Your cleaner keeps missing things. Fix it, or change them.
Diagnose before you replace. Most failing cleaning contracts fail for one of four reasons — no written scope, staff turnover without handover, a price that never covered the work, or nobody auditing — and three of the four are fixable in about four weeks. Replace the contractor when there is no scope to enforce, when issues go to a call centre instead of a named person, or when the same failures recur after a documented corrective action.
Written scope and a fixed monthly price within 48 hours — useful even if you're only benchmarking.
Get a free quoteFirst, work out which of the four problems you actually have
Replacing a contractor without diagnosing the failure usually reproduces it. The new contractor inherits the same undefined scope, the same access constraints and the same price, and month four arrives again.
Nearly every underperforming contract traces to one of these.
The four-week fix
If you have diagnosed problems 1, 2 or 4, this recovers most contracts. It also builds the documented record you will need if it does not.
Do it in writing throughout. A contract you fix this way ends up better documented than a new one signed in a hurry.
When to stop trying and replace
Some contracts are not recoverable, and continuing to work them costs you more in management time than the change would.
Any two of these together is enough.
Exiting cleanly
Read the termination clause before you have the conversation, not after. Three things decide how simple the exit is.
Changing over without a gap
The single most useful move in a contractor change: sign the incoming contractor before you serve notice on the outgoing one.
That gives the new crew time to walk the site, take keys and alarm codes, complete inductions and read the scope while the building is still being serviced. A week of overlap costs one week of double service and removes every version of the failure mode where a building goes unserviced, a key goes missing, or an alarm code is never handed over.
Four causes: no written scope, turnover without handover, a price that never covered the work, nobody auditing. Three are fixable.
Complain in writing against the scope with dates and photographs. Verbal complaints to a cleaner on site are not a record.
Replace when there is no named contact, constant crew turnover, or repeat failures after a documented corrective action.
Sign the incoming contractor before serving notice. A one-week overlap removes every gap-in-service risk.
Why does commercial cleaning quality drop after a few months?
Almost always staff turnover without handover. The crew that was inducted to your site leaves, a replacement starts with no written scope and no walk-through, and they clean what looks obvious rather than what was agreed. Quality doesn't decay gradually — it drops the week the crew changes, which is why month four is the classic failure point.
How do I complain to a cleaning company effectively?
In writing, against the scope, with dates and photographs. Reference the specific task and frequency line that was missed rather than describing a general standard, name the dates it was missed, and ask for a written response with a corrective action and a date. A verbal complaint to a cleaner on site is not a record and won't support termination later.
How much notice do I need to end a commercial cleaning contract?
Usually 30 to 90 days, set by the termination clause. Check three things before serving notice: the notice period and how notice must be delivered, whether there's an automatic rollover date approaching, and whether equipment, consumable stock or keys need to be returned or reimbursed. Serve notice in writing to the address in the contract, not by email to your account manager alone.
How do I change cleaning contractors without a gap in service?
Overlap them. Sign the incoming contractor before serving notice on the outgoing one, so the new crew can walk the site, take keys and alarm codes, and be inducted while the old contract still runs. A one-week overlap costs one week of double service and removes every risk of an unserviced building, missing keys or an unreturned alarm code.
Should I fix the current cleaning contract or replace it?
Fix it if there's a written scope, a named contact who responds, and the failures started recently — those are usually a handover problem and are correctable in four weeks. Replace it if there's no written scope, issues go to a call centre, the crew changes constantly, or the same failures recur after a documented corrective action. A contractor who can't fix a problem in one audit cycle won't fix it in three.