Guides
How to structure a commercial cleaning services package
A commercial cleaning services package is scope plus frequency. How the offer is built: the terms, the package shapes, the constraints, and the phases.
Commercial cleaning services are sold as packages, and a package is only as good as the scope behind it. What follows is the structure of the offer: the terms, the shapes, the constraints, and the phases.
What to take away
- In contract cleaning, a service is a written scope with a frequency, and a package is a bundle of scopes a buyer can compare without a walkthrough. Everything you sell is one or the other.
- Package the frequent, predictable work. Quote the irregular work. Mixing them into one monthly figure is how strip-and-wax gets done for free.
- The account that leaves over one missed restroom was never bought on the package. It was bought on a promise the package made about supervision. Build inspection into every offer.
- Consumables belong on their own line in every package, or they will decide your margin without you.
- Add a service line only when a signed scope pays for the equipment, the training, and the supervision it needs.
The decision this guide frames
A new commercial cleaner decides what to sell before deciding what to charge, and both decisions are local. Whether medical suites in your area buy disinfection to a written standard, whether property managers want one vendor for janitorial and floors, whether anyone will pay for day porter service in a lobby: you learn by asking, not reading.
This guide gives the structure of the offer, so that when you learn the local answers you have somewhere to put them. The supporting articles in this cluster carry the specifics: a method for turning scope into tiered packages, a way of testing which service lines are worth adding, and a catalog of package shapes to pick from.
Scope, service, package: the terms at the right scale
Scope, service, package
What it is
- Task
- One action in one area: empty trash, clean a restroom, vacuum a lane
- Scope
- The full list of tasks for a building with frequencies attached
- Service line
- A family of scopes you are equipped and trained to deliver: nightly janitorial, floor care, day porter, post-construction
- Package
- A named bundle of scope at a set frequency, priced by the month, comparable across buildings
- Contract
- Package plus term, access, consumables policy, extras, and review dates
What it is not
- Task
- A service
- Scope
- A price
- Service line
- A package
- Package
- The whole relationship
- Contract
- A handshake
Facility managers compare packages. Crews work scopes. Owners price contracts. Keeping the three separate keeps a scope dispute from becoming a contract dispute.
Cleaning offer terms at a glance
Term
- Task
- One action in one area
- Scope
- Full task list with frequencies
- Service line
- Family of scopes you deliver
- Package
- Named scope bundle, monthly price
- Contract
- Package plus term and extras
What it is
- Task
- A service
- Scope
- A price
- Service line
- A package
- Package
- The whole relationship
- Contract
- A handshake
What it is not
- Task
- Scope
- Service line
- Package
- Contract
What you already have
Before designing an offer, take inventory honestly.
- The kit you own and the tasks it can do. Nightly janitorial needs a cart, a vacuum, and a mop system. Floor care needs machines and training. Post-construction needs lifting capacity and a tolerance for dust.
- The hours your people can work. A day porter line needs someone available during business hours; a night crew cannot do it.
- The buildings within your night driving range and what their managers say they buy. Five walkthrough conversations will tell you more than any survey.
- Your production rates on the tasks you have actually timed. A service line you have never delivered has no rate and cannot be priced.
The startup and market guide covers testing the local market with real bids; the offer you test should be built from this inventory, not from a competitor's website.
Package shapes compared
Built from
- Nightly janitorial, single tier
- Trash, restrooms, floors, kitchens, five nights
- Tiered nightly (basic, standard, full)
- Same tasks at rising frequencies and coverage
- Janitorial plus scheduled periodics
- Nightly scope plus quarterly floor care on a calendar
- Day porter
- A person on site during hours for lobbies, restrooms, spills
- Specialty only
- Floor care, carpet, post-construction, deep cleans, by the job
- Subscription by visit
- A fixed number of visits per month, scope per visit
Who buys it
- Nightly janitorial, single tier
- Small offices, clinics, professional suites
- Tiered nightly (basic, standard, full)
- Buyers who want to see a choice
- Janitorial plus scheduled periodics
- Property managers who want one vendor and one invoice
- Day porter
- Larger buildings, retail, medical
- Specialty only
- Buyers with an incumbent janitorial vendor
- Subscription by visit
- Very small sites, shared spaces
Where it fails
- Nightly janitorial, single tier
- Buyer wants fewer nights; you have not priced a three-night version
- Tiered nightly (basic, standard, full)
- The lowest tier is priced to lose and everyone picks it
- Janitorial plus scheduled periodics
- Periodics slip when nights are busy; the calendar needs an owner
- Day porter
- Staffing a daytime post with a night-oriented workforce
- Specialty only
- Irregular revenue; every job is a new estimate
- Subscription by visit
- Scheduling drift; the visits become whenever
Pick one or two shapes to start. The packaging article in this cluster shows how to build tiers that do not cannibalize each other.
