In a prior article we addressed the issue that if one enters an area and it smells “off” or “unclean” it is probably dirty even though it was serviced. 

 

I remember assisting a company that was having complaints regarding the men’s restroom. The building was old and has not been well maintained by the owner. The restrooms were antiquated and the person cleaning them was not properly trained or equipped to perform a satisfactory job.

 

I was brought in to see if there was anything short of gutting and remodeling the restrooms to eliminate the chronic odor. The service used two or three deodorizing cans strategically placed throughout each room in hopes of masking the odor. It did not work and everyone was frustrated.

 

My first action was to observe the janitor doing their work and inspecting their cleaning cart. I always try to be respectful and ask questions in hopes of learning about any training they had received. To the company’s credit, the worker had viewed a restroom cleaning video about six year ago when they started the contract. As best as I could tell there had not been any follow up from that point forward.

 

The cart was a collection of cleaning chemicals including a powdered cleaner, some blue stuff in a bottle, another bottle with skull and crossbones (23 percent hydrochloric acid), a pink bottle with disinfectant label, a partial bottle of very old bleach, a half-eaten candy bar, a soda cup, paper towels for cleaning, a worn out straw broom, a dirty dust pan and a mop bucket with what appeared to be a very old, moldy, tired string mop. You can guess where we started in dealing with the problem. We will continue our story in the next article.

 

Start with the process!

 

 Your comments and questions are important. I hope to hear from you soon. Until then, keep it clean…

 

Mickey Crowe has been involved in the industry for over 35 years. He is a trainer, speaker and consultant. You can reach Mickey at 678-314-2171 or CTCG50@comcast.net.


posted on 7/17/2014