Category Archives: Cleaning Service Procedure

Our Difference / Cleaning Service Procedures that produce a high standard

Mental Illness and Restroom Behavior

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Over the last couple of years we have experienced a cleaning problem which is becoming more prevalent. It is an irrational behavior among people who are mysophobic (germophobic). This particular behavior does nothing to minimize the spread of germs (it actually worsens the situation); yet, it creates a very frustrating experience for the person who has to clean it up.

The Behavior

The hand soap is spread in a thin layer all over the sink and in may cases the counter tops in the restroom hand wash area. This layer dries and becomes invisible; that is, until you try to clean it.

The Resulting Cleaning Problem

When you put soap on your hands and add a little water, it get sudsy. This is exactly what happens when the cleaner begins to wipe down this restroom surface. It creates the following frustrations for cleaning personnel.

  • The first frustration is that you cannot see the film of soap; so, when you proceed to clean, with what you think will be a simple one wipe situation, you are presented with the opposite.
  • The second frustration is that the more water you add, the soapier and sudsier the situation becomes. As your cleaning cloth becomes saturated with soap and suds the third frustration arises.
  • You must repeatedly rinse your cloth as it becomes saturated with suds. Doing this over and over again and again takes an inordinate amount of time; especially, compared to the single wipe that it takes when there is NO soap on the sink or counter top.
  • Lastly, as cleaning professionals we cannot ignore spending all of the time that it takes to remove the soap residue because the surface cannot be sanitized unless the surface is clean and all of the soap has been removed.

A Suggested Solution

Firstly, I urge all mental health professionals, who have clients with this type of malady, to get very specific with defining behaviors their clients participate in that are of this nature.
Secondly, I would suggest that you recommend to your clients that they carry sanitizing wipes. Instead of spreading soap all over the restroom surfaces, suggest that your client wipe down the sink and counter top with the sanitizing wipe. This action would in fact have the benefit that the person desires and not create havoc for cleaning service personnel.

Cleaning Service Results-by the Numbers

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There is no correlation between the visual appearance of a surface and its level of cleanliness.  Surfaces that may appear clean can be laden with bacteria. When it comes to cleaning service results, the only way to determine how clean a surface might be is to conduct tests that count the bacteria.

The cleaning methods of Washroom Wizard! have been subjected to such tests.  The results of these tests in one of our client locations are below.  How many other cleaning services do you know of that conduct such tests; and then publish them?

Excerpt from letter to client regarding cleaning service results
I have been using the restroom at your place of business for some bacteriological tests to determine the efficacy of our cleaning services. I understand that these numbers are probably of no interest to you. But, I also feel that since the data was collected at your business you should be apprised of the results. Should I choose to use this information in the future, the name of the business where it was collected shall remain anonymous.

The chart below shows the ‘before’ and ‘after’ bacteria counts of the Initial Cleaning last September as well as the same tests performed earlier this month.

BACTERIOLOGICAL COUNTS

_________________________________Initial Cleaning 9/7/06_______Regular Cleaning 7/11/07__

Location Before After Before After
Wall by Toilet 320 30 20 <10
Floor beside Toilet 3250 60 1280 10

Clearly there are many ways to interpret the numbers. However, one number in which I have an interest is related to the efficacy of our service when we are not there. In other words, does the thoroughness of our cleaning methods influence the build up of bacteria between service calls compared to previous methods?

Looking at the ‘Before’  bacteria counts of last September and the counts taken this month shows that the build up of bacteria on the wall by the toilet is 6% of previous methods. The build up on the floor is 39%. Stated another way, the bacteria count on the wall was 16 times greater with your previous cleaning methods than with Washroom Wizard! services. The bacteria count on the floor was 2.5 times greater.

The other number in which I had an interest was the impact of our regularly scheduled cleaning service over time. There clearly is a decrease in bacteria levels after the initial cleaning but, is there a reduction over time with our regular cleaning service? The bacteria counts ‘after’ the regular cleaning service this month are at the lowest measurable level for the test (10 is the lowest). This shows an additional reduction of bacteria levels compared to the results after the initial cleaning. Subsequent cleanings do in fact reduce the bacteria count even more.

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The psychology of habit and its impact on cleaning results

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…it is best to have a washroom specialist who only cleans restrooms.  This ensures a uniform and high standard.

Source: Services Magazine of the Building Service Contractors Association, March 2005, article by Bill Garland, Daniels Associates, Inc.

When I started this business I had defined my market as independently owned businesses that relied upon their employees for all of the cleaning functions.  Having worked for these types of small businesses, it had been my experience that employees did not mind cleaning their work areas but they did mind the prospect of cleaning a restroom that other workers had used.

My concept of market began to change one day when I was out making sales calls.  Continue reading →