Looking for fresh ideas for before and after party cleaning for your professional house and office cleaning business? Here are 7 tips to help you prepare for your next event clean-up.
Seasonally, you can depend upon your customers celebrating various holidays, events, and hosting parties. Right now, is no different. So why not start the prep work to help your customers with their planning by providing before and after party cleaning.
We get it. Seriously, we really do. My husband Elbert and I have been in the cleaning industry for over 27 years. We know that it can be confusing or sometimes frustrating to get ready for things that aren’t on your normal schedule. But, it doesn’t have to be.
With the right preparation for pre or post party cleaning, your professional maid and janitorial service can do things efficiently AND in the right order.
We had an experience with an after party clean-up that exposed us to the unexpected and took waaaaay too long to complete. Even though we crossed our “t’s” and dotted all our “i’s”, there were some things we couldn’t prevent.
This post party cleaning happened a few years ago when one of our office cleaning customers asked us to clean after a fundraiser event.
We scheduled the cleaning appropriately, arranged for our additional staff, and got all our cleaning material in order. Check, check, check. Well, this was our first post event cleaning and I’m telling you, it was a BIG learning lesson of time-management and equipping the clean-up with the right material and with enough people.
According the information we collected on our customer profile worksheet for commercial cleaning, we had outlined everything we needed.
Feel free to download your copy of commercial customer profile template. They’re a great tool to collect customer contact information, square footage of the facility, restroom detail cleaning, floor type and so much more. Just complete the form below.
So, the event was planned from 7pm until 10pm. We were scheduled to arrive at 9pm to get a good start.
When we got there, the place really wasn’t that bad. But as we cleaned, it seemed to get much worse as the event came to a close. In fact, the later it got, there just seemed to be more to do.
The more people began to depart, the more the restrooms got dirtier and filled with paper debris strewn about.
There was broken glass shard in a couple of places. There even looked to appear that someone regurgitated and tried to cover in up with a fake plant. The night just got longer and longer as we had only planned to be there until midnight.
Considering the spills and broken glass and extra trash and not to mention, a lot of guests who just.wouldn’t.leave, we didn’t finish our job until close to 2am.
Thing is, we couldn’t leave the job just because we planned to only be there until midnight. We had to stay to complete the job. IT IS NEVER OK TO LEAVE A JOB UNFINISHED. Finish the job.
What we learned was to not just plan, but plan for the unexpected. That means, factor in more time, more cleaning material, and more people.
And in all honesty, I’m glad that the cleaning was performed on a night that our crew didn’t have other offices to clean. If we had other customers to clean, we would have run the risk of disappointing one or the other.
Either we would let the event cleaning customer down or we would have had to cancel the one scheduled after.
So the lesson we learned, and now past to you, is that you should plan to have enough of everything – staff, material, and time.
Professional before and after party cleaning tips
- Typically, most office managers and homeowners will want an ordinary cleaning performed on their home or office prior to the party. And, if they want you to rearrange furniture or help to decorate, they will let you know in advance.
- For ‘before party’ cleaning, your customer may want an extra care task performed such as window cleaning or floor care. It would be wise to simply ask if you know that an event is on the horizon. This takes us to the next tip…
- Print flyers, 3×5 cards, or send emails through a FREE email marketing provider advertising for additional cleaning if needed. Even list the tasks that you are willing to do like arrange tables and chairs or break them down after the party. Care for rented linen before and after the event.
- Plan ahead and anticipate the big game day, special holiday parties, one-time events and allow your customers to schedule those additional times. Be careful not to overlap your additional cleanings with your regular cleaning schedule.
- If extra help is needed, create a party clean-up crew. Sign up with a temp staffing company like People Ready to be prepared ahead of time. By the way, People Ready will invoice you and will give you 14 days to pay their bill. You also would not have to worry about the additional hires’ Worker’s comp, insurances, or any liabilities. People Ready handles all that.
- Assess what you’re being asking to clean and add to you professional cleaning supplies list in order to get the job done right.
