Can You Provide References from Other Clients?
Yes. Ask us and we will put you in touch with real clients who let us into their buildings five, six, seven nights a week. That is the short answer, and it is the honest one. But a reference is only worth something if you know what to do with it, and most people who ask for references never actually ring the number. They tuck it in a folder, feel reassured that we handed one over, and sign the contract anyway. That is a wasted opportunity. A good reference call takes eight minutes and tells you more about how a cleaning company behaves at 6am on a wet Tuesday than any glossy brochure ever will.
We have been cleaning offices, surgeries, warehouses and shop floors across Gloucestershire for years, and in that time we have been on both sides of this conversation. We have been the company handing over the phone number, and we have been the ones checking references on subcontractors we bring in for large one-off jobs. So this is a practical guide to references in the cleaning trade: what we will give you, how to read between the lines, and the questions that separate a tidy answer from the truth.
What a reference from a cleaning company actually proves
People assume a reference proves quality. It does, a little, but that is not its main job. Any company can clean well for the first month. The floors gleam, the bins are lined, the kitchen taps sparkle, and everyone is delighted. The real question is what happens in month eleven, when the novelty has worn off, the same cleaner has been coming for a while, and nobody from the cleaning company has visited to check the work. That is what a reference tells you. It tells you whether standards held.
A reference also proves the relationship survived friction. Every cleaning contract hits a bump. A cleaner is off sick and cover does not turn up. A bin gets missed the morning of a board meeting. A bottle of blue roll runs out and nobody restocks it. These things happen in every building we have ever worked in. What matters is what the company did next. When you speak to one of our clients, that is the thread to pull. Ask them about the time something went wrong, because the answer reveals whether we are the sort of firm that owns a mistake and fixes it, or the sort that goes quiet and hopes you forget.
Finally, a reference proves longevity, which in cleaning is everything. A client who has stayed with the same commercial cleaning provider for three years is casting a vote with their renewal signature every single year. That vote is harder to fake than any testimonial on a website. When you ask us for references, we deliberately offer clients who have been with us the longest, because their patience is the strongest thing we can show you.
What we will and will not hand over
We will give a genuine prospect a shortlist of current clients, matched as closely as we can to your own sector and building type. If you run a dental practice, we will point you at another practice, not a car park. If you manage a 40,000 square foot distribution centre, we will find you a warehouse client rather than a two-room accountancy office, because the challenges are worlds apart. A reference only helps you if the referee lives in roughly the same world you do.
We will also share written references, before-and-after photographs from real jobs with the client's permission, and details of how long each contract has run. Where a client is happy to be named publicly, we will tell you who they are. Where they would rather stay private, which is common with medical and legal clients, we will still arrange an introduction but ask you to keep it confidential. That is normal and you should expect it from any reputable firm.
Here is what we will not do. We will not hand over a client's phone number the moment a stranger emails us, before we have spoken to you properly. Our clients trust us to protect their time, and we are not going to send twenty tyre-kickers a week to ring a busy practice manager. So we ask for a short conversation first, usually after we have quoted, so we know you are a serious prospect. We will not invent references, we will not reuse the same two long-suffering clients for every enquiry until they beg us to stop, and we will not dress up a one-off deep clean as a long-standing contract. If a company is cagey about all of this, that itself is your answer.
The questions that get you a real answer
Most people ask a reference three soft questions. Are they good? Are they reliable? Would you recommend them? These get you three soft answers, all of them yes, because nobody agrees to be a reference and then trashes the company down the phone. To learn anything, you have to ask questions that cannot be answered with a reflex.
- How long have they cleaned for you, and has the price changed? Longevity plus honest pricing history tells you whether the relationship is stable or whether it is quietly souring.
- What happened the last time something went wrong? This is the single most useful question in the whole call. Listen for whether they hesitate.
- Do you see the same faces, or a different cleaner every week? High staff turnover is the biggest hidden problem in our trade. A settled cleaner learns your building; a rotating cast never does.
- How easy is it to get hold of them when you need something? Ask who they ring, and how fast the phone gets answered. Cleaning is a service business, and communication is most of the service.
- Do they ever check the work, or do you have to chase? A company that audits its own cleaning without being asked is a company that will still be good in year two.
- Would you switch if a cheaper quote landed on your desk tomorrow? The honest ones pause here. If the answer is an instant no, you have found a genuinely happy client.
Notice that none of these ask "are they good at cleaning". You find that out in a walk-round, not on the phone. What the phone is for is character, consistency and how the company behaves when you are not watching.
References, reviews and case studies are not the same thing
People blur these together, and they should not, because each one is vulnerable to a different kind of fakery and each one tells you something the others cannot.
