Do you have days where you feel like you have become the human complaint box, the recipient of all of the various complaints about your restroom facilities from both customers and employees alike? The restrooms can be one of the busiest areas in a business and dirty restrooms are bad for your image, reputation and the health of customers and employees alike.
Do these typical restroom complaints sound familiar?
So as a facilities manager, how do you establish a workable restroom cleaning program, address the issues and minimize these complaints so that you can focus on your other responsibilities? It can be tempting to blame your cleaning company for deficiencies in you restroom cleaning program. A fire and hire to get a new crew in may seem like a quick fix. Before you put yourself and those around you through the time-consuming and often unsuccessful transition to a new cleaning service, consider the various issues at hand. Try to communicate your expectations and solve problems with how your existing cleaning service is handling restroom cleaning.
Issues like empty dispensers might be a sign that your restrooms are not being adequately or regularly stocked. Or perhaps you are in need of larger capacity dispensers to keep up with high restroom traffic. If your restroom dispensers are still constantly going empty during the day, you might want to consider upgrading or adding a Day Porter to your restroom cleaning program that can attend to all of the needs of your busy restrooms when the normal cleaning crew is not there.
Dirty mirrors, soiled bright work/fixtures, dirty air vents and dirty floor drains are hard for any good Restroom Cleaning Company to defend. If your restroom cleaning program is not addressing these issues, confirm that all of these items are specifically included in your Cleaning Specification. A solid cleaning company can use self-inspection checklists and other management tools to make sure all cleaners are aware of your individual restroom cleaning program and your expectations.
Foul odors can originate from a multitude of often overlooked or ignored issues. The source of the odor could be an improperly cleaned grout line, a vent problem, or even a plumbing issue. The best way to hunt down the offending odor is by using your nose to find the source of the smell. Sometimes such odors can easily be remedied with a special deep cleaning of your restroom. A professional janitorial company has a complete arsenal of equipment and products to address odor by thoroughly cleaning all areas of the bathroom. Professional equipment like the KaiVac Restroom Cleaning system, a touchless system also known as “spray-and-vac”, can help ensure restrooms get a comprehensive cleaning and sanitation that virtually eliminates odors.
Problems such as urine on walls and partitions and soil and debris on the floor could be a sign of low employee morale. Sometimes employees follow suit when a restroom cleaning program has been ignored too long; dirty conditions may lead to issues where employees feel if you don’t care why should they. Even the best restroom cleaning program team may feel defeated if they are constantly expected to clean up after disgruntled employees. Consistent cleaning may change behavior over time. If these issues are still a problem, the best thing to do is to involve your Management Team to find out what is causing employees to act so destructively.
Good communication between you and your cleaning company should result in a restroom cleaning program that delivers:
The bottom line is that it takes good two-way communication between the Facility Manager and the Cleaning Company to deliver a good restroom cleaning program.