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www.rawlins.co.uk/daily-cleaning Cleaning in the comfort zone
Cleanliness is crucial as retailers coax cosseted consumers to come in to brick-and- mortar stores and back again. James White of Rawlins Ltd offers some tips to help store managers avoid the pitfalls and costs of inefficient cleaning.
High streets and out-of-town shopping centres are facing their most powerful competitor yet: the sofa. Browsing the vast online choice in the comfort of your own home (or in the pub, car, or on the go, or anywhere) is a more beguiling option for many than trudging around stores.
Retailers are rising to this digital challenge, threatening their brick-and-mortar presences. Technological advances like virtual reality could make it even more compelling to view products online, but at least some of these high-tech advances can be deployed in-store to enhance the shopping experience there as well.
Personalised digital imaging and messaging may play a growing part as branch and facilities managers strive to make that customer experience first-class. Yet this revolution won’t change, and even reinforces, the old mantra that ‘Retail is detail’.
The entire service and shopping environment have to be top-notch to meet or exceed customers’ expectations. Cleanliness is an acid test for professionalism and visitor care in any retail establishment. So, where do retailers tend to fail? Here are some tips based on our experience with clients and first-hand observations around the country.
• Entrance areas are often overlooked. A grimy shopfront is off-putting, but appearance is not everything when it comes to matting. Shopping centres’ architect-designed mats are often plastic and aluminium, and not effective barriers. Good-quality matting traps moisture and stops 80-90% of grit and soils entering a building, saving on cleaning time and costs. It’s also fundamental in managing the risk of slips and falls.
• Washrooms and toilets tend to be used intensively, and generate most complaints. Mops and buckets, disinfectants and cloths won’t remove embedded soils and toxins in grout lines and crevices. The result is not just recurring bad odours: infections spread via touch points. Spraying all surfaces with cleaning solution and wet-suctioning away the soils leaves washroom toilets clinically clean and fresh. No-touch cleaning systems can take a third of the time of manual methods and obviate the need for deep cleans.
• The other bane of the store manager’s day, and a risk to shoppers, are spills. A ‘crash cart’ – the size of a shopping trolley, with trash bin, litter picker, wet vac, hose and wand, and automatic mopping – allows any staff member to tackle the spill in seconds. A relatively low-tech, low-cost system such as the OmniFlex SUV leaves a perfectly dried floor, avoiding omnipresent ‘wet floor’ signs and the danger of accident claims. Entrance mats and surrounding floor areas can also be kept free of water, salt, grit and dirt, using the same kit.
• On escalators, routine upkeep falls down in the gaps between their infrequent, expensive specialist cleans. Standard floor cleaning kits may cause damage, but there’s a modern, manual system that’s lightweight, low- tech, and highly cost-effective. Operatives can clean a full escalator in 15 minutes with low consumable costs, thanks to REN Clean. With little training, it can be done in-house weekly, avoiding slips and unsightly staining from spills and oily soils.
• Another space often left to accumulate dust between specialist cleans are high-level areas. That expense and disruption can be avoided by equipping your cleaning team appropriately. Ultra-lightweight carbon-fibre poles combined with a high-powered vacuum do the job safely from the ground floor. SpaceVac’s in-built wireless camera even allows the operative to view and record their cleaning progress. Internal and external glass can be cleaned in the same way using pure water.
An efficient, effective and professional cleaning service cannot turn around a retailer’s fortunes, but it can be a comfort to discerning customers and store managers alike.
www.rawlins.co.uk 44 | RETAIL & DAYTIME CLEANING
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