With the current coronavirus pandemic, people are now paying more and more attention to good hand hygiene in the fight against germs. Indeed, in our homes many of us are focusing on disinfecting problem areas like touch points, which can become hotspots for germs with general everyday use.

For commercial businesses, though, regular touch-point cleaning is a necessity, especially when there is a much higher level of traffic in somewhere like an office or shop. Plus, with so many people in the area, you cannot know for sure that everyone is regularly washing their hands or that people aren’t unknowingly carrying anything contagious.

Which means, to protect your business and work-force, embracing touch-point cleaning is an absolute must.

Firstly, What is Touch-Point Cleaning?

To ensure effective deep-cleaning in your business, it’s important that you know the main problem areas that people will regularly touch. These can include items such as:

  • Door handles
  • Light Switches
  • Appliances i.e. kettles
  • Keyboards
  • Printers
  • Bathroom surfaces i.e. flush and taps
  • Phones
  • Lift buttons
  • Handrails

Just think to yourself, on a regular day in the office, how many times will you regularly touch these items. Chances are, it’s a lot and if you’re touching them a lot, it means other people are too. Which is where touch-point cleaning comes in, as these areas will be regularly disinfected, meaning there’s less likelihood of an outbreak in your business.

This isn’t just important now with Covid-19, touch-point cleaning is important at any point of the year, as it helps prevent the spread of any germs. This could mean less chance of colds or sickness bugs spreading. This in turn could mean fewer sick days amongst your employees.

What Are the Worst Areas in a Commercial Environment?

Although germs can get everywhere in a commercial space, there are certain high-traffic areas in these places for which you should watch out. Not only should these areas be top of your list for touch-cleaning, you should also warn your employees to regularly wipe these areas and wash their hands more when using them.

Here are some of the worst commercial areas:

Kitchen Area
Even at home, your kitchen tends to a busy hub where all the family are in and out looking for snacks and cups of tea. In an office though, you have an even larger number of people using that kitchen to make drinks and lunches throughout the day.

Worse still, your employees are bringing in food and containers from lots of different places including public transport. They could have a number of contaminates on them, so to keep a kitchen sanitised keep an eye on:

  • Work Surfaces and Cutting Boards – Not everyone in your work will clean down areas that they have used, so bacteria or germs could grow.
  • Sponges or Cloths – These should be thrown out regularly as bacteria can grow very quickly in a dirty sponge, which means you could be spreading germs around.
  • Fridge and Microwave – Lots of people touching handles as well food being kept and prepared in these areas makes them hotspots.
  • Rubbish Bin – Try to have a pedal or a sensor bin, as the last thing you want is employees touching a bin then touching other areas like a light switch.

Bathroom Area
It’s no surprise that bathrooms are a hot-spot for germs and should be cleaned very regularly, particularly in the following spots:

  • Toilet Seats – With so much use, toilet seats are often covered in bacteria and germs.
  • Toilet Flushes – Like seats, these are touched often. If you can, try to have sensors in your office or public bathrooms.
  • Soap Dispensers – The first thing we all touch after using the loo, bacteria can fester and grow.
  • Hand Towels – If you are using towels rather than disposable paper towels, you have to be careful about getting these washed often, as moist towelling fabric can be ideal for nasty things to grow in.

Work Area
While we generally know that kitchen and bathrooms can be problem areas for germs, we often forget about the area that we work with. Yet it’s important to remember that employees can be constantly transferring nasty stuff from other areas onto communal phones, printers and work stations.

This can be especially bad when people often eat at their desk, with many of us touching our faces a lot too. So, if a bug or virus gets into an office, it can spread from person to person quickly. Here are some of the worst office spots for germs:

  • Keyboards – Between dirty hands and dropping crumbs, these hard-to-clean areas can become particularly nasty – especially in offices with hot desks.
  • Printers – While many of us might have our own desk that we can try to keep tidy, printers are communal amongst large numbers of staff. This means a lot of different people touching buttons every day.
  • Door Handles – With people regularly entering and leaving an office, hands and push bars can become loaded with germs and bacteria very easily. These then end up on your hands and can be transferred around.

Advantages of Touch-Point Commercial Cleaning

While it’s true that you could go around yourself cleaning common areas, it’s important to realise that there’s a difference between cleaning and deep-cleaning. As, during the process of cleaning, using the type of disinfectants you use at home, you are removing germs. Whereas, with professional deep-cleaning the germs are killed.

So, just think if you’re in a particularly busy workplace like a shop, a cleaner could be going around targeting touch-points as well as general cleaning. This ensures that any problem areas that your staff will be exposed to will be kept sanitised.

The same goes for an office, as although you won’t need touch-points cleaned as often as a retail shop, it is still very advantageous to get your office deep cleaned on a regular basis. Even better, deep cleaning can be undertaken outside office hours, so your employees won’t get disturbed.

If you would be interested in getting your touch-point areas cleaned as part of your commercial cleaning, why not get in touch with our team here at Insta Clean? We’ll help you create your perfect deep cleaning package to help ensure your office is clean and germ-free. This would ensure that your employees and business are protected from unwanted absences.