Traditionally, cleaning has centered around making sure that a facility looks clean and inviting. Now more than ever, though, your office cleaning service needs to be properly disinfecting surfaces and turning their attention towards proper health based practices rather than strictly aesthetic ones. In fact, cleaning only refers to the physical removal of filth and grit from a surface rather than targeting the microbes and contaminants that live on it. What you are looking for is office disinfection, or the industry practice of vastly reducing the viral and bacterial load on any given surface using CDC and EPA approved disinfectants and cleaning solutions. If your cleaning service provider isn’t disinfecting in addition to their regular practices in the middle of a pandemic, they are putting your facility at serious risk. Now is not the time to gamble on whether or not the virus will make its way to your facility, make the switch to a commercial cleaning service that is going to take the health of your staff and patrons seriously.
One of the most common commercial office cleaning problems is accidental cross contamination during cleaning. Many cleaning services use and reuse rags and cloths to wipe down your facility often losing track of which has been used where. It only takes one person to pick up the wrong rag and to wipe down your lunch area with cloth that was just used in the restroom. For a problem that could be so catastrophic it has a simple solution: color-coded cloth systems. Professional office disinfection services requires more. There is no excuse for your office cleaning company not to implement the color coded cleaning system to prevent rags that are intended for your restrooms being used elsewhere.
We are all human and make mistakes, especially when there is no easy way to identify unlabeled rags in a job that requires efficiency and best practices. Giving a clear, easy to see indicator of which rag should be used where makes it much easier to avoid cross contamination. Coronavirus adds an additional layer of risk that makes minimizing the risks of cross contamination even more vital. The last thing you want to do is spread the virus around your building turning your facility into a nexus of disease and illness. If your office cleaning service isn’t using this simple, effective solution to avoid cross contamination it is time to move on. Everyone knows that cleaning should decrease the risk of getting sick, not increase it, so your cleaning company should be doing the same.
Proper facility cleaning and disinfection is a well explored science backed by data from the CDC and EPA. Not only have they laid out data-backed guidelines for protecting your facility from the novel coronavirus, the EPA has gone as far as to identify which chemical disinfectants are most effective against it and compiled them in a document referred to as List N disinfectants. Safeguarding the health of your building isn't a trial and error process that no one understands - it is a well understood, hard science with clearly set guidelines and practices.
Your commercial cleaning company has no excuse not to be following techniques with such clearly defined instructions especially when they are providing cleaning services designed to protect their clients from SARS-CoV-2. If your cleaning service provider isn’t implementing these systems in their service or claims that there isn’t sufficient evidence that they work they are actively placing their bottom line above the health of you, your staff and your customers.
Here at Stathakis we have a 40 year history of professional service dedicated to using industry best practices. Not only do we provide commercial cleaning and disinfection services in line with CDC and EPA recommendations, we come prepared with an outbreak plan to minimize the dangers of COVID-19 making its way around your building. The first and foremost of any cleaning service should be the health of their clients and we have taken every possible opportunity to adapt our service to safeguard your health. If you are interested in a consultation or have questions you can contact us at (800) 278-1884.