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Monday, November 22, 2010

Riverside Office Cleaning Service


Office Cleaning in Riverside CT 06878

Are you looking for a trustworthy company to clean your Riverside, Connecticut office? Look no further!

Advanced Building Maintenance provides professional office cleaners Riverside businesses can trust for dependable, quality service delivery

We Keep It Fresh!

Whether you’re looking for daily or weekly office cleaning, Advanced Building Maintenance will get the job done right!

We’ve been keeping Riverside offices clean for over 25 years.

Full Spectrum of Office Cleaning in Riverside

Advanced Building Maintenance is your one stop source for office cleaning services in Riverside.

We can handle your routine cleaning services, corporate event cleanings and floor cleaning and maintenance.

Extend the life span of your carpeting and hard surface floors with a regularly scheduled maintenance program.

Give us a call at (203) 403-2963 to set up a free, in house consultation.

Customized Riverside Office Cleaning Programs

When you call Advanced Building Maintenance to handle all of your Riverside office cleaning needs, we'll set you up with a customized cleaning and building maintenance program that suits your needs and budget.

We provide the following office cleaning scheduling:

Daily Cleaning
Porter Services
Weekly, Biweekly and Daily Cleaning
Floor Maintenance
Specialty Cleaning
Scheduling and more!
Call for FREE Office Cleaning Quote

Brian Harrod, Owner
Advanced Building Maintenance
(203) 559-2555

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ABOUT RIVERSIDE, CONNECTICUT

Riverside is a neighborhood/section in the town of Greenwich in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 8,416.

Area code: 203

Zip Codes: 06878

Other Services in Riverside, CT

Janitorial Services in Riverside, CT
House Cleaning in Riverside, CT
Post Construction Cleanup in Riverside, CT
Commercial Window Cleaning in Riverside, CT
Pressure Washing in Riverside, CT
Commercial Carpet Cleaning in Riverside, CT
Porter Services in Riverside, CT
Floor Stripping and Waxing in Riverside, CT
Restaurant Cleaning in Riverside, CT
Retail Cleaning in Riverside, CT
Apartment Building Cleaning in Riverside, CT

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Friday, November 19, 2010

Tips for Selecting the Right Facility Maintenance Service Provider: Saving Costs Without Compromising Quality

Cost-savings is the watchword for today's business operations, especially when it comes to facility maintenance. The competitive economic environment has put pressure on business professionals to find savings wherever possible, and commercial property owners and managers seeking cost-effective maintenance cleaning services are no different. Often times the switch to a low-cost provider is made to achieve the cost savings required for other corporate objectives. But how can you be certain that the low-cost facility maintenance provider you select will be able to provide the level of quality that tenants demand? The bargain rate quoted by a cleaning company may actually cost you more in the long run if their lack of service causes you to lose business.

Want to know more about cost-effective facility maintenance? Here are some tips for selecting maintenance cleaning services that will meet both your budgetary needs and provide your tenants with a clean, attractive workplace.

Access to the Latest Tools for Maintenance Cleaning Services Can Mean Big Savings

One of the best ways to save money is to improve efficiency, since it doesn't require a sacrifice in terms of quality. Just as computers and fax machines have vastly improved the efficiency of today's workplace, new equipment and products, such as self-propelled space vacuums, high efficiency dust cloths and auto scrubbers with built-in dust mops, can enable a facility maintenance provider to clean your building more easily and more effectively. Contracting with a company that uses efficient products and equipment for its maintenance cleaning services can mean big savings for your bottom line.

A Well-Trained Staff Plays a Key Role in Lowering Costs

The efficiency one might gain from good equipment and cleaning products can easily be lost if the people using those tools aren't well trained. Make sure that your facility maintenance provider fully trains new employees and also provides ongoing training to keep their employees up-to-date on the proper ways to use the latest tools.

