Your office cleaning has been slipping for months. You’ve complained to the office cleaning company, it improved for a week, and now the contract is half out to bid in your head. The question stops you: are you jumping too soon, or have you already waited too long?
Before you rebid, run a cure period. Put the specific failures in writing, give the company a defined window to fix them, usually around 30 days, and set measurable criteria for what fixed looks like. Then let the result decide.
If they cure it, you keep a vendor who already knows your building. If they don’t, you replace them with a clean conscience and a paper trail. Firing on frustration alone trades a known problem for an unknown company and the real cost of switching.
There’s one document that turns a frustrating vendor relationship into a clean yes or no decision, and most managers fire without ever sending it. What decides it is whether the failure is one the company can fix, and whether they fix it when you ask them formally. How fed up you are doesn’t enter into it.
First, Rule Out the Problems You Can Fix Yourself
Some of what you’re about to fire over was never the cleaning company’s job in the first place.
If the complaint is a task nobody wrote into the contract, or a frequency nobody pinned down, that’s a gap in the paper, and a new company working from the same vague scope will miss the same things. Walk through which complaints are actually scope problems before you blame the crew. Fixing the contract is cheaper than a transition, and it often makes the “bad” vendor look fine.
The other thing to rule out is an expectation you never made measurable. If “clean” was never defined, you and the company are arguing about an opinion. A written standard and a simple inspection turn that into a fact both sides can read. Our guide to evaluating your cleaning company’s performance shows how to score it so the problem is documented, not just felt.
Once you’ve confirmed the failure is real, in the contract, and measured, you have a genuine performance problem. Now the decision is fix or replace.
The Cure Period: The Decision Rule Most Managers Skip
A cure period is the fair, unemotional way to force that decision. It has three parts.
- A written notice. Spell out the specific deficiencies in plain detail: which tasks, which areas, which dates. Vague complaints get vague fixes.
- A defined window. Give a clear deadline to fix it. Service issues commonly run about 30 days, though contracts range anywhere from 10 to 90 depending on the problem. Many cleaning agreements pair a short cancellation notice with a cure window of a week or two.
- Measurable pass criteria. State what fixed looks like, ideally the same inspection score you’d use anyway, so the outcome isn’t a debate.
The beauty of it is that the result makes the decision for you. Cure it inside the window and the contract continues as if nothing happened. Miss it and you have documented cause to rebid, which also protects you if the contract requires notice before you can leave.
Most contracts already contain a right to cure clause, so you may be invoking a process you agreed to, not inventing one. If yours includes service credits or penalties when the office is not cleaned, name them in the notice too. A financial consequence during the cure period focuses a vendor’s attention fast.
When to Fix It, and Give the Cure Period a Real Chance
Some vendors earn the chance. Give the cure period real weight when:
- The decline is recent. A company that performed well for a year and slipped recently usually has a fixable cause, like a crew change or a lost supervisor.
- They communicate. They answer the phone, show up to the meeting, and own the problem instead of arguing. A vendor still trying is a vendor worth curing.
- The root cause is fixable. Unclear scope, a missing inspection routine, thin supervision, and crew turnover are all things a willing company can correct. Turnover in particular is the quiet cause behind a lot of quality drops, and a good operator can staff it back up.
- The relationship has history. A vendor who knows your building, your hours, and your security setup carries value a new company has to rebuild from scratch.
If most of those are true, a cure period usually ends with a fixed problem and a contract you didn’t have to replace.
When to Replace Your Office Cleaning Company (Skip or End the Cure Period)
Other situations tell you to rebid, and one of them skips the cure period entirely.
- They failed the cure period. You put it in writing, gave them the window, and the inspection still failed. That’s your answer.
- The same failures keep coming back. Fixed for two weeks, then back to normal, over and over. A pattern that survives every fix is a systems problem the company can’t or won’t solve.
- You can’t reach them. When a vendor goes quiet on a documented problem, the partnership is already over. Responsiveness is the one thing you can’t cure for them.
- The inspections keep scoring low. A common facility-management rule of thumb is that a score below 3 out of 5 on two inspections in a row is the trigger to start evaluating alternatives.
And the one that skips the cure period: an integrity, safety, or security breach. A crew that props open a secure door, mishandles keys, falsifies a log, or creates a safety hazard doesn’t get 30 days. Trust is the product you’re buying, and once it’s broken, a cleaner floor won’t restore it. When you reach that point, know how to cancel the contract without paying for the privilege before you sign with anyone new.
How to Run the Cure Period Without Torching the Relationship
You can invoke a cure period and still keep a good vendor on your side. Do it in order:
- Document first. Collect specific instances with dates, areas, and photos. Two weeks of evidence beats a month of memory.
- Send one written notice. Email counts. List the deficiencies, the window, and the standard for passing. Keep it factual, not angry.
- Have a real conversation. Meet or call. Give the company a chance to explain and commit to a plan. Good vendors want to fix it.
- Re-inspect at the deadline. Use the same checklist you named. Score it the same way. No moving goalposts.
- Decide on the result, not the mood. Passed means the relationship continues. Failed means you rebid with a clean record and no guilt.
Run this way, even a replacement ends professionally, which matters, because references and reputations in a local market are small and long.
The Decision, In One Line
If the failure is fixable and the company responds to a written cure notice, keep them and hold them to the standard. If they fail the cure period, or the breach involves trust rather than technique, rebid.
If you’re rebuilding after a vendor that stopped answering, look for the opposite of what you left: a company that writes the scope down, gives you a dedicated contact, and fixes issues in a day instead of a month. That’s how Excellence Janitorial Services works with offices across northeastern Pennsylvania, and it’s a lot of why our clients stay. If you’re weighing your options, a free walkthrough and an honest scope is a good first step.
Send the cure notice before you send the contract out to bid. It’s the cheapest test you’ll run, and it tells you the truth either way.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should I give my cleaning company to improve?
A defined window of around 30 days is standard for a service problem, with contracts ranging from about 10 to 90 days depending on how serious the issue is. The key is to set the deadline in writing and inspect against a clear standard at the end, so the outcome is a fact rather than a feeling.
Should I give my office cleaning company a second chance?
Give them one structured chance, not an open-ended series of them. A single documented cure period, with a written notice and a firm deadline, is fair and protects you. Repeated informal second chances with no deadline are how a bad situation drags on for a year.
What are the signs I should switch commercial cleaning companies?
Replace the company when it fails a documented cure period, when the same problems return after every fix, when it stops responding to you, or when it commits a trust breach involving keys, security, or a falsified log. Persistent low inspection scores across consecutive visits are the measurable version of the same signal.
What is a notice to cure in a cleaning contract?
It’s a written notice that identifies the specific way the company is failing to meet the contract and gives it a set period to fix the problem before you can terminate. Most service contracts include a right to cure clause, so sending one is usually following the process you already agreed to, not creating a new one.
How do I document cleaning problems for my vendor?
Keep a simple log with the date, the area, the specific task that failed, and a photo where possible. Two or three weeks of dated entries carries far more weight than a general complaint, and it turns the conversation from “the cleaning is bad” into a list the vendor can actually act on.
Can I cancel my cleaning contract if they are doing a bad job?
Usually, but the contract’s terms decide how. Many agreements require written notice and a cure period first, and some carry auto renewal or notice windows that affect timing. Document the failures, follow the cure process, and check the cancellation terms before you commit to leaving so you don’t owe for the exit.