Choosing a Commercial Cleaner in Sioux Falls: 12 Questions to Ask Before You Sign

Choosing a commercial cleaning vendor is one of the more deceptively difficult decisions a facility manager makes. The barrier to entry in our industry is low, the pricing varies more than it should, and the only real way to know whether a cleaner is good is to live with them for a few months. The cost of getting it wrong is high: turnover in your building, awkward conversations with your team, and the slow drag of feeling like cleanliness is one more thing you have to manage.

This article is the buyer's guide we wish every business in Sioux Falls had access to before signing their first cleaning contract. It is the 12 questions we would ask if we were on the other side of the table, plus the answers that should set off alarms.

Why this matters more than it looks

The biggest hidden cost in a bad cleaning contract is not the cleaning itself. It is the management overhead. A vendor that does not show up reliably, does not respond to feedback, and does not staff your building consistently turns cleaning into a recurring problem you have to actively manage. That is far more expensive than the difference between a $2,200 bid and a $2,800 bid.

The 12 questions below are designed to surface the operational reality of how a cleaning company runs — not just the marketing reality of what is on their website.

The 12 questions

1. Are you licensed, insured, and bonded? Can I see proof?

This is table stakes. Any commercial cleaner working in a professional building should carry general liability insurance (typically $1M minimum, $2M is better), workers' compensation insurance, and a janitorial bond. Ask for a current certificate of insurance with your building as a certificate holder.

Red flag: vagueness, "we can get that to you next week," or coverage limits that look light for the scope of work.

2. Who will actually be in our building?

You want to know: are these direct W-2 employees of the cleaning company, or subcontractors? Direct employees mean the company has hired, trained, and is accountable for the people in your space. Subcontractors mean a layer of separation that often shows up in inconsistent quality and high turnover.

Red flag: "We have a network of cleaning professionals." That usually means subcontractors.

3. What is the supervision structure?

A real commercial cleaning company has a supervisor or area manager who walks the building regularly — typically monthly at minimum — and produces a written QA report. Without supervision, drift is inevitable.

Red flag: "The lead cleaner handles QA." That is not QA. That is the same person grading their own homework.

4. What happens when someone calls in sick or leaves the company?

Turnover in commercial cleaning is high industry-wide. The question is not whether it will happen but how it is handled. Good companies have float staff, a manager-on-call, and a process for re-training the replacement specifically on your building's scope. Bad companies just send whoever is available and hope you do not notice.

Red flag: "We have not had that problem." Everyone has that problem. The question is whether they have a system for it.

5. Can I see a sample scope of work?

A real commercial cleaning scope is a multi-page document that lists every task by zone, with frequency. It should be specific enough that an unfamiliar crew member could execute it correctly on their first night.

Red flag: a one-page scope, a scope written in marketing language ("we will keep your space sparkling"), or no scope at all until after you sign.

6. How is pricing structured, and what is included?

A real bid is a flat monthly price for a defined scope. The scope should explicitly list what is included (consumables, supplies, equipment, periodic deep cleans) and what is not. Periodic add-ons (carpet extraction, hard-floor refinishing, window cleaning) should be priced separately and clearly.

Red flag: hourly billing with no scope, or a price that is significantly lower than competitors with vague "we will figure it out" answers about what is included.

7. What chemistry and equipment do you use?

You are looking for: EPA-registered disinfectants, certified green chemistry as the default (Green Seal, EPA Safer Choice, or ECOLOGO), HEPA-filtered vacuums, color-coded microfiber, and dose-controlled dispensing. You do not need to dictate brands, but the vendor should be able to answer these questions specifically.

Red flag: "We use professional-grade products" with no specifics.

8. How do we communicate with you?

A real commercial cleaning relationship has a defined communication channel. A direct phone number to the account manager, an email distribution that gets answered within a business day, and ideally a portal or texting line for non-urgent requests. The crew should not be the primary communication channel.

Red flag: "Just tell the cleaner what you need."

9. What is your quality assurance process?

Beyond supervisor walks, what does QA look like? Some companies use mobile QA software with photo documentation. Some run customer satisfaction surveys quarterly. Some have a written escalation policy. The specifics matter less than the existence of a process.

Red flag: "If you have feedback, just let us know." That is not a QA process. That is a feedback channel.

10. Can you provide three references in similar buildings?

Ask for references that match your industry and size. A vendor that primarily cleans warehouses is not necessarily the right fit for a medical office, and vice versa. Call the references. Ask: how long have they been with the vendor, what has gone wrong, and how was it resolved.

Red flag: hesitation, dated references, or references that are all in unrelated industries.

11. What is your background check policy?

Every person entering your building after hours should have passed a background check appropriate to your industry. For medical or financial buildings, the bar is higher. The vendor should be able to describe their screening process in detail and provide documentation on request.

Red flag: "We trust our team." Not the answer.

12. What does termination look like?

A confident vendor offers a month-to-month or 30-to-60-day-out contract. They want to earn your business every month. A vendor that requires a year-long contract with substantial early termination fees is protecting themselves against the fact that you might not be happy.

Red flag: multi-year contracts with steep termination penalties.

Reading the bid

Once you have answers to the 12 questions, the actual pricing comparison gets much easier. Throw out the lowest bid almost every time — in our experience, the lowest bid is the lowest bid because the cleaner has either underestimated the scope or plans to under-deliver. Throw out the highest bid if the answers to the 12 questions do not justify the premium.

The right vendor is usually in the middle of the pack on price, has crisp specific answers to the 12 questions, and has been operating in your market long enough to have references you can actually verify.

A note on local versus national

There are good national cleaning companies and good local cleaning companies. The trade-off is usually this: national companies have more consistent systems but less local accountability. Local companies have more local accountability but more variable systems.

In our market — Sioux Falls and the surrounding metro — local has tended to win for buildings under about 100,000 square feet. The accountability advantage is real, and the systems gap has narrowed substantially in the last five years. For multi-state portfolios, the calculus shifts.

What to do with this guide

Print it. Bring it to your next vendor evaluation. Ask the questions in person, not over email. Watch how the answers come. The vendors who light up at these questions and answer them in detail are the vendors who actually run their company well. The vendors who get uncomfortable are telling you something important.

If you are evaluating cleaning vendors in the Sioux Falls metro right now, we are happy to be one of the bids you put through this process. We will answer all 12 questions in writing. We will give you references in your industry. We will give you a flat-rate written scope and a 30-day-out contract. And if we are not the right fit, we will tell you honestly which of the other local vendors we would recommend instead.