Public restrooms are visited by lots of people every day. In high traffic areas like restaurants and airports, hundreds or even thousands of people may use a given public restroom in a single day. Maintaining a safe and sanitary public restroom for employees and patrons is critical, but how can you make sure your bathroom stays clean? How do you clean the toilets, the urinals and even the fixtures?
When you hire Palmetto Services for restroom cleaning and maintenance, you can rest assured that your public restrooms will be cleaned regularly to help keep your employees and the general public happy, healthy and safe.
Why Is Public Restroom Cleanliness Important?
Commercial cleaning companies can make sure public restrooms are clean and free of germs and bacteria. A dirty restroom that isn’t well maintained will quickly turn away employees, clients and visitors. Your restroom’s cleanliness is vital for improving customer satisfaction as well as for the health of your visitors. Some of the reasons for keeping your public toilets clean include:
1. Better for Business
Are clean bathrooms better for business? It would seem Americans think so, as they choose businesses with cleaner bathrooms. A restroom can play a prominent role in a customer’s first impression of a company. A clean bathroom makes your business seem capable and professional, while a dirty bathroom has the opposite effect. A clean and sanitary restroom increases customers’ trust in your business and encourages them to stick around longer.
2. Keeps Your Toilets Sanitary
Perhaps one of the most important components of cleaning your office restroom is keeping the toilets clean. These need to be hygienic for every visitor. You want staff and patrons to be excited to visit your business — not dread using your facilities.
3. Keeps Your Restroom in Excellent Condition
Maintaining good hygiene also helps to preserve the condition of a public restroom. Dirt, mildew and mold can cause your floors, toilets and sinks to deteriorate or stain. By keeping the area clean and sanitary, you can keep your public restroom in an exemplary condition.
4. Reduces the Transfer of Diseases
Germs that cause illnesses can spread quickly from person to person, especially in bathrooms where many people touch the same surfaces. To keep your staff and clients healthy, you’ll want to make the cleanliness of your public restroom a priority. The flu is a disease that can be transferred from person to person when a sick person comes in contact with the surface in a public restroom. Public restrooms are often just humid enough to keep viruses and pathogens growing and thriving on toilets, sinks and other surfaces. Regular sanitation will help reduce the transmission of these viruses.
Though many believe toilets are the surface on which they’re most likely to come into contact with germs, contracting any type of virus or illness from a toilet seat is actually highly unlikely. There are, however, other surfaces that could cause the spread of diseases, such as doorknobs and faucet handles. Washing your hands is essential after using a public restroom, but not everyone does it, so keeping these surfaces as clean and sanitary as possible is crucial for the health of your patrons.
This isn’t just an issue of appealing to customers. It’s also an ethical issue as your business has an obligation to the people you serve and employ to keep them healthy and safe from disease.
5. Makes Employees Happier and More Productive
A cleaner workplace makes for a happier workplace, and a happier workplace results in more productive employees. By reducing the transmission of germs, you’ll have fewer staff absences due to sickness. A clean public restroom will result in fewer accidents occurring, and smells from the restroom won’t make their way into the office space. A workplace that isn’t clean and isn’t a happy place for your staff to work in will result in a higher rate of employee turnover.
Employees in America believe the condition of a restroom is an indicator of how much a business values its staff. Many workers would like their company’s bathrooms to include more touch-free fixtures, including motion-activated faucets and automatic toilets. They’d also like air fresheners, full-length mirrors, electric hand dryers and shelves for belongings. Many complaints employees have about their company’s restrooms could be solved with automatic fixtures and deodorizers. To keep your employees happy and productive, consider listening to any suggestions they have for how to improve the cleanliness of your restrooms.
6. Protects Your Business’ Reputation
The condition of your public restroom influences your reputation. Clients won’t want to work with a business that doesn’t take care of their facilities, and by extension, their employees and customers. The condition of your facility sends a message about your image and how you feel about your clients or customers. Clients may think that, if you don’t care enough to keep the restroom clean for them, you won’t care enough to provide quality service for them either. To maintain a positive reputation, you’ll want to keep your public restroom clean.
The easiest way to ensure your public restroom is cleaned properly and stays sanitary is by hiring a commercial cleaning company. A commercial cleaning crew will clean your public restroom regularly and keep your patrons and employees safe and healthy.
How to Maintain Your Business’ Restroom
In between visits from your commercial cleaning company, you’ll want to make sure the cleanliness of your business’ restroom is maintained. Here are a few steps for how to keep your business’ restrooms clean throughout the day. Following these tips will help your public restrooms stay clean and sanitary for your employees’ and customers’ use.
1. Check Toilets and Urinals Daily
Every few hours, check to make sure that the toilets and urinals are clean and clog-free. Employees need clean toilets to use throughout the workday, and a lack of clean toilets will quickly create unhappiness among employees. A dirty toilet may also be enough to turn away a client and lose their business. Maintaining the cleanliness of your toilets and urinals is an investment in your business.
2. Keep Restroom Supplied
Few issues will upset employees or customers more than a lack of soap, paper towels or toilet paper in a restroom. Check throughout the day on your supplies. You may also want to keep extra supplies, such as rolls of toilet paper, in the restroom where visitors can easily find them if needed. To reduce your business’ impact on the environment, you may also want to consider stocking your bathroom with eco-friendly products.