Do they provide facility-specific training, or just general instruction? Is training done only in the classroom or does it have an on-site element as well? Are instructions for maintenance cleaning services available in multiple languages, and are they easy to follow? Do they have partnerships with equipment/product manufacturers and industry organizations to provide additional employee training? And finally, do they document and keep records of the training their employees receive? Answering these questions will give you a good idea of the importance a facility maintenance provider places on employee training, and ultimately, their maintenance cleaning services. If the company doesn't provide you with information on their training programs in their proposal, ask to review their training materials.

Select A Facility Maintenance Company with a Thorough Inspection Process

Just as efficiency is the key to reducing costs, inspection is the key to maintaining high-quality maintenance cleaning services. Inspections should be frequent to ensure that work is consistently done at the highest level of quality possible. Documenting inspections enables a facility maintenance provider to uncover areas in need of improvement that might not be otherwise discovered. Finally, inspections by a variety of staff from all levels of your facility maintenance provider's company increase their objectivity and accountability to you and your facility.

A Certified Quality Management System Ties It All Together

A recognized quality management system, such as ISO 9001:2000, assures that your facility maintenance provider has a formal quality control program that is assessed by a third party at least annually. This formal quality program further assures you that the contracted company has standards for their maintenance cleaning services, including management, training, and purchasing, which also can add savings to your bottom line through increased efficiency.

Flexibility & Variety of Services Means You Get Customized Maintenance Cleaning Services

Perhaps the most important characteristic of a facility maintenance provider is their willingness and ability to adapt quickly to changing client demands. How will they handle your request to reduce their costs? Will they immediately suggest reducing the frequency of maintenance cleaning services, or will they look for a more creative way to cut costs without sacrificing service? A facility maintenance provider that is committed to customer satisfaction will take a closer look at your facility, searching for areas with problems that may be contributing to unnecessary expenses for you.

For example, if one area of your building is consistently defect-free (i.e., scoring 100 percent on internal and customer inspections) while similar areas return inspection scores of 60 or 70 percent, there is a good chance that labor needs to be redistributed to bring the levels of service to an even keel. In addition, a flexible facility maintenance provider will have a range of services that can be customized to fit your needs - everything from standard maintenance cleaning services to specialized restoration and building mechanical maintenance/HVAC options. There may be some services that you are currently handling in-house, but may want to consider outsourcing in the future. Can your facility maintenance provider meet those needs? If so, you may be able to reap additional savings by bundling them with your maintenance cleaning services.

When it comes to the bottom line, your choice of facility maintenance provider can mean big savings - or big expenses. Consider these tips before changing your service provider. They may save you from selecting the cheapest quote on paper, only to lose tenants (and income) in the long run.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Trends in Banking: Outsourcing Janitorial Services, Landscape and Handyman Operations

Philosophically, the idea is simple: concentrate on your core business and outsource other activities, such as banking janitorial services. When it comes to building maintenance, landscaping and commercial cleaning for banks, outsourcing has become a trend. But what are the finer points that make this practice so compelling? They can be categorized under three C's: competition, consistency and compliance.


The 3 C's of Commercial Cleaning for Banks

Competition: Mergers are forcing greater competition among banks. Thus, they feel pressure to lower costs, increase sales and improve service. For example, in a September 2004 "Update to Investors,"1 Wachovia CFO Bob Kelly, a leader in the banking industry, included the following in a statement on the company's strategic focus:

  • building customer loyalty
  • execution of revenue growth strategies
  • improving cost structure and operating efficiencies
  • financial strength and corporate governance
  • SouthTrust merger approval and successful merger integration.

In direct and indirect ways, the outsourcing of facilities services can impact many of these initiatives.

Merging banks' shareholders wait expectantly for the cost savings promised as a result of a merger. Outsourcing facilities services, such as commercial cleaning for banks can go a long way toward delivering those savings through economies of scale. Rather than handling these activities at the local level, the bank can negotiate a favorable contract with a single banking janitorial services provider able to service all the bank's branches. Expenses are leveraged across locations, and with consolidated billing and a single source of contact, the bank spends less time on administrative tasks.


