Service policies

Scheduling, closures and holidays

Your cleaning window

Cleaning scheduled around your business: evenings, early mornings or weekends. Your proposal sets your visit days and a cleaning window, and we arrive and finish inside it. If your building has quiet hours, a late shift, evening services or classes, we plan around them. Changes to your days or window are confirmed in writing before they start.

Holidays

We don't clean on these holidays: [holiday list, e.g. New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day]. If a visit falls on one, we'll offer the nearest night that suits you. If you're open on a holiday and need us, tell us early and we'll try to plan for it.

Closures, events and changes on your side

Closing early, hosting an event, doing inventory, moving offices or having work done? Tell us at least [hours of notice for a closure or skipped visit, e.g. 24] hours ahead and we'll skip or move that visit. Use our service request form, text or email, and we'll confirm in writing.

Weather and emergencies

If snow, ice or a storm makes roads unsafe, or your building closes for an emergency, we reschedule with you. We'll tell you as early as we can, and you're always welcome to call it yourself if your site isn't safe to reach.

If we have to miss a visit

Illness or a vehicle problem can happen to us too. If we have to miss a scheduled visit, we tell you the same day and offer a make-up visit. [confirm same-day notice and a make-up visit]

Extra cleans and one-time requests

Need an extra visit before an inspection, an open house or a board meeting? Ask through the service request form or by text. Anything outside your written scope is quoted in writing first, and we schedule it when our calendar allows.

Post-construction phases

Rough, final and touch-up cleans are scheduled against your milestones, such as inspection, owner walkthrough or turnover. Touch-up cleans need [notice needed for a touch-up clean] notice. Ending ongoing service is covered in our service terms.

Keys, alarm codes and lock-up

Please share codes in person or by phone, never in a web form. Our forms ask only how we'll get in (keys, a fob or card, a keypad, an alarm, or someone who lets us in), never the code itself.

Keys, fobs and badges

• Picked up in person and signed for.
• Tagged with a code, never your business name or address.
• Recorded in a key log for your site: who holds which key, signed out and back in for each visit.
• Stored in a locked key cabinet when not in use, and carried only by the people assigned to your site.
• Badges and fobs issued to a cleaner are returned or deactivated when that person leaves your account. We tell you when it happens, so you can turn off their access on your side too.

Alarm and door codes

• Where your system allows, each cleaner gets an individual alarm user code. You can see who armed and disarmed it, and delete any code yourself.
• Codes are never written on keys, put in texts or emails, or entered in web forms.
• We keep codes [where codes are stored, e.g. a password manager limited to the people assigned to your site], never on paper.
• If we set off your alarm by mistake, we follow your alarm procedure and tell you that night. [confirm whether we cover any false-alarm charge we cause]

A lost key or badge

We tell you within 2 hours, so you can decide whether to change a lock or turn off a badge. [who pays to rekey after a key we lost; state it in words only]

Lock-up, every visit

Before we leave, we work through a lock-up checklist: every door we used locked and checked, lights left the way you want them, windows we opened closed, and the alarm set. We don't prop doors open, and we don't let anyone into your space, including people who say they work there, unless you've told us in advance. Arrival and lock-up texts are available if you'd like them.

When service ends

We return every key, fob and badge, and confirm in writing that our codes have been deleted, within 7 days. You can also ask for any key back at any time.

Cameras

You're welcome to have cameras in your space. We never unplug, move or cover them.

Damage and breakage

We're careful. If something breaks, we tell you the same day, with photos, so you hear it from us first. Insurance: [Insurance: general-liability carrier; limits go on the COI only].

How to report damage

If you find damage you think we caused, tell us within 24 hours of the visit. Send photos, a short description and where it is. Please keep any broken item until we've seen it. We'll still look at later reports, but they're harder to verify.

What happens next

1. We acknowledge your report within 1 business day.
2. We review our team's account and any job photos from the visit, and we may inspect the damage before any repair is made.
3. We give you our decision within 5 business days.
4. If we're responsible, we choose how to make it right: repair by a qualified professional, replacement with an item of like kind and quality, or reimbursement at actual cash value, which takes the item's age and condition into account.

What we can't be responsible for

• Damage that was already there, including anything noted at the walkthrough.
• Items that weren't secured, or that you didn't flag as delicate or needing special care.
• Normal wear and tear.
• Loose, worn or defective fixtures, such as shelves, towel bars, blinds, partitions or dispensers that fail with ordinary use.
• Results of following your written instructions, or of using products you asked us to use.
• Cash, valuables or confidential material that wasn't put away.
• Damage caused by anyone other than our team.