3. Empty Trash
Be sure to empty trash receptacles before they get full. Not being able to dispose of their used paper towels will cause patrons to become unhappy and may also result in a messier restroom. Ensure your bathroom always has an adequate amount of waste bins and empty them regularly to keep your washroom clean and your employees and clients happy.
4. Keep Floors Clean
The floor can be one of the least hygienic surfaces in a public restroom, as far as germs go. A dirty floor can also repel clients, so be sure to maintain the cleanliness of your restroom floor. Don’t leave floors wet, however, as this can be a safety hazard. Consider mopping floors after business hours but picking up and disposing of litter throughout the day.
5. Clean Fixtures Daily
You may also want to clean your public restroom’s sinks, mirrors, counters and walls daily. If you hire a commercial cleaning company to service your restroom only once or twice a week, that may not be enough to keep these fixtures pristine for use every day. Surfaces that people touch often can become covered with bacteria, so things like sinks and counters need regular cleaning. Mirrors and counters can also quickly acquire water spots. These surfaces may need to be wiped down daily to keep them dry and clean for clients and employees.
Though hiring a commercial cleaning service is the best way to ensure your public restroom stays clean and sanitary, they may not be around for every moment you need them, especially if they come in after business hours. You may need to handle these minor cleaning activities throughout the day to ensure your restroom stays clean for your employees and customers.
How to Ensure Your Public Restroom Is Clean Enough
To ensure your facilities are clean and safe, a professional cleaning company should clean your office restrooms. Hiring a commercial cleaning company with a crew of professionals who are well equipped to tackle your public restroom comes with numerous benefits besides keeping your toilets clean. A commercial restroom cleaning crew will:
1. Use Eco-Friendly Cleaning
A professional cleaning crew will know how to clean public restrooms using eco-friendly products and practices. These products are used to kill any bacteria growing near the sinks, toilets or door handles. When a commercial cleaning company uses green cleaning products, they can help reduce your business’ impact on the environment. Green cleaning may include:
- Energy-efficient equipment
- Products that are verified by recognized organizations
- Equipment that can improve air quality
- Microfiber rags that are color-coded to avoid cross-contamination
- Waste reduction methods like recycling
- Methods that reduce the use of chemical cleaners, such as steam cleaning
- Eco-friendly alternatives to current restroom supplies
You can make requests for your commercial cleaning company, such as asking for the use of greener products. With Palmetto Services, you can receive an eco-friendly cleaning service that caters to the needs of your public restroom.
2. Be Trained in Using the Right Cleaning Equipment
Commercial cleaning companies also bring the right cleaning equipment to clean challenging areas in a public restroom, such as on high window sills, underneath the sinks and behind the toilets. Floors of public restrooms require special attention because they’re subjected to heavy traffic. A commercial cleaning company will have the right cleaning solutions to make a floor pristine.
3. Eliminate Unpleasant Odors
It’s not uncommon to be hit with an unpleasant odor in a public restroom. A commercial cleaning service can decrease or even eliminate unpleasant odors from your bathroom. Through regular service from a commercial cleaning company, your public restroom can become an inviting place. The professionals are experts in the latest odor reducers and cleaning solutions, so they know exactly how to improve a public restroom’s atmosphere.
4. Restock Supplies
A commercial cleaning service will also check on the supplies in every restroom. You don’t want your patrons and employees to find there isn’t any soap in the dispenser or any paper towels to dry their hands. You’ll also want supplies in reserve in the restroom, such as extra rolls of toilet paper to keep the bathroom stocked until the cleaning company returns for service. The professionals you hire will make sure your public restroom is supplied with the essentials.
5. Maintain Facilities
A commercial cleaning service will sweep the floor, empty waste bins, clean the mirrors and scrub the sinks. Patrons and employees will be grateful when a commercial cleaning company tackles your public restroom cleaning. A crew may also notice a dripping faucet, a broken toilet handle or water leaking from a toilet. Once they notify the maintenance staff, you can fix these problems quickly and restore the restroom to working condition. You can save money by ensuring problems are fixed promptly. In addition to making sure your restroom is clean, a commercial cleaning company can make sure your restroom receives the maintenance it needs.
By hiring a commercial cleaning company, you can rest assured that your public restroom will be in the best possible shape for your employees and clients.
Hire Palmetto Services for Your Commercial Cleaning Needs
Businesses in Pennsylvania, Maryland, D.C. and Virginia can rely on Palmetto Services for all of their commercial cleaning needs. With more than 60 years of experience, we know how to provide companies with the professional public restroom cleaning and maintenance services they need. We’re committed to tailoring our services to the needs of each client, and we’re confident that no matter what your needs are for your public restroom, we can handle them.
At Palmetto Services, we value clear communication, and we’re dedicated to providing our crew with the best training possible. Our team is OSHA certified and trained, and we stay up to date with best practices. We’ll work closely with you to ensure we create a cleaning and maintenance plan that’s right for your business’ needs.
We work with a customer-first attitude and value the long-lasting relationships we’ve established with our clients. To experience our decades of experience in action yourself, get a free estimate today.