Cleaning specifications produced in seconds, not weeks

Why two consultants produce two different specifications for the same building

Ask two cleaning consultants to specify the same site and you will get two different answers — different frequencies, different assumptions about footfall, different views on what a reasonable standard looks like. Neither is dishonest. Specification writing has always carried the judgement of whoever wrote it.

That subjectivity is expensive. It makes tenders hard to compare, it makes benchmarking across a portfolio nearly impossible, and it means the price a contractor quotes reflects the consultant as much as the building.

What the specification is built on

ML10 benchmarks combine established industry standards with its own methodology. The standards give the specification a language your contractors and auditors already recognise; the methodology is what turns a recording into a finished document in seconds.

• BICSc — the British Institute of Cleaning Science standards.
• ISSA — the worldwide cleaning industry association standards.
• NHS National Standards of Cleanliness, for healthcare estates.
• ML10's own benchmarking methodology, held as a trade secret, which applies those standards consistently to what the recording actually shows.

Three service levels on every benchmark

Every benchmark returns the same site specified three ways — Basic, Optimal and Premium — so the decision in front of you is a service level, not a leap of faith. You pick the appropriate level per location, and the pricing follows from the level you choose rather than from a negotiation.

This is also the answer to the question every FM director asks first: what happens if the benchmark says the site needs more cleaning hours than we currently buy? You choose the level that fits the site and the budget, and you can see exactly what each level costs and covers.

What it replaces

Commissioning a consultant to write a cleaning specification typically takes days to weeks and costs around three times what the same benchmark costs through ML10. The output is a single opinion, delivered once, and it ages from the day it lands.

On a recent benchmark for a global banking firm — a 200,000 sq ft, 12-floor site — the specification came back in 10 hours rather than the 6 days the conventional route required, for $1,000 against $4,000. It identified a 20% reduction in the cleaning SLA specification, which translated into a 20% cost saving on the contract.