Restroom sanitation is not for the squeamish. This very public, yet very personal space can impact the perception of your entire facility. A misstep in restroom cleanliness can convey the wrong message to customers, employees and anyone entering your facility. While clean restrooms are an integral part of facility maintenance, they are often the areas that get most ignored. Maybe it’s the gross factor of restrooms that gets them shifted to the back burner. If you have restroom cleaners that do a great job cleaning and maintaining your office restrooms, great. But if your commercial cleaning company is failing to deliver the level of clean you need, it might be time to look elsewhere.Restroom cleaning is such an important component of Facility Maintenance that you as the Facility Manager must ensure this necessary part of your facility maintenance is given the attention it requires. Let’s peer under the lid and examine why restroom cleaning matters and how to get it right.
If you have ever used a poorly cleaned restroom, and chances are you have at one time or another, you know how gross and inconvenient it is to navigate. Unknown puddles of murky wetness, unseemly stains of unknown origin, smells so rank you try not to breath, and even worse. While dirty restrooms certainly have a yuck factor, the consequences go well beyond grossed out. Poorly maintained restroom may be a factor in increased employee illness and absenteeism. Likewise, unclean restrooms can increase employee turnover. An unclean work facility can make it harder to attract top talent and even convey an overall mood of apathy that is catching. A poorly maintained facility can erode employee satisfaction and employee engagement leaving you with disengaged workers, reduced productivity and fewer sales.The consequences of dirty restrooms on your bottom line cannot go ignored.
Maybe you think it doesn’t matter who cleans the restrooms as long as they get clean. Unfortunately, that is not the case. When you make an employee who wasn’t expressly hired for the task responsible for cleaning the office restrooms, you lose on two fronts. First, that employee was hired for something else and is likely neither trained nor inclined to clean up after their coworkers in the bathroom. So, the quality and frequency of cleaning will suffer. Second, this setup is bad for morale with both the employee charged with cleaning up after their coworkers and the employees as a whole operating in a lower standard of clean. Don’t let the work be done badly or go undone all together by casting off such an important responsibility on someone who is unlikely to be successful at it. Even if you try to divide restroom cleaning duties among multiple employees, your restroom cleaning is likely to suffer leading to passing the buck or pointing the finger.
Do you love the state of your office restrooms or is your restroom cleaning in the dumps? Any janitorial services company worth their salt understands that restroom cleaning is the cornerstone of any strong office cleaning plan. But do you as a Facility Manager know what to look for when evaluating your office cleaning and restroom cleaning? First, you must find a commercial cleaning company that gets the science behind clean. That means they understand germs, how they multiply, where they tend to hang out and how to effectively reduce and eliminate them. They should know dwell times and they understand which product to use when and how to use it. Not only will cleaning for health and the science behind cleaning make your office restrooms smell and look better, it will make the safer and your employees and visitors healthier. Next, you’re janitorial services company should put industry best practices to use when maintaining your facility, including your restrooms. Why does following janitorial industry best practices matter? High tech cleaning equipment, systems like color-coded cleaning cloths to avoid cross-contamination and other best practices are simply better, more effective ways of doing things and why wouldn’t you want a Michigan commercial cleaning company committed to doing their very best in every facet of their business? Additionally, because office cleaning is a service business, people are the single most important factor determining the level of quality you and your facility will receive. Good teams come from good training and the most effective janitorial companies know this and make every effort to find quality employees and provide the comprehensive training needed to offer customers their very best.
Clean, well-cared for office restrooms protect the public health, lend employees, customers and visitors a favorable impression and are even good for the bottom line. When the market for commercial cleaning services is so crowded, how do you find a cleaning company that will properly clean your restrooms, care for your whole facility in a responsive manner all while offering you a great value for your janitorial budget? We find that the most effective and experienced commercial cleaning companies have a few important things in common. First, they offer clear transparent pricing. Transparent pricing means you understand exactly what you are getting and what it will cost you. Not only does this give you a chance to compare competing janitorial bids in a meaningful way, it sets a map for success allowing you and your cleaning company to measure success along the way. If a janitorial company can’t even take the time to carefully and accurately detail the work they will do and clear costs for you to consider, what is the likelihood that they will deliver on the cloudy promises and nonspecific guarantees? Next, as a service intensive business, cleaning companies should know that their frontline employees are the single greatest predictor of effective, consistent service delivery and thus expend effort finding, screening, training and managing the best suited people for the work. Finally, nearly every janitorial company sets out wanting to succeed but good intentions without a solid plan usually fail in time. It is those janitorial companies that implements systems and procedures designed to keep them on track, keep their promises and guarantee reliability through accountability.
Clean restrooms matter. A clean and well cared for facility matters. So, in spite of how much work goes into finding a great janitorial service, it is without a doubt worth it. Find an effective, responsive cleaning company and everything gets easier. With the right commercial cleaning company you can save money, save time AND get the service your facility deserves.