Castle Keepers achieves CIMS certification
LOCAL CLEANING COMPANY RECOGNIZED FOR SUPERIOR MANAGEMENT AND SERVICE QUALITY:
Castle Keepers achieves CIMS certification
Castle Keepers joins a growing number of cleaning organizations to certify to the ISSA Cleaning Industry Management
Standard
Charleston, SC – October 1, 2010 – ISSA, the worldwide cleaning industry association, announced today that Castle
Keepers has achieved Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) Certification.
CIMS applies to the management, operations, and performance systems of cleaning organizations. Compliance with the standard demonstrates that a cleaning operation is structured to deliver consistent, quality services designed to meet customers’ needs and expectations. CIMS certification has become a requirement in many cleaning service bid specifications as end customers look for an effective way to identify cleaning service providers who are true companies of excellence and committed to customer satisfaction.
“As the largest home cleaning company in Charleston, Castle Keepers owes much of its success to saying what we
do and then doing what we say,” said Tom Stewart, CEO, Castle Keepers. “That’s what the CIMS certification
verifies—solid, dependable management practices that lead to quality cleanings and happy customers.”
CIMS certified organizations must demonstrate compliance with the five core principles of the Standard – quality
systems; service delivery; human resources; health, safety, and environmental stewardship; and management
commitment – and undergo a comprehensive assessment of management and operational execution.
As part of the certification process, an independent, accredited assessor conducted on-site reviews of Castle
Keepers’ systems, processes, and documentation. The assessor also visited randomly selected Castle Keepers
customers to ensure that the company’s activities are consistent with its documented systems and processes.
“We are especially pleased that our Chemical Free Cleaning methodology, which we use to maintain our own
training facility and offices, was instrumental in demonstrating our qualification for the brand new CIMS-Green
Building certification as well,” said Rebecca Lovett, Human Resources and Training Supervisor, Castle Keepers. “As
the only providers of Chemical Free Cleaning in the Lowcountry and now CIMS certified as well, Castle Keepers truly
is the premiere cleaning company with the Cleaner~Safer~Greener home and office cleaning solution.”
Included among the elements of CIMS are making sure an organization has a site specific scope of work that sets
forth cleaning service requirements and ensuring that the organization has a quality plan for assessing whether such
service requirements are met, as well as service delivery, workloading, purchasing, employee training, worker health
and safety, and corporate organization requirements.
About CIMS
CIMS sets forth a management framework designed to assist building service contractors and in-house cleaning
departments develop and maintain quality, customer-focused organizations. The Standard is non-prescriptive,
meaning that each organization has the flexibility to choose the most effective ways in which to meet its
requirements. CIMS was created through a true consensus-based process that brought together representatives of
the cleaning, facilities management, and purchasing communities. ISSA speaks at numerous facility management
and purchasing industry events throughout the year to outline the value of working with CIMS-certified cleaning