By Tom Y. for our 99 Ways to Make a Positive Difference in Your Pharmacy blog series
Cleaning your pharmacy floors: “Wax on or wax off?”
In my first blog, I discussed the benefits of using energy-efficient lighting in your pharmacy. Now, let’s focus on the opposite of your ceiling:
Your floor!
One of the side-effects of using the best in the industry, Hamacher merchandising and pricing intelligence, is that your pharmacy floors take a beating from the foot traffic generated by your great assortment of products and competitive prices. Making sure that your floors are clean is not only aesthetically pleasing to your employees and customers, but it also can mitigate the risk of someone slipping.
The title of this post is about getting your floors professionally cleaned and you should have this done at least twice a year. Talk to other small business owners in your area or look online for reputable companies that can perform a thorough washing of your floors. However, you should also train your staff to jump in for regular floor maintenance, and that is what I’ll focus on in this post.
Chances are, your pharmacy floors are either made of vinyl, linoleum, rubber, or polyolefin. The key to keeping your floors dirt-free is to clean your floors on a weekly basis or more. According to Western Michigan University, here are the steps to cleaning your vinyl or linoleum floors:
- Move furniture.
- In one bucket add cleaning solution (of your choice) and hot water. Mix well according to the directions of the cleaning solution.
- Fill another bucket with hot water. It will be used to rinse the floor.
- Dip the mop into the cleaning solution. Wring it out.
- Mop the floor with long, even strokes.
- Mop one part at a time. Rinse the floor by mopping with clear water.
- Let the floor dry at least a half-hour before waxing.
Wax on or wax off?
Why should you use wax on your floors? According to Janitorial Cleaning Services, “Floor waxing is a method of cleaning and polishing floors that not only gives them a renewed shine, but also helps to protect them from more damage.” For a full tutorial on how to wax your floors, please go to: http://www.wikihow.com/Wax-a-Floor
Having a clean pharmacy floor ensures the safety of your staff and customers, while making your customer’s shopping experience more enjoyable.
Stay tuned for the third part of my blog series, where I will talk about “things” between the lights above your head and floors below your feet: your private…….label products!
Tom plays an important role in auditing the accuracy of HRG’s data libraries. He is responsible for the maintenance and development of HRG’s private label and home health care libraries. Tom also interacts with internal and external clients to gather product information related to manufacturers’ new items, package samples, UPCs, pricing and marketing materials.