Clean beyond…Enjoying longer life…

Clean beyond…China and flatware

 

Seeing is believing…Perception is reality. Both sayings are accurate and valuable to us as purveyors of clean. In the case of a restaurant’s first impressions, they’re critical.

 

If the first thing a guest sees (or smells) when entering that dining room disappoints, they’ll likely head back out the door they came through. Or at a minimum, they won’t fully appreciate the great taste of the food, or the quality of the service, no matter how good both are.

 

To our disservice, we often ignore those critical warning signs and focus entirely on the cleanliness of the dishes and flatware. Now admittedly telling a new prospect that his entry foyer smells of mold, probably isn’t the best favorable attention getting topic. But ignoring it isn’t in either his, or your best interest.

 

Perhaps we could strike a middle ground by pitching an overall sanitation program that goes beyond clean dishes and sparkling wine glasses. Then we could transition the discussion to the importance of what customers see (and smell) in the dining area and how our sanitation program will deliver a better, more inviting customer experience that can drive increased repeat business.

 

Maybe we ought to put on our “customer eyes and noses” when we enter and ask ourselves if what we see, and smell would be inviting to our spouses and friends.

Next up: Making the case for better prospect “intel”.

 

Enjoying longer life…for linen that is

 

As we all know, linen replacement cost is a big-ticket item for any lodging account. We also know it’s a tough sell to convince them that a low pH laundering solution (like Autograph) can increase linen life. But there are some limitations to that more linen friendly laundering approach working its magic.

 

The way low pH detergents add linen life is by lessening a process called “alkaline hydrolysis”. That term refers to the process by which alkaline detergents and alkaline breaks leach the plasticizers from the polyester component of a cotton/poly blend. That stripping of the polyester leaves sheets thin, stiff and more prone to wrinkling after as few as thirty launderings. A low pH approach can easily double the number of launderings before that happens.

 

Polyester/cotton blends account for the vast majority of sheets and pillow cases used but that five-star hotel featuring those luxurious 1,000 thread count sheets are almost certainly 100% cotton. Your low pH approach can’t do much to eliminant alkaline hydrolysis there  since it really isn’t occurring.

 

Ah, but what your neutral pH detergent can do there is allow the design of wash formulas with fewer rinses and less souring for shorter, lower energy and water consuming processing.

 

Next up: Selling energy savings.