clients usually want cleaning done at the lowest price possible but now everyone is feeling the squeeze they are going out to retender and renegotiate often low prices looking for further reductions.
In one sense if you are running a tight ship and have cut all your overheads back to bone and reduce any unnecessary waste, like ICS, then this actually a good opportunity to be able to offer a good cleaning service at a reduced price. On this basis we here at ICS Cleaning are able to offer many clients a significant reduction.
The problem though lies in the fact that labour is the most expensive part of a service contract and therefore reducing the biggest cost in a cleaning contract could be passed on as savings to the client.
Why pay any more than necessary for cleaning and cleaners?
Sure if you want the minimum possible standard pay the minimum wage possible, you want unprofessional cleaners and unprofessional managers pay go ahead and pay the least possible.
This is short term economics though, as a client, you will have unmotivated staff, high turnover of cleaners a cleaning company struggling to make the contract pay the bills, why would anyone do a good job under those conditions.
How about paying professional rates for good professional cleaners? For sure, no-one expects cleaners to be paid the exorbitant salaries of fatcat bankers (are they worth these salaries??) but they do need to have their pay in line with living standards and the job they do. What is to stop a cleaner working on the minimum wage to go up the road and work in a supermarket for another 10 or 15 p an hour? What does this achieve, apart from high turnover of cleaners and constant re training, with unmotivated cleaners coming and going how are you ever going to be able to deliver consistent cleaning standards.
Most cleaning contractors from the bosses down have down their fair share of cleaning (including us here at ICS) and cleaning is a vastly undervalued job, with lots of good people working for little reward. Many clients have outsourced their cleaning to cleaning companies in order to get their cleaning taken care of whilst they can focus on their business, but also usually to reduce costs which often means outsourcing the problem to someone else.
Clients have their own staffing issues and realise you cannot pay the lowest rates and expect to get the best people, why would they think this be any different in the cleaning industry?
Paying cleaners slightly more will hugely increase their retention rates, increase their motivation levels, give scope for longer more sustained training, and mean cleaners and cleaning companies can deliver better standards of cleaning.
Cleaning and cleaners have to be given the resources to be able to deliver the services clients expect, paying a reasonable professional rate of pay will mean being able to select and recruit and retain good professional cleaners.
You want a professional service you need to pay professionals to do it, think about this when you are trying to reduce cleaning costs again.
Read more - professional cleaners deserve professional rates of pay
In one sense if you are running a tight ship and have cut all your overheads back to bone and reduce any unnecessary waste, like ICS, then this actually a good opportunity to be able to offer a good cleaning service at a reduced price. On this basis we here at ICS Cleaning are able to offer many clients a significant reduction.
The problem though lies in the fact that labour is the most expensive part of a service contract and therefore reducing the biggest cost in a cleaning contract could be passed on as savings to the client.
Why pay any more than necessary for cleaning and cleaners?
Sure if you want the minimum possible standard pay the minimum wage possible, you want unprofessional cleaners and unprofessional managers pay go ahead and pay the least possible.
This is short term economics though, as a client, you will have unmotivated staff, high turnover of cleaners a cleaning company struggling to make the contract pay the bills, why would anyone do a good job under those conditions.
How about paying professional rates for good professional cleaners? For sure, no-one expects cleaners to be paid the exorbitant salaries of fatcat bankers (are they worth these salaries??) but they do need to have their pay in line with living standards and the job they do. What is to stop a cleaner working on the minimum wage to go up the road and work in a supermarket for another 10 or 15 p an hour? What does this achieve, apart from high turnover of cleaners and constant re training, with unmotivated cleaners coming and going how are you ever going to be able to deliver consistent cleaning standards.
Most cleaning contractors from the bosses down have down their fair share of cleaning (including us here at ICS) and cleaning is a vastly undervalued job, with lots of good people working for little reward. Many clients have outsourced their cleaning to cleaning companies in order to get their cleaning taken care of whilst they can focus on their business, but also usually to reduce costs which often means outsourcing the problem to someone else.
Clients have their own staffing issues and realise you cannot pay the lowest rates and expect to get the best people, why would they think this be any different in the cleaning industry?
Paying cleaners slightly more will hugely increase their retention rates, increase their motivation levels, give scope for longer more sustained training, and mean cleaners and cleaning companies can deliver better standards of cleaning.
Cleaning and cleaners have to be given the resources to be able to deliver the services clients expect, paying a reasonable professional rate of pay will mean being able to select and recruit and retain good professional cleaners.
