Quality assurance
A score, a photograph, and a due date
An inspection that produces a smiley face is not an inspection. Ours produces a weighted number, a photograph on every finding, and a corrective action with an owner and a deadline.
- 96.4/100Mean monthly score across the portfolio
- 24hrStandard corrective action window
- 4hrHealth and safety finding window
- 60 daysRepeat finding escalation window
The scoring model, in full
One hundred points, distributed by weight rather than evenly, because a failed restroom and a dusty ledge are not the same problem. Each category also carries its own threshold, and a category below threshold opens a corrective action regardless of the overall score.
That second rule is the important one. Averaging is how a vendor hides a persistently bad restroom behind an excellent lobby. Per category thresholds stop it.
Worked example
A building scores 93.1 overall, which passes. Restrooms scored 87 against a threshold of 90. Three corrective actions open on restrooms that afternoon, and the account manager returns within the week to re-score that category alone.
| Category | Weight | Threshold | What drives a deduction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restrooms | 25 | 90 | Fixtures, dispensers, floor edges, odour, restock |
| Floors, hard and carpet | 20 | 88 | Grit, edges and corners, gloss consistency, spotting |
| High touch points | 20 | 92 | Coverage, contact time evidence, missed surfaces |
| Entrances, lobby and glass | 15 | 90 | Glass, matting, first impression at eye height |
| Waste and recycling | 10 | 90 | Liners, bin condition, dock and compactor area |
| Detail and high dust | 10 | 85 | Ledges, vents, partition tops, rotation adherence |
Weights are fixed across the portfolio so scores are comparable between buildings. Thresholds can be raised for a specific account, never lowered.
The inspection cycle, from walk to review
Nine steps. The whole loop exists so that a problem found on a Tuesday night is closed by Wednesday afternoon rather than discussed at a quarterly meeting.
Inspection and corrective action cycle
- Supervisor walkThe working supervisor scores a weighted 100 point walkthrough of their own building, against the scope, with the app timestamping each zone.
- Account manager walkAn independent score by someone who did not perform the work and does not report to the supervisor. This is the number that goes in your pack.
- Joint walk with your teamYour facilities lead walks the building with our account manager and scores it alongside us. Disagreements get resolved standing in the room.
- Finding raised with a photographEvery deduction is photographed at the point of inspection. A score without a photograph is an opinion.
- Corrective action openedAnything below its category threshold becomes a numbered corrective action with a named owner and a due date, whatever the overall score was.
- Corrective action closedWithin 24 business hours for a standard finding, 4 hours for a health and safety finding. Closed only with a photograph of the corrected condition.
- Repeat finding escalatedThe same finding twice in 60 days escalates past the supervisor to the operations director, and the root cause is written up rather than the symptom.
- Monthly pack issuedScores, the corrective action register open and closed, consumables usage, floor care calendar, roster changes, and anything that changed on your account.
- Quarterly business review heldTrend lines rather than snapshots. Where the score is moving, what is driving it, and what we are changing about the programme in response.
Reporting
What lands in your inbox on the first Tuesday
Not a dashboard link you will never open. A PDF a facility manager can forward to their director, plus thirty minutes on a call with the person who walked the building.
- Inspection scoresThis month, last month, and the trailing twelve month line
- Corrective action registerOpen items with owners and due dates, closed items with photographs
- Consumables usageConsumption by product against par, and any fixture burning through paper
- Floor care calendarWhat was done, what is next, and the 21 day notice for the next window
- Roster changesAnyone added or removed from your building, with clearance dates
- Service level performanceResponse times against the SLA, and any credit due
Service levels, and what happens when we miss one
A service level with no consequence is a paragraph. These carry credits, and the credit calculation is in the contract rather than in a conversation.
| Event | Response | Resolution | If missed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health and safety finding | Immediate | 4 hours | Written incident report within 24 hours |
| Standard inspection finding | Same shift | 24 business hours | Escalation to operations director |
| Client logged complaint | 2 business hours | 24 business hours | Account manager site visit |
| Spill or contamination call | 45 minutes on shift | Same visit | Credit against the monthly invoice |
| Response disinfection | 4 hours | Same visit, report in 24 hours | Credit against the monthly invoice |
| Crew absence, unnotified | Immediate cover | Same night | Full credit for the missed service |
| Monthly score below floor | Written plan in 5 days | Next monthly walk | Credit per the SLA schedule |
Response is when a person is on it. Resolution is when it is closed with evidence. Both are measured from the timestamp of the log entry, not from when someone noticed.
Questions
About the QA programme
Who does the inspecting, and are they independent?
Two people, deliberately. The working supervisor inspects their own building weekly, which is a self check and is treated as one. The account manager inspects monthly, does not perform the work, and does not report to the supervisor. The monthly number is the one that appears in your pack and the one your credits are measured against, because it is the one nobody on the crew can influence.
What actually happens when a score falls below threshold?
A numbered corrective action opens with a named owner and a due date, and it opens per category, not per building. A site can score 93 overall and still owe you a restroom, because restrooms carry their own threshold at 90. Standard findings close within 24 business hours, health and safety findings within 4. Nothing closes without a photograph of the corrected condition.
Do you offer service credits?
Yes, and the mechanism is in the SLA rather than in a sales conversation. A monthly score below the contracted floor triggers a credit against the following month, and a repeated miss triggers a written remediation plan with a review date. We would much rather never issue one, which is exactly why the escalation for a repeat finding is aggressive.
Can we see the inspection reports ourselves?
Every one of them, and they are in your monthly pack whether the news is good or not. Clients who want live access get a read only account on the inspection platform. The point of scoring a building is that somebody outside the crew can see the number, and a vendor who only shows you the good months is running a marketing programme rather than a QA programme.
What is a realistic score for a well run building?
A mature account settles between 94 and 97 on our scale, and a perfect 100 on a monthly walk usually means the inspection was not thorough. New accounts routinely start in the low 80s in month one, which is normal and is the point: the first month establishes a baseline and the following two months are where the programme proves itself.
Ask for a redacted inspection pack
The fastest way to judge a janitorial vendor is to read one month of their real reporting. We will send a redacted pack from a live account of similar size and type, usually the same day.