Indirectly, outsourcing banking janitorial services can also help meet sales goals. With a mandate to push product, branch managers these days are often out in the community calling on business customers. You'll find assistant managers in the branches -- not in an office behind a desk, but out greeting customers. This leaves very little time for non-banking activities. For example, take carpet cleaning or HVAC repair. When banking janitorial services are outsourced, branch personnel might simply log onto a web site and place a work order. The service is billed centrally and charged back to the branch. Before outsourcing, more time and steps would have been involved in commercial cleaning for banks, especially if a change in local vendors became necessary for any reason.


As banks vie for the same customers, service and customer experience has taken on a new meaning. Ironically, in these days of online banking, banks are finding that there is no substitute for face-to-face customer interaction. Some banks even offer play areas for children and have taken their tellers out from behind the glass. Is a manager's time better spent improving customer relations or putting out bids for banking janitorial services? Yet a spotless and functional environment is also part of the customer experience and reflects on the bank's brand. Once a mundane distraction, landscaping, handiwork and commercial cleaning for banks all become something done with scientific precision by an outsourced expert. The bank and its customers benefit.

Consistency: A bank's brand amounts to one of its most important assets. When 1500 branches all need to support the brand image, standards become paramount, especially when it comes to commercial cleaning. For banks, outsourcing helps provide a consistent image from branch to branch.

An expert banking janitorial services company will follow standard processes to ensure high quality in every location and provide measurable results through standardized reports. Quick responses to emergencies will be handled through 24-hour call centers. In addition, as mentioned before, pricing and administration of banking janitorial services will be consistent.

Compliance: In light of Sarbanes-Oxley, INS crackdowns and terrorism, banks cannot take chances with their vendors. Through outsourcing with a large, respected provider, the onus is on the facilities service company to follow correct accounting, disclosure, reporting, hiring and subcontracting practices when providing services such as commercial cleaning. For banks, safety, security and environmental concerns should also be a top priority. With the bank having centralized control over the relationship, the branch managers are relieved of that responsibility and risk. The contract with the banking janitorial services company is managed either directly by the bank's facilities manager or, increasingly, through a management company.

Some facilities services companies also offer options for environmentally friendly "green" commercial cleaning. For banks working toward their LEED-EBOM (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design - Existing Building: Operations & Maintenance) certification, those companies can implement products and procedures required to earn points toward certification.

Partnering Makes Cents
The number of functions that banks will outsource in the next five years is expected to increase by as much as 20%. 2 Again, Wachovia serves as an example, because the bank's web site affirms the benefits of outsourcing non-core activities, such as banking janitorial services, "Thanks to the help of a diverse range of suppliers and advisors, we are able to serve our customers, communities, and employees more efficiently. … [outsourcing] supplements the Wachovia team through relationships with a diverse range of suppliers who share our goal of delivering top-notch products and services." 3 Companies that provide landscape, handyman operations and commercial cleaning for banks can become a crucial partner in helping banks succeed in a highly competitive industry.

Monday, November 1, 2010

The Role of Janitorial Services in Preventing Cross Contamination

Cross contamination occurs when bacteria is spread between people, food, surfaces and equipment. A common concern in the food and health care industries, cross contamination also poses a health threat in any environment including schools, shopping malls, offices and other buildings. This becomes a serious problem when you take into account that Americans spend about 90% of their time inside, yet contaminants found indoors can be five times worse than outdoors.

In addition to negatively impacting the health of building occupants and visitors, cross-contamination and other poor indoor environmental issues cost businesses and building owners billions of dollars every year. Consider these facts:

  • Lost productivity costs businesses $60 billion per year.
  • 30% of all buildings worldwide have poor indoor air quality problems. (1)
  • 150% of all illness is aggravated or caused by polluted indoor air. (2)
  • Employee health insurance premiums rose by 11.2% in 2004. (3)

There is no doubt that responsible cleaning practices help avoid cross contamination, thereby minimizing the incidence of illness and disease. Effective cleaning reduces bacteria on equipment and surfaces that people come into contact with every day, such as keyboards, phones and restroom touch-points. While it might sound like a straight-forward solution, health-conscious cleaning actually requires detailed processes, thorough training, and strict quality control. In addition, janitorial services should be approached holistically: All areas of a facility are interconnected through building automation, HVAC systems and even foot traffic that spreads internal and external pollutants. Employees come to work sick; workers bring food into the building or prepare food in break rooms; cleaning products themselves put contaminants into the air. Dirt, pollutants and allergens cannot be readily seen but can drastically affect cross-contamination and health. Any plan for eradicating cross contamination should consider all of these factors.

