— By Ed Quinlan —
To create a tantalizing restaurant experience, consider professional floor cleaning.
There’s a phrase commonly used to describe squeaky-clean facilities: floors so clean you could eat off them. While few restaurant owners would literally serve patrons at the floor-level, this state of cleanliness is nevertheless a noble aspiration. In fact, when it comes to creating an enticing experience for diners, one of the best things restaurant owners can do is develop a consistent schedule for professional floor cleaning.
Because restaurant flooring is largely obscured by tables and chairs, it’s easy for it to become ignored or neglected. Yet, by investing in proper care, restaurant owners can improve the perception of their business while also fostering a more inviting atmosphere for customers to return again and again.
Why Restaurant Flooring Requires Diligent Care
To understand why routine professional floor cleaning is so imperative, it’s important to consider how much activity restaurant floors receive. Foot traffic can be constant, not only from diners coming in from the streets and parking lots — carrying in all manner of dirt and debris — but from restaurant staff circulating from the kitchen into the dining area and back again. This movement can track grease or loose ingredients from the food prep area right into the place where diners are trying to enjoy their meal.
There is also the matter of restrooms. It goes without saying that the flooring in any public bathroom can become unsanitary without significant cleaning and care — and as unsanitary conditions build, it only increases the risk of patrons accidentally tracking untidy elements into the dining room itself.
Factor in the occasional spill — bound to happen even in the most high-class establishments — and it’s not hard to see why restaurant flooring would accumulate ample wear and tear. As stains mount and debris builds, it compromises the aesthetics, safety and general upkeep of the entire restaurant.
Protecting Restaurant Floors — and Restaurant Patrons
Given how messy restaurant floors can get, it’s vital to invest in regular maintenance — not only to protect the floors themselves, but to help ensure your establishment is a comfortable and welcoming environment for patrons.
When stains are allowed to set — particularly grease stains — it can become all but impossible to remove them, which means any delay in floor cleaning can result in permanent damage to the floor’s appearance. That’s to say nothing of the damage done by simple, everyday foot traffic. Having floors professionally cleaned can minimize some of these damages, making it an important investment in one of the restaurant’s most valuable physical assets.
Additionally, restaurant owners should keep in mind that spills or slick spots can be slip-and-fall hazards for servers as well as patrons — and when they are left unaddressed, they can turn the restaurant into an unsafe environment. The same goes for loose or fraying carpeting, which can cause tripping; one of the best ways to recognize these risks and to intervene in a timely manner is to invest in routine floor cleaning, which will always involve a thorough visual inspection.
Cultivating the Right Ambiance
Beyond these practical considerations, there is also the question of atmosphere. Simply put, it’s desirable for restaurants to emanate quality, class and cleanliness — all of which can be achieved by maintaining sparkling facilities.
Doing so starts from the ground up — literally. By mediating spills and debris, and keeping the restaurant flooring looking tidy and fresh at all times, it sends an unmistakable message to diners that they are in for a pristine experience, down to the last detail.
Something else to keep in mind is that, when the areas of the restaurant that are visible to diners are kept clean and tidy, it provides confidence that other areas of the restaurant (like the kitchen) are held to the same high standards. This makes it easier for diners to enjoy their meals without any concerns about cleanliness — and again, it all starts with flooring.
Leaving it to the Pros
There is much that the restaurant staff can do each and every day to maintain clean flooring. Daily vacuuming is a must, and mopping the floors in both the kitchen and bathrooms can boost overall cleanliness. It’s also wise to keep cleaning supplies within reach to quickly address any spills that occur, cleaning them up before they set in and risk becoming permanent.
With that said, it’s also important to enlist the help of a professional floor cleaning company, developing a regular rhythm of deep cleanings. While the required frequency of professional floor cleanings can vary depending on the overall volume of foot traffic, it’s not uncommon for eating establishments to schedule deep cleanings on a weekly basis.
There are a number of benefits that come from partnering with a professional floor cleaning company, as opposed to handling everything in-house. Some of these benefits include:
• Professional cleaning services will have advanced technologies, such as carbonation, that allow for deep, thorough cleaning.
• A professional cleaner can provide expert guidance for the kinds of chemicals and cleaning agents that will keep a floor clean, without risking any structural damage.
• Professional cleaners can also provide recommendations about how to preserve flooring materials over the long term, extending their lifespan.
The bottom line: When it comes to maintaining pristine flooring, in-house methods can be useful — but calling in a professional cleaning service is ultimately essential.
Improving the Restaurant Experience, From the Bottom Up
Every restaurant owner wants to create a desirable space for people to come and eat — a space that’s marked by quality and cleanliness. The best way to build such a space is to start from the bottom, investing in the care of carpets and other flooring. This requires restaurant owners to stick to a regular rhythm of maintenance, involving professionals to optimize results.
— Ed Quinlan is the president of Chem-Dry. Since 1970, Chem-Dry has used their proprietary carbonating method to deliver a deep, long-lasting clean to carpets. Cleaning more than 10,000 household carpets daily, Chem-Dry is widely known for its expertise in stain and pet odor removal. Chem-Dry also makes professional-grade carpet cleaning products.