Six commercial cleaning package shapes
Package shape
- Nightly janitorial, single tier
- Trash, restrooms, floors, five nights
- Tiered nightly
- Same tasks at rising frequencies
- Janitorial plus periodics
- Nightly scope plus quarterly floor care
- Day porter
- On-site person during business hours
- Specialty only
- Floor care, carpet, post-construction
- Subscription by visit
- Fixed visits per month
Built from
- Nightly janitorial, single tier
- Small offices and clinics
- Tiered nightly
- Buyers who want a choice
- Janitorial plus periodics
- Property managers, one invoice
- Day porter
- Larger, retail, medical buildings
- Specialty only
- Buyers with incumbent janitorial
- Subscription by visit
- Very small sites, shared spaces
Who buys it
- Nightly janitorial, single tier
- No three-night version priced
- Tiered nightly
- Lowest tier priced to lose
- Janitorial plus periodics
- Periodics slip when nights busy
- Day porter
- Staffing a daytime post
- Specialty only
- Irregular revenue, new estimates
- Subscription by visit
- Scheduling drift
Where it fails
- Nightly janitorial, single tier
- Tiered nightly
- Janitorial plus periodics
- Day porter
- Specialty only
- Subscription by visit
The constraints
Three things limit what you can offer regardless of demand.
The constraints
Three things limit what you can offer regardless of demand.
- Safety and chemical handling. OSHA's cleaning industry page lists the hazard categories the agency associates with cleaning work, including chemical exposure and bloodborne pathogens, and links to the applicable standards, such as the Hazard Communication standard and the Bloodborne Pathogens standard. Before adding a service line that touches clinical settings or unusual chemicals, use that page to build a question list for OSHA's resources or a safety consultant: which standards apply, which written programs are expected, and what training your crews need first.
- Supervision. Every package promises that someone checks. A tier you cannot inspect is a tier you cannot sell.
- Labor hours. Night work and day porter work draw on different people. Do not sell both until you have both.
Choosing the lines to add
A service line earns its place when three things hold at once. A signed scope pays for its equipment. Someone on staff delivers it to a written standard. Its contribution per labor hour matches or beats nightly janitorial.
The profitability article in this cluster walks through that test with your own numbers. Add lines one at a time, and measure each for a quarter before adding the next.
Building the offer in phases
- Write the nightly scope for one building type as a task list with frequencies. Time it. That is your first package.
- Offer it to five buildings of that type and record what each buyer asked to add or remove. Those requests are your tiers.
- Add scheduled periodics as a separate line with its own calendar and price, once you own or can rent the equipment.
- Add a specialty line only when a customer has asked for it in writing and the equipment is funded by that scope.
- Review the package list every quarter against contribution per labor hour and drop what does not earn.
Budget beyond the obvious
Each package carries costs the buyer never sees. Consumables, if you supply them, are a monthly line that grows with occupancy. Supervision time is real labor. Training a crew on a new floor machine is paid hours with no revenue.
Records are a cost too. The IRS page on what records a business should keep says keep documents that support income and expenses.
For packages, file supply receipts and timesheets by account, so each package's real cost can be seen rather than guessed. The Bureau of Labor Statistics wage tables publish local wage estimates by occupation. Use it to check whether a day porter line, staffed during business hours, costs what you assumed.
What to say and what not to claim
A package description is advertising. The Federal Trade Commission's advertising guidance for small businesses says claims must be truthful and supported. "Hospital-grade disinfection" on a brochure is a claim about a standard; if you cannot show the standard and the training, do not print it. Describe the scope, the frequency, and the inspection cadence. Those you can prove.
Living with the offer
The package a customer bought in January is the one they will hold you to in July. Keep the written scope with the contract, review it at ninety days, and adjust the package, not the crew, when the building changes.
An account that churns over one missed restroom was not lost to a competitor's package. It was lost to the absence of an inspection the package implied.
Common questions
Should I offer a menu of individual tasks?
No. Buyers cannot price a menu and neither can you. Offer scopes with frequencies, and quote additions by walkthrough addendum.
How many tiers should a nightly package have?
Two or three, each priced to contribute on its own. A tier that exists only to make the middle one look reasonable will be bought, and will lose money.
Can I sell periodics to a building whose nightly cleaning I do not do?
Yes, and it is a common way in. Price each job from a walkthrough, and treat the relationship as a chance to bid the nightly work at renewal.
What do I do when a customer asks for a service I cannot deliver?
Say so, and refer them if you can. A promise you cannot supervise is how accounts are lost.