You want a professional service you need to pay professionals to do it, think about this when you are trying to reduce cleaning costs again.
Read more - professional cleaners deserve professional rates of pay
Cleaning Companies hit hard by the credit crunch
Some worrying figures from Plimsoll Publishing shows that the credit crunch is affecting cleaning companies.
Zero growth, dwindling profits and rising debts mean nearly a third of cleaning companies are near to failure. Many cleaning companies are looking at consolidation as supply is outstripping demand and cleaning companies are having difficulties making a profit and meeting the budgets set by potential client
Cleaning companies hit by credit crunch
A survey of 1000 workers by support services firm resource GB has revealed that two out of every five organisations have had to cut back on cleaning in maintaining their offices because of the recession.
The research displayed a culture of dangerously poor hygiene in workplaces across the UK, which can lead to the spread of bacteria and add to the costly and damaging problem of absenteeism through ill- health.
Half of all employees who took part in the research said they are embarrassed when clients or customers visit their work premises because of a lack of cleanliness.
Meanwhile, 10% of those polled described their office toilets as ‘filthy’, a quarter claimed that their colleagues did not clean up after themselves and over a third complained that poor hygiene was making their working environment unsafe.
Steve Wright, chairman of the British Cleaning Council, said: ''These results show how staff are reacting against measures by their employers which negatively impact their health and decrease the quality of their workplace environment. Legally, employers have a basic responsibility to provide their staff with a safe workplace and too many firms are falling short of this. We need to see businesses match the importance their workers clearly place on cleaning and hygiene.”
Andrew Large, chief executive of the Cleaning and Support Services Association, said: “The downturn has been tough on all industries, but this is no excuse to cut corners on hygiene. Not only can such practices have serious repercussions on people’s health, but they are extremely counter-productive: sub-standard cleaning increases the cost of absence through sickness and harms the image of a business at precisely the time when they should be doing everything to attract new customers.”
Zero growth, dwindling profits and rising debts mean nearly a third of cleaning companies are near to failure. Many cleaning companies are looking at consolidation as supply is outstripping demand and cleaning companies are having difficulties making a profit and meeting the budgets set by potential client
Cleaning companies hit by credit crunch
A survey of 1000 workers by support services firm resource GB has revealed that two out of every five organisations have had to cut back on cleaning in maintaining their offices because of the recession.
The research displayed a culture of dangerously poor hygiene in workplaces across the UK, which can lead to the spread of bacteria and add to the costly and damaging problem of absenteeism through ill- health.
Half of all employees who took part in the research said they are embarrassed when clients or customers visit their work premises because of a lack of cleanliness.
Meanwhile, 10% of those polled described their office toilets as ‘filthy’, a quarter claimed that their colleagues did not clean up after themselves and over a third complained that poor hygiene was making their working environment unsafe.
Steve Wright, chairman of the British Cleaning Council, said: ''These results show how staff are reacting against measures by their employers which negatively impact their health and decrease the quality of their workplace environment. Legally, employers have a basic responsibility to provide their staff with a safe workplace and too many firms are falling short of this. We need to see businesses match the importance their workers clearly place on cleaning and hygiene.”
Andrew Large, chief executive of the Cleaning and Support Services Association, said: “The downturn has been tough on all industries, but this is no excuse to cut corners on hygiene. Not only can such practices have serious repercussions on people’s health, but they are extremely counter-productive: sub-standard cleaning increases the cost of absence through sickness and harms the image of a business at precisely the time when they should be doing everything to attract new customers.”
Training and ongoing support leads to lower turnover in cleaning staff
A big problem in the cleaning industry is the high turnover of staff, which means having to retrain new staff over and over again which has high cost implications and leads to having less experienced staff. More experienced staff can often carry out the work at a higher standard and more efficiently which can lead to cost savings which can be passed back onto the experienced staff as higher wages or performance bonuses which in turns leads to better retention rates. Read more about retaining office cleaners
Attention to detail makes all the difference in commercial cleaning...
Commercial cleaning everyday is one thing, cleaning to a high standard everyday is something else.
Achieving a consistently high standard of cleaning is something ICS pride itself on, but what does this mean and how do we attain this?
We have walked around 100's of sites when quoting for work, the complaints client have are usually along the same lines; the cleaning company started off ok and now... commercial cleaning attention to detail, read more
Achieving a consistently high standard of cleaning is something ICS pride itself on, but what does this mean and how do we attain this?
We have walked around 100's of sites when quoting for work, the complaints client have are usually along the same lines; the cleaning company started off ok and now... commercial cleaning attention to detail, read more