Floor projects

Before we scrub, recoat, strip or refinish a floor, we test a small spot and we both sign a short note on the floor's condition. That way we agree up front on what the floor can and can't look like afterward.

If something is missing

Tell us right away, and the police if you think it was stolen. We'll cooperate fully, and the team member involved won't return to your site while we look into it. [Janitorial bond: surety name (amounts go in the vendor packet), or remove]

Injuries

Nothing in these policies limits our responsibility for injuries caused by our negligence. We never ask anyone to waive it. [attorney: confirm the damage and liability wording]

Site safety, and what we don't do

Your site rules come first

We follow your building and site rules: sign-in, badging, orientation, restricted rooms and the personal protective equipment your site requires. On construction sites that usually means a hard hat, eye protection, high-visibility clothing and work boots.

Products and safety data sheets

• Every product is used according to its label, including contact time.
• Safety data sheets for the products we bring are kept available for your site, so your staff know what's on hand. [confirm an SDS binder or QR sheet for each client site]
• Fragrance-free products on request.
• We can use your disinfectant instead of ours. Please give us its label and safety data sheet.

Heights and heavy items

• Step-ladder reach only, up to [maximum ladder height, e.g. a 6-foot step ladder]. No lifts, scaffolds, roofs or rope work.
• We don't move heavy furniture, equipment or anything that takes two people to lift. We clean around and under what we can safely reach. [lift limit per person]

Construction dust

HEPA vacuums and damp methods. No dry sweeping of fine dust, and no compressed-air blow-downs. [confirm HEPA equipment owned] For buildings built before 1978, your certified renovator handles the lead cleaning verification after renovation, and we clean to their direction.

Medical and dental offices

We don't handle sharps containers, red bags or regulated medical waste, and we don't clean up blood or body-fluid spills. Those stay with your waste vendor and your staff. If we find blood, a sharp or red-bag waste, we stop, leave it untouched and tell you that night. We empty regular trash and recycling only.

We may stop work

If conditions aren't safe, we pause or stop, leave the hazard untouched and tell you why. Our service terms list the usual reasons.

What we don't do

These jobs need specialized training, licensing or equipment, and some count as contractor work under Virginia law. We're glad to point you to someone who does them.

• Regulated medical waste or sharps containers
• Biohazard, trauma or blood-spill cleanup
• Mold, lead or asbestos remediation
• Hazardous-material or chemical-spill cleanup
• Fire, smoke or water-damage restoration
• Pest control
• Kitchen hood and exhaust-duct cleaning
• HVAC duct cleaning
• Exterior windows above ground level, or any lift or rope work
• Work above step-ladder reach
• Junk, furniture or debris hauling (cleaning-stage debris is bagged to your dumpster on site)
• Snow removal

Photos in your workplace

Job and inspection photos

We take photos to check our work, record quality walks and construction phases, document punch-list items, and report damage. They show cleaned surfaces only, and they go to you and the contacts named in your proposal.

What we never photograph

People, patients, screens, documents, whiteboards, mail, badges, alarm panels, keys, or anything that shows a name, an account or an address. If something like that is in the way, we leave it out of the frame.

Where photos go, and for how long

Photos are kept privately in our company account and deleted after 90 days, unless they're needed for a claim. Photos you send us with a quote request are used only to prepare your quote.

Our website and social media

We use a photo of your space on our website or social media only with your written permission for that photo. The same goes for your organization's name, your logo or a quote from you. Change your mind, and we'll remove it within 7 days. We can't recall printed materials that have already been handed out.

Honest photos

Any before-and-after photo we post is from a real Gentle Touch job, edited only for cropping and brightness. Images on this site that aren't labeled as our work are illustrations, not client sites.

Supplies and restocking

Restroom and breakroom consumables

Paper towels, toilet paper, hand soap, seat covers and trash liners. Your proposal names one of three options:

1. You supply, we restock. You keep the stock on site, and we refill dispensers from it every visit.
2. We supply. We bring the consumables and restock them for you. [offer a supply program? If yes, how it's quoted (words only)]
3. We flag, you reorder. We don't stock or refill, but we let you know when something runs low.

Whichever you choose, we tell you when stock is running low, in our visit notes or by text or email, before it runs out. [how low-stock notes are sent]

Our products and equipment

• We bring our own cleaning products, microfiber and equipment. [product names and equipment list]
• Color-coded microfiber, so restroom cloths never touch desks or breakroom counters. [confirm color legend]
• Safety data sheets on request, and fragrance-free products on request.
• We're happy to use your products instead. Please give us their labels and safety data sheets. We can't be responsible for surface damage caused by products we're asked to use.

Storage

A lockable closet or cabinet for our supplies and equipment keeps things off your floors and away from visitors. We keep it tidy and labeled.