A reference is a live human you can question. It is the highest-value evidence because it is two-way. You can push, follow up, and ask the awkward thing. The cost to the company is real, because they have to spend a client's goodwill to give you one, which is exactly why it counts.
An online review is public and permanent, which makes it useful for spotting patterns, but any single review is weak evidence. What you want to read is not the five-star ones but the three-star ones and how the company replied. A firm that answers a lukewarm review with grace, without getting defensive, is showing you its true face. A firm with nothing but flawless reviews and no replies has usually curated the page.
A case study is the company's own story about a job, so treat it as marketing with useful facts inside. The good ones name the building type, the square footage, the problem, and what changed. When you read one of ours about a office cleaning contract or a tricky care home cleaning handover, you should be able to see the specifics, not just adjectives. If a case study could describe any company on earth, it is describing none.
The strongest due diligence stacks all three. Read the reviews for patterns, read a case study for the shape of a real job, then ring a reference to test whether the story holds up in a live conversation. Three sources, three angles, and a much clearer picture than any one of them gives alone.
Why we are comfortable being checked
There is a simple reason we volunteer references rather than dodge them. In a trade with a low barrier to entry, where anyone can buy a mop and a magnetic sign for a van, being checkable is a competitive advantage. The firms that cut corners cannot survive a reference call, so they hope you will not make one. We would rather you made ten.
Being checked also keeps us honest. When we know a prospect might ring three of our current clients this week, we cannot afford to let any of those relationships drift. It concentrates the mind wonderfully. Every long-standing client is both a source of work and a piece of evidence, and we protect both by turning up and doing the job properly, night after night, whether or not anyone is about to phone them.
We are also insured, our cleaners are vetted, and our methods are consistent across every contract, from a small commercial cleaning round to an industrial site. References are the human proof of all that paperwork. The certificates say we are allowed to do the work; the references say we actually do it well.
How to run your reference check without wasting anyone's time
Be considerate with the people you ring, because they are doing you a favour and running a business of their own. Email first to ask when suits, keep the call under ten minutes, and have your questions written down so you are not rambling. Ask the referee to be candid, and mean it; tell them a lukewarm honest answer helps you more than a polite glowing one. Then actually listen to the pauses, because the silences carry as much information as the sentences.
Check the reference against the quote. If we told you a cleaner would be on site by 6am and out before your staff arrive, ask the referee whether that is what really happens. If we promised a monthly quality audit, ask whether they see us doing it. A reference that contradicts the sales pitch is worth more than gold, and a reference that quietly confirms every small promise is the strongest reason to sign.
When you are ready to check us out for yourself, get in touch and we will line up the right clients for your sector. Call us on 0800 069 9055 or email [email protected], tell us what kind of building you run, and we will match you with people who clean the same sort of space you do. Have a look at our full range of cleaning services first if you want to know exactly what to ask them about.
Frequently asked questions
Can you provide references from other clients?
Yes. Once we have quoted and had a short conversation with you, we will provide current clients you can speak to directly, matched to your sector and building type. We offer clients who have been with us the longest, because a contract that renews year after year is the strongest evidence we can give.
Why do you ask questions before handing over a client's number?
To protect our clients' time. They agree to be references as a favour, and we are not willing to send every casual enquiry their way. A brief chat lets us confirm you are a genuine prospect and match you with the right client, usually someone running a similar building to yours.
What if all your references are glowing? How do I know they are real?
Fair scepticism. Ask each referee about a time something went wrong and how we handled it, ask how long they have been with us, and ask whether they would switch for a cheaper quote. Real clients answer these with detail and the occasional honest caveat. You can also cross-check against our online reviews and a relevant case study.
Will you give me references for my exact industry?
Wherever we can, yes. We try to match you with the closest fit we have, whether that is a dental practice, a warehouse, a solicitor's office or a shop floor. The challenges differ enormously by sector, so a same-sector reference is far more useful than a generic one.
Do you also provide written references and photos?
Yes. Alongside live phone references we can share written statements, before-and-after photographs from real jobs with the client's permission, and details of how long each contract has run. Some medical and legal clients prefer to stay private, so those introductions are arranged confidentially.
How many references should I actually check?
Two or three is plenty if you ask the right questions. One good call about how we handled a problem tells you more than five soft calls that only confirm we turn up. Focus on consistency, staff turnover and communication rather than asking whether we clean well; you judge that on a walk-round.
What is the best way to get started with you?
Call 0800 069 9055 or email [email protected] and tell us about your building. We will quote, arrange the references that fit your sector, and you can check us out properly before committing to anything. Visit our contact page to book a walk-round.