Retail & Shop Commercial Cleaning Guide

To get the best possible cleaning outcome, site managers need to adopt cleaning procedures that are specific to their business, sector and industry.

After all, your approach to cleaning a warehouse shouldn’t be the same as a shopping centre.

Disc vs Cylindrical BrushesIn this article, we’re focusing on best practice cleaning for retail units, shops and shopping centres.

Keep reading to find our complete guide to commercial cleaning. This includes best practice approaches, the most effective machines to use, and how to clean all the key areas of your site.

 

Why is it important to keep retail spaces clean?

Whatever your industry or business context, sites need to be cleaned regularly and routinely.

This is particularly true for retail spaces, where regular, thorough cleaning is absolutely imperative.

Whether you’re a small shop, a supermarket or a vast shopping centre, the reasons why it’s so important to clean retail spaces include:

  • Achieving high health and safety standards
  • Protecting your staff from health risks (such as viruses)
  • Ensuring the prompt removal of any slip hazards
  • Keeping your employee morale high, and helping them to work efficiently
  • Promoting higher standards of customer satisfaction
  • Securing a good first impression from your customers
  • Ensuring both staff and customers feel comfortable, and your shop is an enjoyable place to visit
  • Encouraging higher levels of repeat business from your customers
  • Ensuring the overall success of your business
  • Achieving a professional, trustworthy and successful brand image
  • Keeping your business compliant with UK health and safety regulations
  • Minimising the risk of pest infestation
  • Protecting your products from avoidable damage
  • Extending the lifespan of your site, fixtures, flooring and equipment

Best practices for cleaning retail spaces

General best practices for the effective cleaning of retail spaces include:

Clean at appropriate times

Arrange your deep cleans for the evenings or first thing in the morning (when there are no customers on site). Then, schedule smaller cleans at regular intervals throughout the day.

Conduct small cleans every day

You should clean key, high-traffic areas of your site at least once a day. This includes sweeping and mopping your floors, and dusting or wiping high-contact areas.

Schedule deep cleans (at least) once a quarter

Depending on how many people visit your site, we recommend scheduling a routine deep clean at least once every 3 months.

Create a cleaning schedule

In addition to details about what is being cleaned and when, this should also outline who is responsible for cleaning which areas. This will ensure that everyone is clear about their responsibilities, and that nothing is missed.

Regularly disinfect key areas

This includes high-touch points such as door handles, shopping trolleys, POS systems, checkout counters, and stair rails.

Implement regular waste-removal schedules

Ensure your bins are being emptied regularly, particularly in high-traffic areas.

Keep your stockrooms organised

For non customer-facing areas, ensure they are well-organised, and dusted regularly. Any debris or potential trip hazards should be removed as soon as they are spotted. To prevent pests, any food waste in your stockrooms should be cleared on a regular basis.

Choose the right cleaning supplies and equipment

Don’t just use a standard supermarket disinfectant for your entire site. To get the best results, spend some time identifying the most effective supplies and equipment for each area of your site. Our team can help advise what machine will best suit your requirements.

Invest in high quality equipment

It goes without saying that high quality, sophisticated equipment will achieve better results, with much less effort. At Alpha Power Cleaners, we supply businesses across the UK with state-of-the-art commercial cleaning equipment, available to hire through flexible, bespoke contracts.

Train your team

Host regular training sessions with your team, so that they are informed of best practice deep cleaning practices, and know how to correctly use your cleaning equipment and supplies. Alpha Power Cleaners also provides specialist training sessions, to equip commercial teams with best-practice cleaning techniques.

Here at Alpha Power Cleaners, we provide training with all our hire machines, and can also provide training for groups of staff for up to 8 people at a time.

Cleaning strategies for your site

Cleaning Entrances & Exits

Correctly cleaning your entrances and exits is the cornerstone of best-practice commercial cleaning. Not only is this the area of your site with the highest traffic, but it is also the point where the customer will form their first (and final) impression of your brand.

As a result, these areas will need to be cleaned daily at the minimum. We’d also recommend scheduling regular, routine cleans throughout the day. So, your chosen cleaning systems need to be quiet, discreet, easy to use, and achieve a deep clean, quickly.

When cleaning entrances and exits, we recommend using:

Cleaning Fresh Food Counters

In these areas, hygiene is absolutely imperative. Food handling spaces must achieve complete compliance with the UK’s strict hygiene regulations (whether it is a customer-facing area or not).

In order to meet these stringent requirements, businesses should equip themselves with specialist cleaning solutions. That way, you can ensure that any bacteria or health hazards are safely, effectively and thoroughly eliminated.

When cleaning fresh food counters, we recommend using:

Cleaning Checkouts & Non-food Areas

Although food isn’t being handled in these areas, these are still some of your store’s highest-traffic areas. They also contain some of the site’s major touchpoints, particularly the checkout areas, POS systems, and card machines, for example.

At Alpha Power Cleaners, we supply the latest commercial cleaning equipment, including efficient, innovative and unobtrusive technologies. These will help you to minimise the spread of viruses, and ensure a positive customer experience.

When cleaning checkouts, we recommend using:

Cleaning Storage Areas & Warehouses

When it comes to commercial cleaning, storage areas are a commonly-neglected space. However, although they don’t require the same daily cleaning schedule as customer-facing areas, it is still key that your storage areas and warehouses are thoroughly cleaned. Without regular cleaning, not only can they generate high volumes of dust, but they can also encourage pests.

Plus, clean storage areas are also key to keeping the rest of your business organised, and protecting your products from any avoidable damage.

So, for these areas, you should invest in cleaning machines that ensure you remain compliant with legal hygiene regulations, and that help you deep clean even the most difficult-to-reach areas.

When cleaning storage areas and warehouses, we recommend using:

Cleaning Parking & Outdoor Areas

Well-maintained parking areas and outdoor spaces are essential to strong brand reputations. They inspire peoples’ very first impression of you, and so, should make it clear that you are a dependable, organised, efficient and professional business.

However, with the regular build-up of dirt, leaves and other debris, these areas need to be cleaned on a regular, routine basis.

When cleaning parking and outdoor areas, we recommend using:

 

At Alpha Power Cleaners, we have a wide variety of cleaning equipment and technologies available to hire, through flexible and bespoke contracts. These include state-of-the-art solutions that are precisely designed for retail cleaning.

We offer a comprehensive range of commercial cleaning machines for hire, to suit sites of all sizes. What’s more, you can also enlist Alpha Power Cleaners’ professional team to deliver cleaning training for your staff. This is a fantastic way to ensure your equipment is being used correctly, and uphold the highest standards of cleanliness across your site.

To learn more about best practice retail cleaning, or to arrange for the supply of premium cleaning equipment for your site, contact our team today.

Our Accreditations

With more than 80 years’ combined experience, we have developed an expert team and a wide range of services, and have even become a Karcher-approved servicing dealer, so you can be sure of the best when you come to Alpha Power Cleaners!