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Contributed by: Admin 2

Performance-Based Cleaning vs. Prescriptive Cleaning

Contributed by Mark Gilbreth, Regional Sales Executive

Design a Service Contract to Meet Your Operational Needs

As the past year has augmented the importance and impact of professional facilities maintenance, both standalone and integrated services are increasingly being outsourced by several businesses. It is no secret, however, that the expectation to have a good experience with the janitorial and facility maintenance service provider necessitates a good understanding of the service contract.

The details in the service contract defines the success of a potential long-term partnership between a customer and the facilities maintenance company. Simultaneously, the terms and service of the contract also focus on specifications that can make the contract either performance-based or a prescriptive.

Prescriptive Cleaning outlines specifications of exactly what the cleaning and maintenance staff must do to meet the requirements. It covers information such as the headcount, cleaning products, tools, and processes, among other details. With its exact specifications, prescriptive cleaning leaves no room for flexibility for the service provider. It has been observed that prescriptive cleaning restricts the motivation to innovate or perform better than what is specified.

Performance-Based Cleaning refers to a service contract that defines the expected outcomes but not the actions to attain them. This approach leaves margin for flexibility for service providers to choose the most effective and efficient way for delivering intended results. While performance-based cleaning can optimally overcome the limiting nature of prescriptive cleaning, it is important to understand that performance-based service contract can only be implemented successfully by a responsible and experienced service provider.

Performance based enables the service provider to define cleaning activities and frequencies needed to maintain the expectation of the client. This is a consultative strategy that reduces the risk of both over or under specifying the scope of work by the client. Over specified details of the service contract is likely to incur unnecessary expectations while inadequate specifications can lead to unsatisfactory performance by the on-ground team. However, businesses that prefer prescriptive contracts can also consider partnering with a company that has the capabilities for carrying out a hybrid model. As Diversified Maintenance offers custom solutions with tasks and frequencies tailored around the needs of each customer, a hybrid service contract can be designed that includes prescriptive cleaning for certain rooms or locations at the facility and performance-based cleaning for other areas. To learn more about the dynamics of performance-based and prescriptive cleaning to understand the better suited option for your facility, send me a note at: Mark Gilbreth mgilbreth@DiversifiedM.com.