Yesterday, I was walking through a parking garage, and I noticed gum wrappers, cigarette butts, and fast food cups all over the place. The mess made me feel like no one was focused on taking care of the parking garage. Then I began to wonder… was I really safe there?
This is exactly the impression parking garage cleaning services help to prevent.
With the increase in autonomous cars and ride sharing, parking garages will need to be even more attentive to their customer experience to ensure drivers use their garage over the competitors. Plus, with 1 in 10 property crimes occurring in parking lots or garages, your customer’s perceived sense of safety has to be top of mind for you and your business.
While cleanliness and safety seem like distinctly separate issues, they are inextricably linked in your customer’s mind. Cleanliness indicates to a customer that the business takes pride in its appearance and cares about its customers.
Therefore, cleanliness is subconsciously connected with care. Care, then, is subconsciously linked to a sense of safety.
So how can you keep your parking garage clean — and your customers feeling safe? Here are a few ideas:
Establish a Consistent Trash Pickup Routine
The first step for ensuring your parking garage is clean is to establish a consistent routine for trash pickup. You can schedule a round of trash pickups 1x, 2x, or 3x a day.
If possible, schedule more rounds of trash pickup than you think you will need. It is better for employees to be able to complete their trash pickup round quickly because there is very little that needs to be picked up than to let trash sit around all day.
Take a moment to imagine how reassuring it would be for a customer to see an employee doing their rounds picking up trash and other parking garage cleaning errands. If your employee then gives a smile and wave to the customer, then he/she will immediately feel secure in their decision to choose your parking garage over all your competitors.
Regular and Thorough Leaf Removal for Your Parking Garage
While checking the trash cans and picking up litter is important, leaf removal — especially in the fall — is an entirely different beast. As we have all experienced at one time or another, accumulated leaves become slippery. Unfortunately, if serious injuries occur, not only is your business liable, your customers may share their story and damage your parking garage’s reputation.
That’s a serious issue that could’ve been avoided with parking garage cleaning.
Basic leaf removal can often be done by your staff. However, after a heavy rain or the 2-3 week period when all the trees around your garage are shedding their leaves, you may want to bring in a professional cleaning company to help tackle the leaf buildup.
Pressure Clean Your Parking Garage to Remove Stains
Unfortunately, cars will leak oil and other fluids in your parking garage. So, once your team has trash pickup and leaf removal down to a science, you will need to implement pressure washing to remove stains. Pressure washing uses hot water and high quality cleansers to soften and lift the oil stains and dirt from your parking garage floor.
We have all seen houses or sidewalks which were pressure washed by the homeowners. Streaks everywhere, right? Those streaks can be even more distracting than if you didn’t pressure wash at all! If you want an even finish, you can bring in a professional company. Pressure washing is one of the services that we offer. Feel free to reach out to us for a quote or more details about all our services.
Post Your Parking Garage Cleaning Schedule for Public View
With the continued presence of COVID-19, customers’ entire lives are shifting to accommodate disease prevention protocols. Customers are making swift decisions about how and where to shop — and park — based on their perception of a location’s cleanliness.
By publicly posting your established and consistent cleaning routine (as discussed above), you will assuage your customer’s concerns and solidify your clean parking garage is a space that takes hygiene — and the health of your customers — seriously.
Contract a Parking Garage Cleaning Service to Deep Clean on a Regular Basis
Regular cleaning and maintenance will solidify your parking garage as the optimal option for your customers. However, it is unlikely that your company has the staffing hours or equipment to deep clean your parking garage on a regular basis. Without a deep clean, stains will begin to accumulate and make customers feel uneasy — even if you’re sweeping 3x a day! Whether your parking garage will need a deep clean weekly, monthly, or quarterly, we can help with that.
If you implement these 5 parking garage cleaning strategies, you will find that your customers choose your parking garage over your competitors time and time again!