Here’s the harsh reality: the quality of a facility’s restroom can make or break a business.
Restrooms communicate many things to customers and employees long before you’ve had a chance to make an impression in other ways. A dirty restroom speaks to the quality of a business, and in some cases, even suggests a disappointing lack of workplace morale.
For many customers, a poorly maintained bathroom is enough of a reason to never do business with a company again.
So, what does your restroom say about your facility? In this article, Vanguard Cleaning Systems of Minnesota shares three crucial practices to ensure a safe, sanitary bathroom experience for employees and customers alike – and how a handful of easy changes can take your facility from good to great.
1. Utilize the right tools and chemicals for your restroom facility.
Is your janitorial staff using the same mop in the bathroom as they do in public hallways? Does your cleaning crew utilize a color-coded cloth system to prevent cross-contamination on hard surfaces?
Just like no two buildings are created equal, no two facility restrooms are exactly the same. For this reason, choosing the tools and chemicals to properly clean a restroom requires understanding and intentionality.
At Vanguard Cleaning Systems of Minnesota, our janitorial franchises rigorously follow ISSA standards across all restroom facilities to ensure a consistent, reliable outcome. These standards include considerations like chemical dwell time: the period of time between a chemical making contact with a surface and when it’s successfully eliminated bacteria and viruses. Knowing how to apply chemicals, when to remove them, and which substances are most effective is the result of hiring a professional cleaning company.
Even something as simple as keeping floors clean requires more than a cleaner’s best guess. Depending on the type of flooring present, facility managers and cleaning crews will need to determine whether to use a wet mop, pressurized water, or a deck brush to clean grout and buildup.
At the end of the day, having a cleaning crew with in-depth industry knowledge will elevate your business, your employees’ morale, and add years to the life of your facility.
2. Keep bathroom products and sanitary materials stocked and refilled.
There are few things worse than running out of soap or toilet paper while using a facility restroom.
Not only should a functioning bathroom be adequately stocked at any time of day, but facility managers should have their finger on the pulse of when to order product, how much to order, and what materials are best suited to meet the needs of their facility.
Struggling with anticipating your facility’s needs? Vanguard Cleaning Systems of Minnesota works with facility managers to help them determine the correct dispenser of toilet paper, the right amount of hand soap, and other important factors that play into a clean, comfortable restroom experience.
Having an understanding of which resources you need and how they fit into your monthly budget will allow you to anticipate supply problems, preventing a costly mistake while keeping customers and employees happy.
3. Make regular maintenance a top priority.
Beyond your daily clean, facility restrooms require ongoing maintenance that goes deeper than simply wiping and mopping visible grime.
If your restroom has a shower built in, eliminating soap stains and mold is critical to the health and safety of anyone using the facility. Anti-fungal and anti-viral cleaning practices are key to preventing the outbreak of illness, seasonal flu, skin diseases and topical infection.
For facilities doubling as locker or changing rooms, hiring a team well-versed in cleaning various types of fabric and upholstery is necessary to deliver a sparkling, inviting space free of lingering bacteria and germs.
Two-thirds of customers report they are unlikely to frequent a business again if their restrooms aren’t well-kept. To avoid becoming notorious for dirty, poorly kept bathrooms (or worse: a poor business), involve commercial cleaning professionals to guarantee the very best clean.
Vanguard Cleaning Systems of Minnesota has over 15 years of professional experience delivering sparkling clean restrooms. Contact us today for your FREE custom quote.