How do I find a trauma cleaning company?
There are a number of ways to find a reliable trauma cleaning company in your local area.
The most likely reason why an individual will be seeking a specialist trauma cleaning company is because of a recent bereavement. Whether the circumstances are a natural death, suicide or homicide, where the death occurs in the home, the cleanup will likely be the responsibility of the next of kin. This would usually be the immediate family of the individual who has died. At such a highly emotive time it can be too traumatic for the family to undertake the cleaning. The death may also have resulted in significant mess and odours from bodily fluids or decomposition which also pose significant hazards to health. But how do you find and select the right trauma cleaner?
This blog aims to help you know where to start when trying to find a company that you can trust.
What’s the process of sourcing a trauma cleaning service provider?
The process of sourcing a trauma cleaning service provider is:
- Researching a Trauma cleaning company: Ideally you want to find at least two or three companies who you can approach for a quote. There are three simple ways to source these companies (which we discuss more in depth later on in this article).
- Selecting a Trauma cleaning company: You’ll likely want to choose your company based on your individual needs, which typically include: Response time, budget and scope.
Researching a Trauma cleaning company
Should I look for a local or national company?
Local companies should be well known to local police forces, which means you can ask for referrals from the police. This may belay any concerns of inadvertently hiring an incompetent trauma cleaning company.
National companies who are truly national are rare and often rely on local subcontractors to complete the clean. If you’re approaching a national company its worthwhile asking whether the team who will undertake the clean up are directly employed or are in fact sub contracted.
Trauma cleaning specialist Graham Hickman from Complete Environmental Services explains “The reason why asking whether or not the company in question uses their own in-house team or sub contract the work out is that should anything go wrong during the clean, be it non-arrival, late arrival, competency, suspicion of property theft, issues with the hygiene technicians’ behaviour or courtesy, or communication queries will most efficiently be dealt with by your service provider when the team is directly employed.”
What routes should I take when seeking a Trauma cleaning company
Personal recommendations: Whilst it may not be appropriate to do so you may know of a friend or colleague who has experienced a bereavement that is of a similar nature to the one you’ve experienced. Speaking frankly to them about who they used and how they found the service from the company they used should give you a good understanding of the company.
Search engines: If you’re not local to the area in which you need the services yourself then search engines can provide you with a large list of possible companies to choose from. Use search terms such as:
- Trauma cleaning company
- Biohazard cleaners
- Hygiene technicians
Remember to append the location of where the clean needs to take place ie.
‘Trauma cleaning Oxford’ would give results locally to Oxford.
Which search engines could I use? The most used search engines are:
- Bing
- Yahoo
- Duck Duck Go
Its also worthwhile noting that the top four listings in Google and in most other search engines are labelled as ‘Ad’ – this means the company listed has paid for that exposure. This may influence which company you contact as the ones appearing via adverts may not actually be local. Where the listing has no Ad’, Advertisement, ‘Sponsored’ these are considered ‘organic’ listings. Organic listings aren’t paid for and are listed on the merits of their relevance to the search query used. Often these are more reliable than paid for listings.
Contact your insurance company: Many insurance companies will have a list of trauma scene cleaners that they work with, so it’s worth contacting them for a recommendation. Your insurance policy may even cover some or all of the costs associated with the clean up.
Contact your local police station: Local police will often have a list of trauma scene cleaners that they are able to recommend as would funeral homes. Its possible that you’ll have already had some contact with your local police force as you will have needed a crime reference number for suicides, homicides or during the registration of the death so you may already know a contact whom you can ask.
Hopefully, this blog has helped give you an insight where to start when attempting to find a trauma cleaning company, local to you and one that you can trust.
