3 Reasons You Should Change Vendors in 2022.

The world is a crazy place right now. You might be trying to figure out how to even begin budgeting for your department in 2022. “How do I even begin to think about the price of anything next year!” you may be saying to yourself as you cry in the supply closet.

We get it. We know. The world of products and services is an up and down rollercoaster, and you’re sat at the very front with your arms in the air. You can hardly staff your own department, let alone even begin to fathom how a low skill services company is pulling it off. And I bet some of your problems are arising because some of the services you’ve hired out to 3^rd party vendors just aren’t pulling it off. And believe it or not, that might be a good reason to change vendors in 2022.

See below for 3 key reasons you should contemplate changing vendors in 2022.

The only vendor’s who will show up to the bid will be the vendors who think that they can do a good job.

A lot of janitorial and commercial cleaning companies have slowed, or completely stopped, their sales processes. A lot of janitorial companies are not actively expanding. Customer retention and customer satisfaction and service in this current employment environment are the top priorities for janitorial and commercial cleaning business as they approach 2022.

This doesn’t mean that these companies don’t want to add new business, but it does mean that they are being more cautious about business they are adding. Gone are the days where a potential vendor would show up to all and every vendor bid looking to gain the business at whatever the cost, however low the bid might have to be. In the current climate, vendors don’t want accounts that they are going to struggle to staff because they were the lowest bidder and now they’re trying to find janitor’s at $9 an hour – because every account is difficult to staff no matter how much, or how little, money the vendor originally won the business.

The only types of accounts commercial cleaning businesses want to add in 2022 are accounts that they feel from the outset that they can serve and serve well. Every account has issues right now, whether those issues are staffing or supply chain issues. No vendor wants to add a ‘problem’ account atop a heap of other ‘problem’ accounts. What this means for you is that when you send out your next RFP, no vendor is going to take a ‘risk’ and try and get your business. Only vendors who truly think they can serve you will reply to your next RFP.

Real Prices.

Very much in tune with point number one, any reputable vendor is going to bid this business as accurately and conservatively as they can. Historically, commercial cleaning companies have, sometimes, and especially smaller vendors who are aggressive about growth, bid potential new business low with an attitude of, “we’ll figure it out once we have the account.” Even the most aggressive and liberal of these smaller companies have stopped doing this in the current climate. And now, for once, when you send out your next RFP, you will get back numbers and prices which are more accurate and closer to what it should cost to clean your facility. The current climate simply ‘weeds’ out vendors looking to undercut all others with cheaper prices. This all means that, although you might receive bids higher than is tradition, the bids that you’ll receive will be the most accurate and set at prices that the vendor truly thinks they will be able to achieve success.

You’ll finally have an honest evaluation of your facility by the market.

No one will say something is easy and “oh, yes, we can solve that problem with no hassle,” if they truly can’t. What I mean by this is that you might have a genuinely difficult account to clean – some manufacturing facilities spring to mind. But no potential vendor is going to be aggressive, give you a low price, and shower you with promises of how easy your account is to clean because of 1 reason: in the current climate, they are not desperate to add additional business. They are focused on retaining the difficult business they have, and not adding additional business peppered with promises to you, the contact, that they’ll do the best job that any janitorial company has ever done – which is the same thing the previous janitorial company said to you.

All in all, as a purchaser, you may grimace at some of the above points. Yes, only a select few vendors will bid on the business, and yes, they’re going to bid it high (but accurately), and yes, they’re going to explain to you that that factory floor is going to be difficult to clean. But these are not bad things, these are the types of interactions that will help you pick a vendor who is going to be with you for a while.

All things considered, if you choose to bid out your commercial cleaning and janitorial in 2022, it might actually be the last time you have to!