Clean sweep

With cleanliness remaining a top priority for consumers when eating and drinking out of home, make sure your venue is clean as a whistle throughout

The quieter period before summer is just made for a deep clean. The Easter rush is over and the next key trading times are a way off, so it’s time to pull on the gloves and get to work.

Food hygiene ratings have a powerful influence over whether a customer visits a venue, even more so than the quality of customer service [1], so it’s vital your outlet is clean, tidy and welcoming. A large majority of restaurant complaints are related to the bathroom being poorly disinfected or tables not being clean [2], so these are key areas to focus on.

CHECK IT OUT

Pay close attention to the condition of your venue’s exterior; customers will take all this as an indication of your venue’s overall cleanliness. Glass should be clean, entrances swept, no peeling paint and pots of flowers or hanging baskets add a welcoming feel. Cut any grass, clean outdoor furniture and check over anything that has been stored away over winter.

COME ON IN

Inspect every nook and cranny inside. Areas that are often missed or disregarded are furniture, soft furnishings, such as blinds/curtains, windows and lights, and also outdoor areas such as the bins and outdoor furniture.

Clean into the corners and edges of floors. Windows should be spotless, any peeling paint or wallpaper repaired. Look up – banish cobwebs and dust hanging around the ceiling, lights and decorations or pictures.

You may think customers won’t notice, but they often look around their surroundings when visiting somewhere new.

ACCESS ALL AREAS

Although guests can’t necessarily see inside cupboards and shelves front of house, it’s essential to keep them cleaned to a professional high standard as they are used for storing equipment such as cutlery, menus and condiments. The same goes for underneath tables and chairs; clean thoroughly with soapy water occasionally and disinfect often.

TOP TIP

KEEP TOILET ROLL, HAND TOWELS AND SOAP DISPENSERS TOPPED UP

TOUCH POINTS

One of the most neglected areas when it comes to cleaning is door handles. All handles on all doors are the points most frequently touched. Most viruses can only survive 24 hours on a door handle3, but during the space of one day, your venue’s doors have the potential to be used hundreds of times. Ensure all door handles, cupboard handles and light switches are disinfected at least twice per day.

IMMACULATE MENUS

Don’t neglect menus either. Ditch the fancy, hard-to-clean menus and prioritise making customers feel comfortable touching them by laminating so they’re wipeable or using disposable and recyclable versions – better still, consider app or QR code ordering. Disinfect all menus ready for the next customer.

ATTENTION TO DETAIL

Whether you leave them out on tables or only bring them out when requested, condiments should be regularly wiped down on the outside, and thoroughly cleaned inside from time to time. The caps of sauces should be regularly soaked in hot water to release any hardened sauce remnants. Check glasses, plates and

cutlery before you use them to make sure they are spotless. Someone else’s food on cutlery is seriously off-putting.

STAY ON THE BALL

Check general cleanliness levels often and for those regularly used areas, check throughout the day and keep clean, introducing a chart to manage this if need be and make all staff responsible for checking and rectifying. Make sure customers see you wiping tables thoroughly with an appropriate cleaning product and clean cloth, and extra brownie points for wiping down chairs too.

CORE

To ensure every inch of your outlet is pristine, choose Confex’s great-value, high-quality own-brand range, CORE. It offers an impressive selection of 27 products, which cover all purposes.

FRESH AS A DAISY

Zoflora’s multi-purpose disinfectant is now available in a 1-litre format, branded as Zoflora Professional. It offers a versatile and efficient solution for cleaning as just one litre of product produces 40 litres of full-strength disinfectant. Zoflora Professional guarantees excellent value when it comes to choosing products for keeping your venue spotlessly clean.