Cleanliness is Key to Exceptional Customer Experience

Cleanliness can be a key way to provide an exceptional customer experience in any retail space. To provide customers with a top-notch experience in your store, create a cleaning routine that not only addresses all the areas that they frequent, but gives extra attention to high traffic areas like the store entrance, checkout stands, and restrooms. These high-traffic areas can make a big impact on a customer’s first impression.

Following are cleaning tips to help ensure a clean experience for customers.

Simplify Cleaning

According to the Cleaning Industry Insights Survey from P&G Professional, managers of cleaning operations in the commercial industry, including retail stores, ranked products that get the job done the first time as the most helpful factor for performing cleaning services. Simplify cleaning by using multipurpose products.

Multipurpose products from trusted manufacturers can clean a broad range of messes and surfaces, making cleaning easier by reducing the number of products needed and minimizing rework. Multipurpose products also help save time by reducing the complexity of the job, making staff training easier and inventory management simpler.

Focus on the First Impression

The entrance to any big-box or retail store, regardless of location, is the customer’s first glimpse of your business. Make it a warm welcome with windows and doors that reflect cleanliness and customer appreciation. Clean the windows frequently with glass cleaner to keep them free of dirt, sticky handprints and streaks.

Concentrate on High-Touch Areas

Additionally, look for new products like Microban Professional technology, which kills 99.9% of bacteria in 5 minutes and provides 24 hours of protection from bacteria growth — even after multiple touches. Traditional sanitization or disinfectant products may clean and disinfect, but they do not keep working after initial contact whereas products such as Microban Professional can protect against bacteria in between cleanings.

Finally, remind employees to keep counters and checkout stands clutter-free by putting items away as soon as possible. Create designated spots to put all items in their place.

Don’t Forget to Dust

Shelves, furniture, fixtures and electronics can pile on the dust without a proper cleaning program in place. Assign staff to regularly dust these areas and keep them free of dirt. Dust is constantly forming and being deposited, and not only detracts from overall cleanliness but can also trigger allergies in customers who are sensitive.

Keep Restrooms Clean

The level of restroom hygiene can greatly affect the overall impression of any business and should be routinely cleaned. According to P&G Professional’s Cleaning Industry Insights Survey, bathrooms ranked as the most important area to clean (30 percent) and also as the most difficult to clean (52 percent) in the commercial sector.

The goal of an effective restroom cleaning program should be to remove all soils that harbor and provide a breeding ground for germs, not just the visible soils. Bad odors or smells can mean there are still germs present, even if you can’t see the soil.

Keeping restrooms clean so they meet public expectations includes:

• Surfaces free of noticeable soils and disinfected

• Empty trash cans with new liners

• No visible graffiti

• Paper products restocked and operational

• No odors

• Mirrors and chrome spot-free and shining

• No stains or discoloration on fixtures/dispensers

• Floors free of litter, build up and moisture

Remember, for proper disinfection, always follow the product label instructions and incorporate products with new technology that can provide 24 hours of protection from bacteria even after multiple touches.

Maintain Clean, Shiny Floors

It’s been shown that facility appearance ratings can drop by as much as 75 percent if floor shine makes a bad first impression. A clean floor is literally a reflection of your business.

Design a daily routine of dust mopping to help clear away larger elements of surface dirt, and then damp mopping to remove other particulates and oily soil. This helps prevent the floor’s finish from darkening or yellowing from embedded soil. For damp mopping, be sure to start with a clean mop head and clean water, and follow the manufacturer’s recommended dilution ratio for the floor cleaning product.

To ensure a consistently clean store, it’s important to put protocols into place outlining how and when to clean each area. Setting up a recognition and reward system for employees can help keep everyone motivated to follow cleaning guidelines.

Following these simple steps can help your business shine and increase customer satisfaction.