There are a lot of responsibilities and potential liability issues that come with managing a multi-tenant office complex. Of course, this starts with ensuring that your tenants are fully satisfied with the environment and that all safety measures are being addressed to the fullest degree. Because ultimately, tenant retention is far less costly than attracting and acquiring new tenants. At the same time, longtime existing tenants come with fewer surprises which makes it much easier to anticipate and meet their needs.
Consistently maintaining a clean and inviting property is one of the most important components of maintaining high tenant satisfaction levels. Especially since satisfied tenants are far less likely to move on to another facility.
Though there are several different approaches to multi-tenant office building cleaning. Each has some key details that will come into play at some point in the process.
A lot of successful property managers choose to delegate the responsibility for the cleaning of individual office spaces to the tenants themselves. Though in a time like this, you are leaving the tenants with a responsibility that they might not have the expertise and equipment to complete!
That’s part of the reason why a lot of successful property managers will offer professional cleaning services to their tenants as part of the lease contract. This spares them time and money, while also ensuring that their office spaces are cleaned to truly professional standards.
Whether you are leaving office cleaning to the tenants, contracting a professional cleaning service, or attempting to handle multi-tenant office cleaning with your own in-house custodial staff, you can use the following tips to help maintain a clean and inviting complex.
Clearly Delegate Responsibilities
If you leave people to assign their own responsibilities, most will choose the least amount of effort for the time it takes to say they got the job done. That doesn’t mean the cleaning job will be done right or even done well.
Cleaning Responsibilities Discussed During Lease Negotiations
If you are going to let your tenants be responsible for the cleaning and maintenance of their own leased office spaces, you will need to clearly delegate what is expected of them. This is information that needs to be supplied upfront, as part of the lease negotiation process.
If you leave it to the fine print, or as something you bring up only after they have signed on, chances are good that you will find them staying out the length of their lease and simply leaving afterward. This will put you right back in the spiral of trying to acquire new tenants.
Give Them Other Options
This is also a good time to let them know they can avail themselves of your in-house custodial staff or an outside professional cleaning company. Let them know about any possible additional costs of this option, and they can factor it into their decision-making process right from the start of the lease!
By having one company manage all of the cleaning responsibilities throughout your office complex ensures consistency and quality. It also means that you can set the standards of cleanliness for your facility rather than leaving it up to individual tenants.
Be sure to let them know that while they might pay more for commercial cleaning services that it will save them time. This lets them assess the cost of having their employees break away from their important business duties to handle cleaning. While this may make tenant acquisition slightly more challenging it will save everyone money in the long run. It also helps filter out clients who aren’t comfortable with professional responsibilities.
Post & Maintain A Cleaning Schedule
If you are handling the cleaning costs for the entire complex with an in-house custodial staff or simply allowing tenants to manage their cleaning requirements, you still need to post and maintain a thoughtful cleaning schedule. This is especially important if your in-house custodial staff will be managing your entire complex. A lot of large multi-tenant office complexes require multiple days to thoroughly clean.
A lot of office environments find after-hours cleaning to be more appropriate than trying to clean during normal hours of operation. This method of schedule then allows cleaning crews to work without distractions coming from office workers and their clients. Especially if you have a large multi-tenant complex that needs to be cleaned every day.
Working with an outside professional cleaning service with experience in multi-tenant office complexes can be extremely helpful for setting up an effective cleaning schedule. Trained professionals can typically clean individual office spaces quickly, which means more office spaces can be cleaned more often. It also ensures that every tenant gets what they need, which is handy if you sometimes need to field individual special cleaning requests.
Maintaining Common Areas With A Porter
A lot of multi-tenant office buildings have common areas like lunchrooms, cafeterias, food courts, and even public bathrooms. These are areas that are outside of a tenant’s usual cleaning responsibility. Having a day porter service in place is often a great benefit to large office complexes like this.
A day porter works actively to maintain your facility throughout the day. They take on the responsibility of providing essential cleaning and maintenance services during normal hours of operation. Many become an integral part of custodial staff.
One of the other great benefits of a day porter is that they can often manage day-to-day tasks that might otherwise interrupt your workflow. This can include a lot of simple things such as signing for and receiving packages, facilitating third-party contract workers, or replacing burned-out lightbulbs.
A day porter also provides a visible cleaning presence throughout the building’s normal hours of operation. This sends a message of professionalism to tenants and visitors that lets them know you take their health and safety seriously by going the extra mile. This can translate into higher tenant retention rates over the long term.
Working With an Industry Leader
Building Services specializes in multi-tenant office complexes. We offer a wide range of services, from routine cleaning, schedule cleaning, deep cleaning, and day porter services, just to name a few. We can provide you with an in-house custodial staff and a day porter service to maintain your facility, all at a cost that is far lower than if you have to hire and manage your own in-house custodial staff.
