CNS Cleaning Company: 43+ Years of Commercial Cleaning
CNS Cleaning Company has been servicing commercial facilities since 1983. Four decades later, the same founding principle is still running the operation: cleaning is the easy part. The hard part is customer service, and most cleaning companies get it wrong. CNS built its business around getting it right.
Family-owned. 1,200+ cleaners. 1,100+ commercial accounts a month. 97% retention among its top clients over 10+ years.
Hear directly from President Bill Dunn on
how CNS approaches every commercial account
Bill Dunn
President
The Company Behind the Name
CNS launched in 1983 by owners who identified the same failure pattern across the commercial cleaning industry: the work was inconsistent, the phone went unanswered, and clients had no one to call when something went wrong. The founding premise was simple – build a cleaning company where customer service wasn’t a department, it was the whole model.
The original owners ran that model for 36 years. In 2019, Bill and Kimberly Dunn acquired CNS after the founders retired. Bill walked away from a senior leadership career in the wine and spirits industry at 50 – roles at Beam Suntory and Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates – to take ownership of the business.
In the first two years of Dunn ownership, CNS doubled its customer base and revenue. The founding philosophy stayed intact.
Bill is also a co-author of The E-Myth Evolution, an Amazon best-seller published in 2023. The book is about how small businesses build systems that outlast their founders. That is not a coincidence at a company that has held a 97% retention rate over a decade.
What CNS Does Differently
Most cleaning companies promise reliability. Few build the systems that actually deliver it. These are the five CNS built:
Live phone answering, 24/7/365, three rings or less
Not voicemail. Not a callback queue. A person picks up and can act on the issue – any hour, any day, including weekends and holidays.
24-hour fix guarantee - or that visit is free
If any service issue is not resolved within 24 hours of being reported, CNS does not charge for that visit. The guarantee carries a real cost. CNS is the one absorbing it.
Same crew, every visit
The same people show up to the same building on the same schedule. This is not how most commercial cleaning operations work. It requires logistical discipline to maintain at 1,100+ accounts. CNS maintains it.
Month-to-month contracts only
No multi-year lock-in, no early-exit penalties. Clients stay because the service works, not because they signed something they cannot get out of.
National reach in days, not months
Via the Route Exchange vetted-contractor network, CNS can mobilize into a new city almost immediately. Already active in Texas, Michigan, and Washington D.C. – none of those markets required months of lead time to stand up.
The CNS Track Record
- 1,200+ cleaners nationwide
- 1,100+ commercial facilities serviced each month
- 97% retention rate among top 125 clients - tracked over 10+ consecutive years
- 40M+ square feet serviced
- 145+ five-star reviews
- ISSA CIMS certified - the standard required in most government, healthcare, and corporate procurement RFPs
- $2M general liability + $1M umbrella - fully insured on every account
- All cleaning staff background-checked: Live Scan, local, and federal
- OSHA 10/30 certified supervisors on every account
The Names That Trust CNS
CNS serves 1,100+ commercial accounts every month. The client list includes:
- Apple
- Chase Bank
- FedEx
- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
- Drexel University
- University of Pennsylvania
- Temple University
- ExxonMobil
- Lockheed Martin
- Starbucks
CNS is also Aramark’s #1 cleaning vendor in the country, supplying university and facility cleaning through that national relationship. The 97% long-term retention rate is the number that explains why. Once a facility manager’s account runs the way it is supposed to run, they stay.
Credentials That Matter in an RFP
Not every cleaning company can check these boxes. CNS can:
- ISSA CIMS certified (Cleaning Industry Management Standard) - the institutional credential that government, healthcare, and corporate procurement processes require. Maintained by CNS's operations leadership.
- BSCAI member (Building Service Contractors Association International)
- BBB A+ Accredited - since October 2021
- Three Best Rated - commercial cleaning services in Philadelphia, PA
- Expertise.com recognized - #5 of 318 evaluated providers in Philadelphia
- Media coverage: CNBC (2021), USA Today (October 2025), International Business Times (October 2025), CEO Weekly
- ISSA Altus Council and Government Affairs Council - President Bill Dunn and VP of Operations Jeff Upmalis both hold active seats
The Team Running Your Account
Bill Dunn (President) and Jeff Upmalis (VP of Operations) lead CNS day to day. Every account is assigned a dedicated account manager and a named supervisor who appears on-site on a regular inspection schedule.
The people cleaning your facility are not anonymous. CNS runs the same named-staff model at the leadership level that it applies to every crew in the field.
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Call Now
215-985-1830
“CNS always does a great job with our cleaning. Have had them for years. Also, any time you have an additional request, it is taken care of immediately and they always call the following day to make sure we are happy with what was done.”
5-star Google Review, commercial cleaning client, Bristol/Philadelphia PA area
Reviewed by Bill Dunn, President, CNS Cleaning Company
If you’re evaluating commercial cleaning vendors, the right first step is a facility walkthrough. CNS comes to your location, assesses scope and frequency, and puts a clear picture of how the account runs in front of you – before anything is signed. No long-term commitment required.
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