Effective Restroom Cleaning Is About What You Smell, What You See & Even What You Don’t See

Your office restroom should look clean, smell clean but that’s not all. Effective restroom cleaning services know that a real clean and smartclean is also about what you cannot see. Lingering bacteria that are invisible to the eye can transmit disease and cause persistent odors that you’ll have a hard time covering up. Solid restroom maintenance must adequately address all three areas: what you see, what you don’t see and what you smell for an effective, healthy clean restroom.

There Is A Real Cost To Poor Restroom Sanitation Services

Sure no one likes a stinky, gross restroom but does it really matter when it comes to your bottom line? It certainly does matter, more than you may think. Where can dirty restrooms cost you and your facility?

• Dirty restrooms can correlate with a higher employee turnover
• Ineffective restroom cleaning can result in a lower reported employee satisfaction
• Poor restroom maintenance could result in an uptick in employee apathy
• Subpar commercial restroom cleaning reduces employee engagement
• A restroom sanitation service that doesn’t clean for health increases absenteeism
• Restroom maintenance that falls short lowers employee productivity
• Dirty restrooms can even lead to lost sales 

Restroom cleaning services that don’t get the job done effectively send the unintended message that you don’t care. And if YOU don’t care, your employees won’t care. This becomes a negative loop that can negatively impact your business or facility because apathy is contagious!

Is Poor & Ineffective Commercial Restroom Cleaning Making You Sick?

Your restrooms sanitation service is a vital component in cleaning for health. Between the heavy traffic your restrooms likely see to the amount of high touch surface areas, office restrooms left unmaintained are an efficient way for disease causing bacteria and viruses to spread. In addition to a heavier germ burden, you have high traffic and lots of touch points. Touch points are those areas and objects that many people touch in the course of the day like handles, light switches and more. So for example, an employee enters the restroom, uses the bathroom, touches the stall door and the exit door forgetting to wash his or her hands and then goes on to touch the phone, computer and other frequently used areas throughout your facility. Bottom line, keep restrooms clean and you will reduce the spread disease causing germs will go down. With a reduction in illness comes reduced absenteeism and a reduction in absenteeism can positively impact your bottom line.

Does Your Restroom Cleaning Service Understand The Science Of Cleaning?

Most commercial restroom cleaning services understand that your office restrooms restrooms are likely the dirtiest places in your building and yet, not every commercial cleaning company really gets how to clean for health. Your restroom cleaners must be trained to understand how germs are spread and how cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting can stop germs in their tracks. Your janitorial services company must have the right equipment and products and your office cleaners must know how to use them. Even best practices like color coded rags can prevent restroom germs from being cross contaminated to your desks, computers and telephones.

Using A Restroom Cleaning Checklist To Evaluate Your Restroom Cleaners

So you understand how vital clean restrooms are but how do you determine if your janitorial services company is doing their job? First, what does it look like when your commercial cleaning company is ineffective?

✔ Essential hand washing supplies like soap dispensers or hand towels are often unfilled.

✔ Trash is piling up.

✔ The restroom has an unpleasant, noticeable smell.

✔ Areas around door handles is dirty or smudgy.

✔ Sinks are evidently dirty with an accumulation of soil, mineral deposits, and soap residues. ✔ Countertops are wet and dirty.

✔ Sink fixtures are soiled and restroom counters are noticeably dirty or wet.

✔ The restroom mirrors are replete with water, smudges, streaks or worse.

✔ Toilets/urinals are conspicuously dirty-- a lack of maintenance shows with deposits and mucky ✔ buildup around hardware.

✔ Sanitary containers and stalls have not been emptied.

✔ Restroom stall partitions and stalls are allowed to remain dirty with grime, fingerprints and graffiti.

✔ Restroom sanitary disposal containers hold old trash in them and/or are broken or in disrepair.

✔ Restroom floors are wet, dirty or given only a once over with an already filthy mop.

✔ Floor drains have visibly soiled, dust and debris buildup and dirty grout.

In an effectively cleaned restroom, you will notice:

• A clean, fresh scent within absence of foul odors.  
• Effective sanitization that doesn’t just spread germs around cross contaminate other areas of your facility.
• Clean touch points like handles, dryers & knobs.
• Well-stocked supplies.
• Carefully cleaned and detailed counters.
• Sparkling floors with clean grout and moldings.
• Clean and shiny mirrors.
• An absence of graffiti.
• Working stall doors, sink fixtures, etc.
• Immaculate sinks, toilets, and urinals.

Conclusion

Effective restroom cleaning can keep complaints at bay, safeguard the health of your employees and/or tenants and protect the overall image and reputation of your facility. A clean, healthy and inviting facility, including your restrooms, sends the message that you care about your people from employees to customers to visitors. Restricting the spread disease causing germs through effective cleaning for health means lower absenteeism, a rise in output and gains in overall employee satisfaction. Additionally, your customers are certain to notice the change to clean and well maintained facility restrooms creating a solid positive impression of your business, people and products and services.