Building service contractors (BSCs) face daily challenges in serving the needs of clients while meeting their bottom line. From dealing with labor shortages and high-traffic facility areas to navigating the latest cleaning equipment and technology, it can be helpful to see where you stand amid your BSC colleagues.
During CMM’s latest webinar—The BSC Blueprint: Trends, Tech and Top Challenges—Cleaning & Maintenance Management’s (CMM) Managing Editor Kathleen Misovic and Editor Elizabeth Christenson dove into the results of CMM’s 2026 BSC Benchmarking Survey, sponsored by Sofidel, to help BSCs do just that.
Setting your business apart
In the survey, 92% of respondents said they stand out from the competition by using their experience and reputation to win bids and contracts. This was the most common answer anywhere in the study.
“This isn’t surprising, but it’s important to recognize how important experience and reputation is,” Christenson emphasized.
Value-added services came in at the second most popular response, chosen by 68%, and half of respondents mentioned being a one-stop shop. Only about a quarter said price was their main way to stand out.
Labor challenges
Regarding the greatest concerns in the cleaning industry, BSCs overwhelmingly cited labor—a concern that also includes hiring and retaining qualified workers. This year’s survey found that the recruitment and hiring process is building service contractors’ main labor problem, with 75% of survey respondents naming it as their biggest challenge. Other top labor challenges include paying staff enough to keep them from seeking employment elsewhere, which is noted as a concern by 56% of survey takers, creating growth opportunities for existing staff, chosen by 45% of survey takers, and the overall challenge of retaining existing staff, which was chosen by 44% of survey respondents.
“These results suggest that while holding onto qualified workers is a concern, it is overshadowed by finding qualified workers in the first place,” Misovic said.
Staffing plans
Despite the challenges, plans to hire are in line with revenue expectations. Most firms (85%) expect revenue growth in 2026, and the same number plan to add staff. Only 3% expect to cut jobs, the survey found.
“We saw that recruiting is the industry’s biggest challenge,” Christenson explained. “These results don’t quite match up. For businesses to grow, they’ll need to address the labor issue.”
Targeting growth
BSCs service a variety of nonresidential buildings and are always looking for new clients. When asked which type of facility they will target for revenue growth in the next year, most survey respondents—61%—chose commercial facilities, such as office buildings. Healthcare was the next popular choice for revenue growth, chosen by 38% of survey takers, followed by government buildings, chosen by 30%. Industrial facilities, such as manufacturing facilities and warehouses, were chosen by 29% of survey takers, followed by schools, including K-12 and colleges/universities, which were targeted by 28%.
“Among BSCs who service all types of facilities, they report that commercial clients provide over one-third—precisely 37%—of their revenue, making this type of facility the largest single revenue contributor,” Misovic said.
Top business challenges
CMM asked respondents to report how much the following challenges pertain to their business: to a large extent, to a moderate extent, to a small extent, or to no extent. No single challenge dominates.
Profit protection, staffing and new business are the top challenges chosen by about 40% of respondents to a large extent. When you include those rated to a moderate extent, these challenges dominate by more than half.
Customer retention is important to a large extent for about one-third. Validating cleaning results trails slightly but overtakes customer retention when you consider those who rank it first and second.
“Achieving sustainability initiatives ranks at the bottom, but I don’t want to slight it,” Christenson said. “One-fifth of respondents still consider sustainability to a large extent. Add those who consider it to a moderate extent, and you have more than half of BSCs saying sustainability is a large part of their business.”
Top customer challenges
Successful BSCs are attuned to their clients’ needs and preferences. A high majority—92%, of BSC survey respondents—said their clients value an improved facility image, with 51% listing it as a very important client concern, and 41% listing it as an important client concern.
Improving the health, safety and security of their buildings and tenants is another top BSC customer concern, with 89% of survey takers choosing it as a client value, broken down into 55% listing it as a very important client concern and 34% listing it as an important client concern.
Coming in third, 81% of survey takers said their BSC clients are seeking reduced cleaning costs, with 43% of them describing it as very important, and 38% describing it as important.
