Psst. I’ll tell you a cleaning secret, one that can help you save time, money, and enhance your sustainability programs. Best of all, it’s an easy to implement, readily available solution.
Drum roll please…
Use multipurpose products.
Okay, so it’s not a huge secret, and maybe it’s not jazzy enough to warrant a drum roll, but it is true that multipurpose products can provide all those benefits. The thing is, it’s often the case that the great capabilities of multipurpose products get overlooked because folks naturally try to separate out different products for different uses. But if designed right, multipurpose products can let you combine tasks with just one cleaner.
Multipurpose products clean AND disinfect
An effective multipurpose product should be able to hit the sweet spot of doing several things well. This means first and foremost that it has to clean whatever surface / soil it is designed for effectively.
Then you add on capabilities to that such as a disinfectant capability, or the ability to clean a different surface with different kinds of soils. For example, P&G Professional’s Trusted Trio of Spic and Span®, Comet® and Mr. Clean® products are three multipurpose brands that clean, disinfect and remove stains, each on multiple surface types. This not only helps our customers to simplify cleaning routines, but also saves them money in both product and labor time.
Products that save time, money and resources
So what does this get you? For starters, it means you can clean more surfaces with fewer products. And because of scale / bulk purchasing, it’s usually cheaper to buy one product in large quantities than a whole bunch of products to use in small quantities.
It’s also a time saver. As a buyer you don’t have to spend ages choosing the products, but it’s as an end user that you really see the benefits. Your cleaning cart has fewer products on it, meaning less hauling and less switching between products. With a multipurpose product, you don’t have to clean the same surface with different products multiple times – one time, properly executed, gets the job done.
All this drives efficiency, which drives another big benefit, sustainability. With multipurpose products, you don’t have as many bottles of product to order, ship or dispose of, resulting in less energy, less CO2, less fuel, and less waste.
Clean more productively
Multipurpose products give you one more advantage, and it’s a doozy. By helping your staff be more efficient in cleaning, they can help them save time – which means higher productivity for each individual and potentially lower labor costs. And labor costs are typically 85 percent or more of the costs of cleaning. Anything that can make cleaning personnel more effective can be a powerful business help.
Now, there is one catch. Remember, we talked about multipurpose products being designed well. It doesn’t do any good to have a product that promises to do multiple things but does them all poorly. So make sure that the products you choose are from trusted manufacturers, and that they provide the right features to meet your specific needs.
About Chris Vuturo
Chris Vuturo is the Procter & Gamble Professional External Relations Manager. He has been with P&G for 10 years working on marketing and sustainability initiatives for brands such as Fit, Cheer and Febreeze, as well as P&G Professional. A graduate of Harvard University, Chris also holds a master’s degree in environmental assessment and evaluation from the London School of Economics, a master’s degree in environmental management from the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, and an MBA from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business. Prior to joining P&G, Chris was a high school teacher.Helpful ?
