Cleaning service level agreement template
The cleaning contract says what gets cleaned. The service level agreement says how you will know it was done well, how fast problems get fixed and what happens when they don’t. This worksheet walks through each of those with the contractor, one line at a time.
Most cleaning contracts promise “high quality” and “prompt response” and leave it there. Those words feel fine at signing and are useless six months later, when the restrooms are slipping and you have nothing to point to. A service level agreement replaces them with numbers and dates that both sides can check.
Fill this in with the contractor before the contract is signed, or at the next renewal if you already have one. Every line should end up with a number, a frequency or a named person written next to it. If a line can’t be filled in, that is worth discussing before anyone signs.
Parties, Sites and Term
- Customer name, site addresses and the contact person for each site
- Contractor name, account manager and the supervisor assigned to each site
- Start date, term length and the renewal notice period
- Service days and service window per site, for example Monday to Friday after 6pm
- The scope of work document this agreement is measured against, by name and date
Quality Standard and Inspections
- How quality is measured: an area-by-area inspection, each line scored Pass, Fail or N/A
- Who inspects: contractor supervisor, customer, or both, and how often each one does
- Minimum inspection frequency per site, for example every two weeks, with dates kept on record
- Target score per inspection, written as a percentage of applicable lines passed
- What counts as a critical item that fails the area on its own, for example restroom supplies empty
- Photo required on every failed line, kept with the inspection record
- When and how the customer receives each inspection report
Response and Fix Times
- Response time for an urgent request such as a spill, flood or safety hazard during occupied hours
- Response time for a routine complaint, measured from the customer's report to a reply with a fix date
- Fix time for a failed inspection line, normally by the next scheduled service
- Who confirms the fix: a supervisor reviews a fix photo or re-inspects before the item is closed
- How the customer reports a problem: phone, email, or a link, and who receives it after hours
Staffing and Supervision
- Minimum crew size or labour hours per service, where the customer wants it written
- Supervisor site visit frequency, separate from inspections
- Notice to the customer when the regular cleaner or supervisor changes
- Keys, alarm codes and access cards: who holds them, how they are logged and returned
Reporting and Review
- Monthly summary to the customer: inspections done, average score, open and closed deficiencies
- Quarterly walkthrough with the customer, with the date set a month ahead
- Annual review before renewal covering the year's scores, fix times and any scope changes
When the Standard Is Missed
- Number of consecutive inspections below target that triggers a written correction plan
- Time the contractor has to deliver the correction plan, and what it has to contain
- Re-inspection date after the correction plan, and who attends
- Any service credit for missed services, written as a fixed amount per missed visit
- Grounds and notice period for ending the contract if the correction plan does not hold
General commitments
- Both parties have a copy of the scope of work this agreement measures against
- Every target is a number or a date, not a word like prompt or high quality
- The customer knows where to find the inspection records without asking
- Signed by both parties and attached to the contract as a schedule
The three lines that do most of the work
How quality is measured
Agree that quality means an area-by-area inspection against a written list, scored Pass, Fail or N/A, with a photo on every Fail. Then agree who inspects and how often. Without this line, every other target in the agreement is opinion. The janitorial inspection scoring system explains how the score is worked out, so you and the contractor calculate it the same way.
Who confirms a fix
A complaint is not closed when the contractor says it is. Write down that a supervisor reviews a photo of the fix or re-inspects the spot before an item counts as closed. This one line changes how fix times get reported, because a fix nobody checked doesn’t count.
What happens after a missed target
Set a trigger, such as two inspections in a row below target, that requires a written correction plan within a set number of days, a re-inspection date, and a right to end the contract if the plan does not hold. Contractors take this seriously because it is specific. A vague right to terminate “for poor performance” is easy to dispute and rarely used.
Setting targets you can both live with
Don’t pick the target score on day one. Ask the contractor to run a baseline inspection before the first night of service and weekly inspections for the first month. By then you will both know what the building looks like, and the target can be set from real scores instead of a guess. Response times work the same way: an urgent spill during business hours needs a different answer from a routine request about a dusty vent, so write them separately.
Keep the targets few. An agreement with five numbers that get reported every month does more than one with twenty that nobody checks.
Using it after signing
The agreement only works if you see the results. Ask for the monthly summary in the format the worksheet describes, keep each one, and score the contractor yourself once a month with the cleaning client satisfaction scorecard. Hold the quarterly walkthrough with your contractor on the date you agreed. If you are starting from scratch, the commercial cleaning scope of work template is the document this agreement measures against, and the cleaning inspection report template shows what a useful monthly report looks like.
Common questions
What is a cleaning service level agreement?
A schedule attached to the cleaning contract that says how the work will be measured and what happens when it falls short. The scope of work lists the tasks. The service level agreement sets the inspection frequency, the target score, how fast problems get a response and a fix, and the steps when targets are missed.
What should a cleaning SLA include?
The sites and service windows, the quality standard and how it is inspected, a target score, response and fix times for urgent and routine problems, who confirms a fix, supervision and staffing commitments, the reports you will receive and when, and a written process for missed targets that ends in the right to terminate.
What is a good target score for a cleaning contract?
Agree on it with the contractor once you have seen a few inspections of your own building, rather than picking a number on day one. Many contractors aim to hold a building in the 90s on a Pass, Fail and N/A inspection. What matters most is that the number is written down and that both sides measure it the same way.
Should a cleaning SLA include financial penalties?
Keep them simple if you use them. A fixed credit for a missed service visit is easy to apply and hard to argue with. Penalties tied to a score percentage tend to turn every inspection into a negotiation. A clear correction plan process with a right to end the contract usually does more.
Is this template a legal contract?
No. It is a worksheet for agreeing the measurable parts of the service with your contractor. Have your own contract terms reviewed the usual way and attach the completed worksheet as a schedule.