Cintas Announces Top Tips for Keeping Restaurants Clean to Drive Repeat Business
November 05 2010 - 12:56PM
Business Wire
While cleanliness is not the most glamorous part of restaurant
operations, it is closely tied to profit. To assist quick service
restaurant owners and operators in driving repeat business in lean
economic times, Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ: CTAS) today released
its top tips for maintaining a clean restaurant.
“Cleanliness is an essential key to maintaining customer
satisfaction,” said Brian Garry, Senior Foodservice Director,
Cintas. “If the food is great but the restaurant is dirty,
customers will not return. From the front to the back of the house,
there are several easy steps restaurant operators can take to
improve cleanliness and increase profit.”
To keep a restaurant clean, owners and operators should consider
the following:
1. Stop Dirt at the Door. Floors are one of the first
things customers see when they walk into a building and according
to CDI research, it’s what 42 percent of people look at first when
judging the cleanliness of a business. Approximately 80 percent of
dirt enters a building from the outside, so a proper floor mat
program at building entrances will capture exterior dirt and water
to keep floors clean. This can be particularly helpful in inclement
weather when risks of slips and falls increase. Also, regularly
deep cleaning floor surfaces and grout lines will remove soil
buildup, making them easier to keep clean.
2. Establish a Restroom Maintenance Program. For many
patrons, restaurant restroom cleanliness is an indicator of kitchen
cleanliness, so it is important to keep them well-maintained. In a
recent poll, more than 84 percent of respondents equated empty
toilet paper dispensers with restroom dissatisfaction and more than
76 percent of respondents were dissatisfied if the soap dispensers
were empty. Additionally, more than 83 percent of respondents were
dissatisfied with wet surfaces.
While staff may be doing a great job of cleaning restrooms daily
(morning or night), keeping surfaces dry and supplies stocked is
something that needs to be maintained consistently throughout the
day. The key to this is ensuring restrooms are checked
approximately every 30 minutes and with increased frequency during
rush periods. To maintain the restroom during these periods,
dedicate one or two employees to the task of regular
monitoring.
Further, deep cleaning surfaces on a weekly basis will also
assist in the removal of organic soils. This will help eliminate
odors at the source and keep surfaces looking like new.
3. Keep the Kitchen Clean. It may seem like an obvious
step, but up to 40 percent of food poisoning cases are attributed
to poor hand washing and cross contamination in the kitchen. Two
ways to prevent this are ensuring hand washing supplies are in
stock and properly cleaning and sanitizing equipment and surfaces
between tasks. Using properly diluted sanitizers and disinfectants
will assist in keeping food preparation surfaces clean and free of
foodborne bacteria such as salmonella. Also, designating
color-coded cleaning tools and kitchen supplies such as cutting
boards for specific tasks will help to reduce the opportunity for
cross contamination.
Like many cooking surfaces, kitchen drains can also harbor
harmful bacteria such as Listeria monocytogenes. To limit
opportunities for bacteria growth, establish a regular drain line
maintenance program to keep drains free of debris and odors.
Further, a maintenance program will help to prevent buildup that
can cause drain backups and provide breeding grounds for drain
flies.
4. Spot Clean in Eating Areas – While it is important to
keep surfaces clean in the kitchen, it is equally important to keep
surfaces in the dining area clean and sanitized to ensure customer
safety and satisfaction. Specific cleaning tools should be assigned
to each cleaning task. For example, use only orange tools in the
restrooms to avoid cross contamination with tools used in the back
of the house. Cleaning tools such as microfiber towels can help
effectively remove food soil and bacteria, limiting causes of
foodborne illness and further improving the appearance of the
dining area. Dedicate one staff member to keeping all surfaces in
the dining area cleaned and sanitized. In addition to table tops,
it is important to make sure menus, salt and pepper shakers, and
table pedestals are also wiped clean on a regular basis.
5. Provide Ongoing Employee Training. With high turnover,
it is a challenge to ensure that all restaurant staff members
understand the importance of using proper cleaning techniques and
how to properly clean and disinfect hard surfaces. Therefore,
color-coded cleaning chemicals and tools and cleaning procedure
wall charts and manuals that are readily available and easy to
understand can help limit training challenges or language barriers.
Employees are at the front line of defense against dirt, so a
little knowledge can go a long way when it comes to restaurant
cleanliness.
It is also critical to have an ongoing training program in place
that includes food safety training and Hazard Analysis and Critical
Control Points (HACCP) procedures. The FDA recently released
results of a 10-year study of retail food risk factors which noted
that the presence of a certified food protection manager on-site
was correlated with significantly higher compliance levels with
food safety practices. Full-service restaurants with certified food
protection managers had a 70 percent compliance rate with food
safety practices, compared with a 58 percent compliance rate at
restaurants without one.
6. Find a Good Partner. Running a restaurant can be a
difficult and time-consuming business. Cleaning is often a
peripheral responsibility for many restaurant managers and
employees, so it is important to find a vendor who is knowledgeable
about sanitation and food safety to assist in the development and
management of a proper restaurant cleaning program.
“As costly as it is to compete for new customers, restaurants
should focus on retaining their existing customer base,” added Dave
Mesko, Senior Director of Marketing. “Cleanliness is a simple and
cost effective way to keep guests returning.”
For more information about Cintas’ solutions for foodservice, go
to www.cintasfoodservice.com.
About Cintas:
Headquartered in Cincinnati, Cintas Corporation provides highly
specialized services to businesses of all types primarily
throughout North America. Cintas designs, manufactures and
implements corporate identity uniform programs, and provides
entrance mats, restroom supplies, promotional products, first aid,
safety, fire protection products and services and document
management services for approximately 800,000 businesses. Cintas is
a publicly held company traded over the Nasdaq Global Select Market
under the symbol CTAS and is a Nasdaq-100 company and component of
the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
Cintas (NASDAQ:CTAS)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2024 to Jun 2024
Cintas (NASDAQ:CTAS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2023 to Jun 2024