Have you ever been in a hotel and felt the trimmings of the space could have been updated? Odds are, that hotel was in perfect condition at one point, but over time the constant use of its rooms, constant need for maintenance and routine cleaning, well, it’s easy for a once-prime location to show its age.
This is especially true if you run a business and premises that experiences heavy daily use from members of the public. You can image the amount of work that goes into keeping airports, museums, or other large-scale publicly-accessible spaces in good condition from day to day.
As a private enterprise, it’s important to make sure you invest this kind of attention into your own firm. Saying that is easy, but achieving the proper end result requires constant planning, a rotating engagement with the services you need, and of course, the willingness to make investments that provide longevity.
With this in mind, we hope the following guide can help you get your foot in the door. Without further ado, please consider:
Ensure Robust & Dependable Flooring
When there’s a good amount of people entering your premises on a daily basis, you’d be surprised just how worn-out the flooring can become. For that reason, it’s good to invest in in robust and dependable applications.
The choice of flooring materials should depend on the type of business and the expected foot traffic you have. Some of the most popular options include concrete, carpet, and tile. But of course, you may have a unique service, where garage floor tiles are needed in order to sustain the weight of vehicles in and out of the mechanic’s area. Regular cleaning and maintenance can help prolong the lifespan of the flooring too and must be conducted often. However, if the flooring becomes damaged, it should be repaired or replaced immediately to avoid safety hazards.
Keep a Fervent Cleaning Schedule
Heavy foot traffic can quickly lead to the accumulation of dirt, dust, and grime, not to mention littering such as cigarette ends, chewing gum, and other stains that build up unless addressed. Regular cleaning and disinfecting of surfaces, floors, and equipment, even in outdoor areas where litter-picking and power-washing are essential, can prevent the buildup of harmful bacteria, which can lead to the spread of illnesses. A well-maintained cleaning schedule can also make the space more visually appealing, comfortable, and safe for customers and employees. Just make sure you implement adequate wet-floor signage and rope off certain areas being cleaned during the day. A nightly or early morning cleaning schedule with an outsourced company can help you get started in the right manner.
Pay for Excellent, Responsive Maintenance & Reporting Systems
When an issue takes place, it’s important to address it as quickly as possible. After all, you have a responsibility to make sure your building is working in all possible ways, and all safety measures have been adequately applied. It’s not acceptable, for instance, for an evacuation door to be stuck, or for lighting in your stairwells to be locked-off and dangerous.
Hiring a team that is responsive and efficient in addressing issues and concerns can make a significant difference. It’s good to implement a quick and efficient reporting system where issues can be assigned with appropriate prioritization. You may outsource this maintenance, or you may hire on-site staff and implement the correct software to track these issues and their current status.
Inspect the Condition of Your Premises Regularly
Inspecting the premises regularly helps to identify issues such as cracked floors, broken equipment, or electrical problems. It can also help you see issues that you may not have noticed, like flickering lights, or perhaps a somewhat sticky door.
Addressing these issues early on can prevent further damage and reduce the risk of injury to customers and employees, or at least prevent the inconvenience lasting longer than it should. On top of that, the inspections you may decide to implement can be more comprehensive, and tailored towards a specific outcome. For example, you might bring in your elevator maintenance company to ensure the cabling, systems and safety standards of your elevator are not just good, but absolutely guaranteed and in the best condition possible.
In order to achieve the correct standards, you may even bring in external auditors should you deem this relevant. For example, if you run a workshop, then making sure the equipment maintenance and fire safety compliance measures have been undertaken at a high level will help you avoid issues going forward.
Hire Security Personnel
Of course, if you run a business with an adequate amount of people passing through it daily, then some kind of security team is important to integrate into your safety and standards procedure. This can help prevent shoplifting, allows you to remove people from the premises if they’re causing harm to themselves or others, will allow you to better record security incident and operate security equipment like cameras, and may even work overnight to ensure your premises is secure after closing.
Depending on the kind of business you run, the assets you curate, and the amount of people you’re responsible for, a security team may or may not be necessary. For instance, in a car garage this is probably not necessary, but in a large high-end store it could be. One thing is for sure, this is certainly an important means of sustaining a heavily-used commercial premises.
Manage Footfall & Traffic
Effective traffic management strategies can include designated walkways, traffic flow indicators, and signage. Sometimes, it’s important to deny people access so that you can keep the space easy to navigate, and to prevent people from gating access to others.
This might involve personnel who monitor access to the premises at certain times. As we saw during the height of the COVID pandemic, signage that shows the correct traffic flow can also help people move through a building as unimpeded as possible
Implement Effective Waiting Areas
It’s good to invest in effective waiting areas that can accommodate those coming to meet you for a particular appointment, or to wait while their possession is serviced, like a watch or a car. The waiting area should be spacious, well-lit, and equipped with comfortable seating, entertainment options, and amenities such as charging stations for convenience. Also, worthwhile access to your restrooms is also essential.
Waiting areas can keep an appropriate amount of people located in one area, so that they don’t intrude on the private areas necessary for staff, and so they won’t get lost. This helps you sustain your premises by making sure your heavy footfall is mostly located in one area, and one area alone.
Risk Assessments
Whenever you improve, upgrade or change any element of your business premises, it’s essential to carry out a full maintenance and risk assessment. This is so you know exactly what possible issues could occur, and what action plan you’ll put into place should you need to resolve those issues.
For example, a risk assessment might involve how to carefully chaperone people out of the building in the event of a power cut, and how the backup power or emergency lighting might come into play to make that process navigable. From here you can implement appropriate training efforts to ensure your staff knows how to behave in these situation, or maintenance action plans that help your essential janitorial staff get to grips with the resolution.
With this advice, you’re sure to sustain even the most heavily-used commercial premises, in the best possible light.
