Cleanliness in your restaurant doesn’t just make the place more appealing. It also protects you from litigation, safeguards your customers from sickness and helps your reputation. It is vitally important that your restaurant stay clean at all times, and here are a few tips that will help.
Make a Checklist
It can be easy to forget some of the cleaning jobs that need to be done. Depending on the size of your restaurant, the list of things to clean daily and weekly can reach into the dozens or hundreds. You can keep track of what is done and what needs to be done by creating a checklist. Leave a space to have each item marked off as it is done. This way, multiple people can be working on the checklist and not work over one another. You’ll avoid confusion and ensure that everything is done properly this way.
Clean Out Drink Machines Often
Many restaurants actually forget this cleaning task. They may only clean out the drink machines when they appear dirty, but that could be long after slime has started to build up inside the machine. If you wait too long to clean drink dispensers, you can be contaminating drinks and making your customers ill. Fight off this problem by having someone assigned to cleaning the drink machines at least once a week. This will allow for very little buildup and will ensure the drinks come out sanitary and delicious every time. Cleaning the drink machines effectively means emptying them completely and using soapy water to ensure all germs are neutralized.
Establish a Pest Control Plan
Why wait for someone to spot roaches, ants or rats in your restaurant? You can set up pest repellents around your restaurant and have a regularly scheduled pest control expert to come in and keep your place pest free. Try to have them come outside of regular business hours, because customers don’t want to see pest control where they eat. Doing this can help you avoid the problem of having pests running around your kitchen or dining area.
Train Staff to Clean Work Areas
All of your staff should be well trained in how to clean the areas where food is cooked, packaged and otherwise prepared. These are where germs are going to get into the food and contaminate it, so you want them extra clean. Train new staff as they come in for how to keep a clean workspace and then make sure the staff is trained on a regular basis (every six months or every year) to keep their training up to date and ensure everyone is on the same page.
Cleaning Is More Important Than Keeping Customers Happy
You may have to take longer to serve a customer because you are doing things properly and keeping a clean restaurant. That can make your customers unhappy, but it is better to have an unhappy customer than to have your restaurant shut down due to a failed inspection. If you don’t have time to clean everything yourself, consider hiring a cleaning service for some of the more involved tasks, but put cleanliness first on your list of priorities.