- Plan for the unexpected and perhaps hire 1-2 extra people to complete the job. Bring extra or specialty cleaning material. (In our case, we should have brought a good vomit cleaning chemical). And also, plan for more time. This would have kept us in the good graces of our staff 😐.
We hope this information is helpful to you and your professional maid and janitorial cleaning service. By the way, we don’t want you to leave without a plan to act on moving forward so we are giving you a homework assignment so that you can implement this strategy A.S.A.P. in your cleaning business.
Homework: Depending on the size of your cleaning business, use wisdom to create seasonal branded promotional material. Plan ahead by staying in tune with what’s happening with your customers. If you see bags of party supplies – something’s up. Ask them if you can help out in any way and DO NOT FORGET to include your after-party cleaning prices. Then schedule wisely. Just that simple 😊.
Conclusion:
As you approach any season, expect an influx of holidays, parties and events so it would be wise to prepare your professional cleaning business for before and after party cleaning. Get the marketing information customized to your liking and to fit your budget. Take notice of your customers’ offices and homes. Get ready to schedule them accordingly.
“The path to success is to take massive, determined actions.” ―Tony Robbins
Until next time,
Happy cleaning
I grew my office cleaning side hustle into a ½ million-dollar corporation with the partnership of my husband and our amazing staff. In 2020, I retired my service-based business to shift my focus and passion from serving cleaning clientele to serving cleaning business owners.
Utilizing my 27+ years’ experience, I offer free and paid products exclusively for cleaning business owners and cleaning side hustlers at A Janitor’s Story® Website and my VIP Group Coaching Membership App.
I’ve served other cleaning pros by helping them to turn one time cleaning jobs into high paying recurring customers, create excellent client retention practices, develop hiring systems that really work, build marketing techniques that convert and so much more.
If this is a place you’d like to explore, I’d love to serve you too. Simply sign up to my free weekly email newsletter for tips and inspiration. I can’t wait to meet you inside.
18 Comments
Thank you. The most difficult thing after a party is clearing the mess.
Hahaha, yes that is the most difficult.
Hello!
How do we pay our helpers/employees for the additional hours? The client usually refuses to pay extra. How can I make him pay for the extra hours?
Hello Theo, Well before work is done for any customer, there should be an agreement of what work will be done and an estimated amount of hours it will take for the job to be completed. Having a contract should alleviate any confusion. And, the contract should also state the amount per hour for any additional cleaning time. I hope that helps.
Thanks so much for your answer!
I have another question: I looked for a product like vomit cleaning chemical and I discovered cat litter is good as well (since the vomit cleaning chemical doesn’t disinfect). What do you think?
Hi Theo,
Well, since you’ve purchased the cat litter, use it. And, when you’re ready to mop (clean) the floor with water, put a disinfecting agent inside your solution.
My office is throwing a big party in a couple of months for our company’s 10th anniversary of opening up. We want the space to be clean before and afterward since it’s going to be in our office, so we appreciate your tips to create a clean-up crew for before and after and hire someone if we need to. There will be about 100 people at the party, so I think it might be best to hire a housekeeping maid to help.
Hi Sabrina, Yes I agree, hire help if needed. Plan ahead for that because a lot of cleaning companies need to put you on their schedule.
Have fun at the party!
Thanks for sharing your favorite blog.
You’re welcome!
After party cleaning is a very hard task to do. It takes a lot of time. I find this blog useful. I will definitely follow these tips.
Indeed it is a very hard task. I’m glad the information can help your business. Take care!
Interesting and well written article. Explain every detail of after party cleaning tips. Thanks a lot for sharing.
Thanks so much. I really appreciate that.
Very Informative. Finish off your same-day post-party clean-up by wiping the kitchen counters with a damp cloth and multipurpose cleaning spray. Thank you for your tips.
You’re welcome Aria. Take care.
Hello, all this information was very helpful. Thank you very much! Keep posting such kind of info on your blog. I’m really impressed by it.
Awe, I appreciate that. You’re welcome.