Before hiring a commercial cleaner, ask who will actually clean your building and how they are paid, how the work is supervised and proven, what insurance and safety systems they hold, and what the contract lets you do if things go wrong. A good contractor answers each question specifically and will put the answers in writing.
Who will clean my building?
Ask whether the cleaners are employees or subcontractors, whether the same people will attend each visit and how they are screened and inducted for your site. Consistency matters, because a team that knows your building misses less than a rotating one. A good answer names the arrangement and how a replacement is handled when someone is away.
How are your cleaners paid?
Ask the contractor to confirm in writing how cleaners are engaged and that pay meets the Cleaning Services Award. Wages are the largest cost in cleaning, and as the engaging business you do not want to inherit a pay problem. A contractor with nothing to hide answers this plainly.
Who supervises and how often?
Ask who checks the work, how often they visit the site and how you reach them. The answer you want is a named person and a routine, not "we keep an eye on it".
How will I know the work is done?
Ask what proof you receive: a checklist, photos, a regular report against your scope. Then ask what happens when a task is missed and how quickly it is corrected. Our own approach is a daily checklist with before-and-after photos and a monthly report against the agreed scope.
What insurance and safety systems do you have?
Ask for current certificates of currency for public liability and workers' compensation cover, and ask how chemicals are managed, including safety data sheets for products used on your site. Ask how incidents and hazards are reported. Missing or out-of-date certificates are a reason to pause.
What are you pricing, exactly?
Ask for the price against your written scope, the hours behind it and anything excluded. If you have not written a scope yet, start with how to write a cleaning scope of work, then use the answers here to feed your comparison of quotes.
What does the contract let me do?
Ask about the term, the notice needed to leave, how changes to the scope are priced and what remedies you have for repeated missed tasks. Ask to see the contract before you commit, not after.
Can I speak to a current client?
Ask for two or three references in buildings like yours and call them. Ask what went wrong and how it was handled, not only whether they are happy.
What to do next
Write the answers into a scorecard so you can compare contractors on the same footing. If you would like us to answer these for your site, book a walkthrough.