How to Get Office Cleaning Contracts: Who to Ask and What to Bid

You get office cleaning contracts by targeting single-tenant offices under about 10,000 square feet, asking for the office manager, walking the space, and sending a written, scoped price within 24 hours. Offices are the best first contract for a new cleaning company because there are many of them, the work repeats each visit, and one person can usually say yes. Multi-tenant buildings and corporate campuses pay more but move slower and buy through a property manager or a formal request for proposals.

Which offices to target first

Start with small professional offices. They clean three to five nights a week, rarely run formal bids, and talk to each other, which makes referrals easier.

The sizes above are rough guides, not rules. Walk the building to get the real cleanable area.

Who decides in each kind of office building

The decision maker depends on who controls the space. Get this right and you skip weeks of calling the wrong person.

• Single-tenant office. The office manager handles cleaning complaints and usually picks the vendor. In small firms the owner signs. Ask the front desk "Who handles your cleaning service?" and use that name.
• Multi-tenant building. The property manager hires one company for lobbies, corridors, shared restrooms and sometimes tenant suites. Some leases leave suite cleaning to each tenant. Ask the property manager how the building handles it, then ask to be added to the approved vendor list.
• Corporate or campus. A facility manager or procurement team runs a request for proposals with a deadline, a required format and often a minimum insurance amount. These are worth pursuing after you have a few references.

How to win an office cleaning contract, step by step

1. Build a list of 100 offices in a tight area. Search Google Maps for office types in the table above. Record the business, phone and, where possible, the office manager's name. More sources are in where to find commercial cleaning leads.
2. Contact the office manager. Call mid-morning or mid-afternoon, or walk in with a one-page capability sheet. Ask for 15 minutes to walk the space. The cold calling scripts have the exact words.
3. Do the walkthrough within 48 hours. Use the questions in the next section and count everything that drives labor time.
4. Send a written proposal within 24 hours. Scope, schedule, monthly price, start date and cancellation terms, plus your insurance certificate.
5. Follow up three times. Day 2, day 5 and day 10. Most offices already have a cleaner, so they switch when the current one slips. Be the company that stayed in touch.
6. Start strong. Do a deeper first clean, then walk the space with the office manager after the first week.

What to ask and count on the office walkthrough

Ask three questions before you look at anything. The answers tell you what to lead with.

• "What is the one thing your current cleaner keeps missing?"
• "How many nights a week do you get service now, and is it enough?"
• "Who holds keys and alarm codes, and when is the building empty?"

Then count what drives labor time:

• Cleanable square feet, split by carpet and hard floor
• Restrooms, toilets, urinals and sinks
• Break rooms and kitchens, and whether there are dishes
• Desks and workstations, and whether surfaces are cleared
• Trash and recycling bins, and where the dumpster is
• Entry glass, interior glass and partitions
• Areas that are off limits, such as server rooms or file rooms

What goes in an office cleaning proposal

An office cleaning proposal should fit on two pages and answer every question before it is asked. Put the answer to "what does your current cleaner miss?" in the first line.

After the scope, list the schedule, the monthly price, what is excluded (exterior windows, carpet extraction, supplies if the client provides them), a start date and a 30-day cancellation clause. In Texas, show sales tax as a separate line, because the Comptroller treats janitorial services as taxable.

How to price an office cleaning contract

Price from labor hours, then check the result against the market. Estimate how long each visit takes from the cleanable area and your production rate, multiply by visits per month and your loaded hourly cost, then add supplies, overhead and profit. The full formula and a worked example for a 6,000 square foot office are in how to bid on commercial cleaning jobs.

As a sense check, Jobber's guide to cleaning contracts lists office cleaning contracts at about $500 to $3,000 a month, cleaned weekly to daily. If your number lands far outside that, recheck your production rate and visit count before you send it.

How to keep an office account once you win it

Office accounts are lost over small, repeated misses, so make them visible and fix them fast.

• Walk the space with the office manager once a month for the first three months, then quarterly.
• Reply to every complaint the same day and fix it on the next visit.
• Keep a simple log of requests and what you did about each one.
• Ask for a Google review after the first month, when the difference is easiest to see.

Small offices also look you up before they renew or refer you. A website that shows your services, the areas you cover and your reviews helps both. Fairhaven Design builds websites for commercial cleaning companies that send automatic review requests and text back every caller you miss, so a referral who calls at 7 p.m. still hears from you that night.