Reducing the number of service contractors was at the bottom on client concerns, according to 49% of survey takes who chose it. Only19% listed it as very important to their customers and 30% listed it as important.
“This suggests that a one-stop-shop approach, the main idea behind integrated facility services, may not be as popular with clients as some BSCs believe,” Misovic said.
Interestingly, sustainability and ESG—environmental, social and governance—issues also ended up on the bottom of client concerns, with the same statistics as reducing the number of service contractors.
“This may suggest that clients believe they must choose between safety, facility image, lower cleaning costs and sustainability,” Misovic explained.
Economic factors
External economic factors, such as minimum wage changes, immigration policies, supply chain issues and tariffs, are seen as moderate, not severe.
Minimum wage changes have the biggest impact, with more than a quarter reporting a strong effect. Immigration policy follows at 20%, but it’s polarizing because 42% said immigration is not a factor, Christenson explained.
Tariffs and supply chain disruption, which often get more attention in business news, are less significant here, she added. Thirty-three percent and 20% said these are not factors.
Safety concerns
BSCs are only as good as their employees, so it makes sense that BSCs are concerned about the well-being of their cleaning teams, Misovic explained. Slips, trips and falls are at the top of worker safety risks, with 82% of survey takers choosing this as their No. 1 employee safety concern. Lifting injuries are second at 52%, followed by sprains and strains at 45%.
When these three concerns are ranked together, they outweigh concerns about chemical exposure or injuries due to equipment. However, these concerns, while less popular, are just as valid.
“Proper employee training can help reduce the risk of workplace injuries from slips and falls to chemical exposure,” Misovic said. “Be sure to check out offerings from ISSA, you can find more information online at issa.com/education.”
Additional maintenance services
Looking at the additional facility maintenance services building service contractors offer, the survey showed that only 17% of firms focus just on cleaning. Most are expanding into other areas.
Day porter service leads the way, offered by 64% of respondents, closely followed by exterior maintenance at 55%. Moreover, about one-third, or 30%, of firms have now ventured into lighting, waste, preventive maintenance, landscaping or even painting.
“This shows that facility services are expanding, even though clients may not yet see the full value of combining these services,” Christenson said.
Top problem areas
Misovic said as long as she could remember, restrooms have been the top problem area for BSCs to maintain. This year’s survey was no exception, with nearly half of survey respondents, 43%, picking restrooms as their most challenging facility area. “This is no surprise as dirty restrooms lacking toilet paper, soap and paper towels can ruin a facility’s reputation,” Misovic said.
Hard floors came in second as a problem area, chosen by 23% of survey respondents. From protecting them from heavy foot traffic and debris tracked in from the bottom of shoes to choosing the correct cleaning chemicals and equipment, hard floor care can easily become overwhelming.
Technology adoption
The survey asked, “In the last five years, how has your company implemented robotic/autonomous cleaning equipment?” The results showed that robotics adoption has slowed. Even after five years of strong industry promotion, 73% of firms have not adopted or tested robotic or autonomous cleaning equipment. About a quarter have tried or adopted it, while 4% tried it but later stopped.
The top technologies that survey takers plan to adopt in the next 12 months flip flopped from last year. In the 2025 BSC survey, most survey respondents chose cleaning validation programs/technologies as their top technology pick, followed by artificial intelligence (AI). This year, the majority chose AI as their go-to technology to adopt, followed by cleaning validation programs/technologies chosen by 49%.
“Even though people say they plan to do something, doesn’t mean they’ll follow through,” Misovic said. “So consider these results as intended plans, rather than concrete technology deployment plans.”
Interestingly, about one-quarter of survey respondents (23%) have no plans to implement new technology in the next year. “It may be that they believe they already have the technology they need, or they may consider technology unnecessary or too expensive,” Misovic explained.
Download the full 2026 Building Service Contractor Benchmarking Survey Report, sponsored by Sofidel, here and watch the complete 30-minute webinar below.
And be sure to register for our last webinar of 2026, Implementing Technology Into Cleaning Practices on Dec. 9.