Common Causes of Cross Contamination

Probably the most common culprits of cross-contamination are hands, equipment, cloths/rags, and door handles, or food that comes in contact with them. Though common sense, many people do not wash and dry their hands before touching or eating food; after touching raw meat, fish, chicken or unwashed vegetables; after using the toilet; after blowing their noses; or after touching a pet. Employees eat at their desks and, even if they clean up afterwards, food particles remain to breed bacteria and attract pests that can further spread disease.

Another common mistake is to clean multiple areas with the same supplies and/or equipment and to store restroom cleaning supplies together with items used in other areas. Cloths, sponges and mops are sources of concentrated bacteria that can cross-contaminate anything with which they come into contact.

Steps to Avoid Cross Contamination

When the World Bank Group wanted to implement a new cleaning program for their headquarters building, they started by asking their custodial services provider to perform an audit of the cleaning products, processes and equipment used. The provider then suggested healthier, efficient alternatives.

Similarly, you should review (or ask your janitorial company to review) your existing situation, and then consider implementing a plan that contains action items, such as the following.

1. Capture pollutants and remove them; don’t just move them around.

    • Focus on entryways. Use special mats that trap dirt and pollutants to prevent spreading throughout the building.
    • Use micro-fiber dusting cloths and flat mops that outperform traditional dusting and mopping materials by capturing dust and dirt. Clean and reuse for minimal waste.
    • For carpets, ensure proper vacuuming, extracting, rinsing and drying. Carpets can be a host for moisture problems and mold growth. Empty vacuum bags at the end of shifts or when half full.
    • Janitorial workers should wash hands frequently and keep equipment clean to avoid cross-contamination. Be sure janitorial closets are clean to prevent dirt from traveling throughout a building on equipment.
    • Janitorial workers should avoid touching their faces, skin, and hair, or wiping hands on cleaning cloths.
    • Focus cleaning efforts on touch-points: door handles, bright work and other areas where people come in contact with the facility or its fixtures.

2. Minimize harmful chemicals in the environment while maximizing cleaning power.

  • Replace traditional cleaning chemicals with Green Seal certified, environmentally friendly and highly effective products.
  • Use course spray for cleaning chemicals, rather than a fine mist which travels farther. Or apply cleaner to cloth instead of spraying directly onto the surface to be cleaned.
  • Use chemical management systems for accurate product dilution. Use according to directions to minimize waste and exposure and to maximize cleaning efficiency.
  • Apply disinfectant in restrooms properly and make sure the chemical has proper dwell time.
3. Segregate tools, chemicals and equipment.
  • Use tools and processes that are color-coded according to the cleaning job. This way, workers can see at a glance which products should be used for floors vs.. countertops, for example, so that such areas are protected from cross-contamination.
  • Store like items together and separated from items used for other purposes, e.g., avoid storing restroom mops with kitchen cleaners.

4. Implement training and communication programs.

  • Properly train custodial staff in all healthy cleaning procedures. They must also wear the proper personal-protective equipment when cleaning a facility.
  • Communicate to building employees that you have implemented a healthy cleaning plan for their protection. Ask that they also follow procedures to help prevent cross-contamination (washing hands, cleaning up after themselves in the break room, not taking food to their desks, etc.).

