It’s no surprise that businesses are placing a higher priority on cleaning. Retailers are cleaning more frequently (including during daytime hours), adding targeted cleaning initiatives such as frequent wipe-downs of high-touch surfaces and scheduling regular deep-cleans of high-traffic spaces, all in the name of safety. These efforts are amplifying familiar pain points—things like managing the rising cost of labor and maintaining customer satisfaction.
“Clean” is now a powerful competitive advantage
As the country begins to pivot from managing the COVID-19 crisis to recovery, including the reopening of economies, more people are out and about—taking road trips, getting gasoline and purchasing sundries at convenience stores.
Where consumers (and employees) traditionally assumed a basic level of safety and cleanliness in most businesses, that is no longer taken as a given. That assumption is gone, replaced by what Ernst & Young calls the age of the “anxious consumer.” In fact, a recent GasBuddy study found that cleanliness ranked as the third most important factoring when choosing a pitstop.
By delivering these confidence-inspiring clean experiences, businesses are gaining a powerful competitive advantage while driving trust and loyalty that keeps customers coming back.
Floor cleaning is a challenge
While it’s important to customers, there’s no denying that keeping a convenience store clean can be challenging—especially when it comes to floors. Customers track in dirt, mud, snow, salt and debris that can quickly tarnish the appearance of a gleaming floor.
With employees focused on providing customer service, cleaning high-touch surfaces and ensuring food safety, floor cleaning may fall to the wayside. But hiring additional staff often isn’t an option, given the increasing cost of labor. In 2020, the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that the overall cost of labor increased by 2.4%, and new overtime rules will continue to impact businesses that employ hourly workers.
To stay competitive and keep customers safe, stores need to find ways to address floor cleanliness. Let’s be real: No customer wants to see a dirty mop and bucket. But, increasingly, customers do want to know that cleaning is being done. Dirty floors not only impact customers' overall impressions of a store, but they can also pose a safety risk.
Mechanized floor cleaning as a solution
Today’s advanced automatic scrubber technologies are able to clean a wide range of hard surfaces, and are designed to handle everything from light-duty applications to the most rigorous needs. Mechanized floor cleaning is a proven way to keep spaces clean without increasing labor costs. Mechanized scrubbers don't replace workers, but allow them to clean quicker and more efficiently. Micro-scrubbers easily fit into small spaces like bathrooms, between aisles and under counters, and power through tough grime without risking employee injury.
Unlike the traditional mop-and-bucket method that reuses dirty mop water, automatic floor cleaners use clean water to make floors shine and reduce health risks. Take Tennant's CS5 Micro-Scrubber—the scrubber captures dirty water in its recovery tanks and only distributes clean solution onto floors. There's no cross-contamination and since water is recovered, the floors aren't left wet—significantly reducing the risk of slip-and-fall accidents.
Keeping pace in the new normal
By leveraging modernized floor cleaning technologies, c-stores can rapidly keep floors gleaming and create an experience that stands out from the competition, earning invaluable trust, driving measurable business value and reducing risk of accidents. Just as critically, deploying these simple tools can rapidly power operational efficiency, productivity and staff satisfaction that drives the bottom line of store success.
To learn more about mechanized floor scrubbers, visit tennantco.com.
This post is sponsored by Tennant Company