Choosing a commercial cleaner in Adelaide comes down to twelve questions. Insurance, staff turnover, quality control, communication, chemicals, systems, and how they handle a complaint. Ask these before you sign a contract and you'll filter out most of the market in one conversation.

Most commercial cleaning contracts in Adelaide look great on the first month and fall apart by month four. The team that quoted you isn't the team that turns up. The proposal talked about systems that don't exist in practice. Nobody's checking the work. Your office manager becomes the quality control team by accident.

This is the list of questions that separates the real operators from the ones that will cost you six months of hassle and a re-tender.

Insurance and compliance

1. What insurance do you carry, and can I see the certificate? Public liability at $20 million minimum. Workers compensation for their staff. If they can't send you the certificates within an hour, move on.

2. Are your cleaners employees or subcontractors? Employees mean the company controls the training, the pay, the quality. Subcontractors mean the company is really a labour broker. Neither model is wrong, but you should know which one you're buying.

3. Do your staff have police checks and working with children checks if relevant? Non-negotiable for childcare, medical, or after-hours access to a business.

People and turnover

4. What's your staff turnover rate? The industry average is high. A cleaner willing to tell you the truth will say something like "we rotate teams to keep things fresh" or give you a number. If they dodge, that tells you something.

5. Will the same team clean my site every week? Consistency matters. If it's a rotating cast, you'll get a rotating standard.

6. Who's my point of contact if something goes wrong? A phone number that goes to a real person, not a call centre. Bonus points if it's the account manager, not the front desk.

Systems and quality control

7. What's your quality control process? The right answer includes scheduled site inspections, a checklist per site, and a documented issue tracking process. The wrong answer is "our team is very reliable."

8. Do you use a defined checklist for each site? Yes should be the answer. Ask to see one.

9. How do you handle a complaint or missed item? Look for a defined response time and a re-clean guarantee. If the answer is "we'll talk to the cleaner," you're the quality control system.

Chemicals and equipment

10. What products and equipment do you use? Look for commercial-grade equipment, colour-coded cloths (to prevent cross-contamination between bathrooms and kitchens), and safety data sheets available on request. If they're using supermarket sprays, that's your budget cleaner.

Communication and reporting

11. How do you communicate with the client? A cleaner's log book on site is the minimum. A monthly report is better. A dedicated account manager who checks in without being asked is what you actually want.

The trap question

12. Can you give me references from clients who've been with you for more than two years? This is the one that filters most competitors. Anyone can win a client for six months. Keeping one for two years means the work stayed consistent, the communication held up, and the price stayed reasonable.

What the answers really tell you

The point of these questions isn't to hear the right answers. It's to see how the salesperson handles them. A real operator has thought about every one of these questions and can answer them without shifting in their seat. A pitch-and-run outfit will get vague fast.

If you can't tell the difference, ask the second question again in a slightly different way. Consistency of answer tells you whether the story is real or rehearsed.

The Stronghold approach

Commercial cleaning at Stronghold runs on defined systems: same checklist every visit, documented quality control, one point of contact, and staff who are employees, not subcontractors. If something's missed, you tell us once and it's fixed the next visit at no charge. If the same thing gets missed twice, we sit down and work out why.

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