Green Cleaning Considerations

To create a truly healthy environment, cross-contamination and green cleaning procedures should go hand-in-hand. Green cleaning -- defined as “effective cleaning to protect health without harming the environment” -- can reduce costs, provide marketing and employee recruiting benefits, enhance safety, increase customer and employee satisfaction, reduce health threats, and create goodwill. In addition to using Green Seal certified products, your janitorial services company can implement other processes that provide a healthier environment inside while protecting the earth’s environment.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how clean or attractive your environment is if it’s not a safe and healthy place. More and more, entities such as the World Bank Group believe that seeking new cleaning methodologies and products should be an ongoing process to minimize the hazards of cross-contamination and create a healthier environment. A growing trend toward green cleaning means that new alternatives are being discovered and the cost of green products is decreasing. It seems there is no better time to begin ensuring that your building or business offers the best for your employees, customers and community.

Sources:

(1) World Health Organization
(2) American College of Allergies
(3) Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust Survey 2004

There's Clean And Then There's Advanced Building Maintenance Clean

Choose The Service You Deserve

When you choose Advanced Building Maintenance's Cleaning Services you are guaranteed a job done by an experienced janitorial staff, qualified supervisors, and state of the art equipment

Leave The Worry To Us

From attention to your smallest request to technically specialized cleaning service you can always count on our uncompromising quality. So whether you need your private office cleaned, or need your building Strip & Waxed with routine maintenance Advanced Building Maintenance can handle it.

Earning Your Trust

Condo Associates, Management Companies, and Individual building owners, in Westchester and Fairfield counties have come to rely on the dependability of Advanced Building Maintenance's office cleaning services.

Answering Your Needs

At Advanced Building Maintenance, we pride ourselves on our dedication to the finest communication systems ever offered by a New York or Connecticut janitorial services company.

Night Or Day, We'll Be There

Whether you need nightly cleaning service or weekly floor care services we can customize your agreement to handle your every cleaning need.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I choose a janitorial company?


A janitorial service should be chosen by first defining needs and wants and developing a plan to meet those needs and wants at the most economical price.

If cost is your most important factor, make this known when calling potential service providers. There are many inexpensive service providers available, however, with lower costs you may be sacrificing quality, consistency and reliability. If quality, consistency and reliability are important to you, then you should look for a company with high standards in their janitorial services while having a management team, processes, and infrastructure to provide you with your desired standard of service. Supervision, service and infrastructure do have a cost. Advanced Building Maintenance may not be the most inexpensive service provider, however, you will not find the quality of service we offer for less. Our company provides all of these qualities at a competitive price.


How much will the service cost me?


The cost depends on the level of service you request and the type of services needed to meet your requests. The largest driver of cost in cleaning service industry is the cost of labor (including payroll taxes and insurances). Cost of service is based on how many labor hours it requires to effectively and thoroughly clean your space. The following are some insightful questions to ask: How many labor hours it should take to perform the job? How much supervision will my account receive? How are customer service issues handled?


If I select Advanced Building Maintenance, who will be performing the janitorial services in my building?


Only Advanced Building Maintenance employees enter your building. We never use sub-contractors. Your building's security is of the utmost importance to Advanced Building Maintenance.


Do I have to commit to a long term contract?


No. Unlike most janitorial service providers, Advanced Building Maintenance believes our service speaks for itself. We do not require long term contracts and choose to do business on a month to month basis. Our philosophy: We have to earn your business each and every month.


How do I begin?


Contact Advanced Building Maintenance by either calling or emailing us for your FREE janitorial service bid. We will set up a walkthrough of your property and provide you with a no obligation cleaning proposal.

Mission, Vision, Passion & Core Beliefs

Our Passion

To support our cleaning team members through the implementation of the Advanced Building Maintenance Cleaning System program.

Our Vision

To be recognized as New York and Connecticut's leading brand in commercial cleaning – providing consistent, high-quality, innovative and value-based solutions to businesses.

Our Mission

To promote economic growth and independence for a diverse group of business owners by providing franchise ownership opportunities.

Core Beliefs

Always do the right thing. Be respectful, fair and ethical. Honor your commitments. Encourage creativity. Listen and provide honest feedback. Promote teamwork, and exceed expectations.