Tips and Tricks

Spring Cleaning Checklist

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Spring is here & it’s time to clean up! Here are some target areas to focus on to maintain peak Board of Health standards. We also recommended the proper Cleanse Tec® cleaning products to get the job done…

Every Room
Cleanse All Orange: All Purpose Cleaner + Orange Scent

■ Dust- Ceiling Fans, Shelves, Artwork
■ Windows- Wipe windows & glass surfaces
■ Tables & Counters- wipe off dirt & fingerprints
■ Furniture- Vacuum & wash down upholstery on chairs
■ Carpets- Vacuum & shampoo any rugs and floor mats
■ Hard Floors- Sweep & mop the entire area
Kitchen
Kitchen Klenz: Commercial Kitchen Cleaner 

■ Oven- Wipe grease & clean under the oven
■ Refrigerator- Discard expired food & wipe shelves
■ Appliances- Remove scraps & wipe clean
■ Dishwasher- Flush wash arms & clear debris
■ Countertop- Sanitize tops & cutting blocks
■ Pantry- Wipe surfaces & rotate stock

Bathroom
Latrine Clean: Ready to Use Bathroom Cleaner

■ Faucets & Showers- Clean chrome fixtures
■ Toilets- Scrub & flush toilets
■ Storage- Discard junk & restock supplies
■ Mirrors- Wipe to remove fingerprints
■ Trash- Empty & wash out bins
■ Refill Toiletries- Replenish hand soap & paper products
 Office
Rinse Quat: EPA Registered Quaternary Sanitizer
■ Desks- Remove clutter & wipe surfaces
■ Books- Dust off shelves & reorganize
■ Computers- Sanitize mouse & keyboards
■ Closets- Remove junk & donate old clothes
■ Couches- Vacuum upholstery & wipe surfaces clean
■ Break Areas- Remove trash & wipe surfaces

The Power of Citrus

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Orange AllCitrus juice from fruits like lemons, orange and grapefruit can be an amazing cleaning agent on their own and need limited, and usually only natural, additional ingredients to be highly effective on even the toughest of stains and messes. High in citric acid, orange juice is one of the best natural cleaners due to its low pH and antibacterial properties. 
Citrus cleaners can be good to use for garbage disposals, cutting boards, grills and grates, stuck on grease, and even windows and toilets.  Try even putting a little lemon juice in dish in your fridge changed weekly can keep your fridge smelling and feeling fresh.  
Research has shown that  most people prefer the fresh summery smell of oranges over any other citrus scent.  By using orange scented natural cleaners in your restaurant or establishment you are making sure you place is super clean and  your customers will know this as well, as they come in and enjoy the fresh smell and see the sparkling space.  
Cleanse Tec’s Orange All cuts through grease, unclogs drains, and deodorizes a wide variety of materials, making it great for nearly any cleaning situation. It contains no petroleum distillates, meaning it is both versatile and biodegradable. Plus, it leaves behind a refreshing orange smell which is great when cleaning grease traps, lavatory fixtures, dirty carpet, worn fabrics and other malodorous surfaces. This cleaner will get your establishment looking and smelling better than new! 

Handy Outdoor Dining Checklist

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Handy Outdoor Dining Checklist - Cleanse Tec

1. Start from the Ground Up

As ordinary people pass by your restaurant, they are transformed into potential patrons. The first experience of your storefront in the busy urban cityscape is where their feet land, the smells they experience, and the visual effects of your standard of cleanliness.

As you can see in our City Sidewalk Cleaner Videos, sanitation workers often drag refuse and greasy bags across the public sidewalk to be loaded into garbage trucks.

City Sidewalk Cleaner - Cleanse Tec

2. Appealing Dining Surfaces

There’s not much else to say about sanitation. It’s simply not optional! Clean and sanitize in one spray. Our Rinse Quat is an EPA certified sanitizing solution.City sidewalk dining tables chairs - Cleanse-Tec

3. Pleasant Smells

This is more than simply a pleasantry. Our brains are hard-wired to track and identify safe food sources. Our nose knows. When fruit flies find grease, soils, and organic refuse, they thrive. A bio-active product like Fly Away, attacks the debris that attracts pests of all sizes. A daily a spray in your bins, buckets, and garbage pails guarantees fresh odors and a pleasant experience for customers.

Soapy with bright oranges, lines and lemons. Blog Header.

4. Shabby Chic is Shabby

Nothing says neglect like rust and peeling paint! SS Polish treats existing rust stains and ensures extended shine and use.

Shabby Chic is just Shabby - Stainless Steel Polish by Cleanse Tec

5. Windows are the Eyes to the Kitchen

Clear View Glass Cleaner provides a shine that will outlast a dinner shift. When your front windows shine, passerby’s can expect a sparkling clean kitchen.

Clean Windows Clear View - Cleanse Tec

 

Cleanse Tec is the complete solution to your restaurant, hotel, or gym’s kitchen and laundry cleaning needs. With more than 37 years of experience and 100% American-made cleaning products manufactured right in our Connecticut-based factory, we have what it takes to get and keep your facility sparkling clean.

Need a new kitchen? Eco-friendly cleaning products? Dishwasher rental? Laundry machine repair? Cleanse Tec’s in-house staff of trained designers know all the ins and outs of custom kitchen design, and our wide range of cleaning products has you more than covered. Cleanse Tec also offers rental equipment, preventative maintenance, and 24-hour emergency service to keep your kitchen or laundry running smoothly.

Cleanse Tec provides the products, service, and expertise necessary to be your convenient one-stop shop, so call 1-800-MIX-SOAP today or visit us online at cleansetec.com.

Curb Appeal Elevates Outdoor Dining

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Elevate Sidewalk Dining - Curb Appeal Brings in New Customers - Cleanse Tec - NYC

Clean Sidewalks Create Curb Appeal.

Spring time means warmer weather. Warmer weather means foot traffic. People are out and about. This time of year gives your restaurant the opportunity to attract more people!

If you can, make your patio dining visible to pedestrians and people driving by. Depending on your establishment type, you may want to offer an outdoor bar and put in an extra server’s station outside. In addition, a patio dining area typically includes the following:

  • Outdoor tables
  • Outdoor Seating
  • Umbrellas

With all the news eyes on your establishment, it may be time to assess your curb appeal and make some changes.

Curb Appeal

Having an uninviting exterior or dirty windows is the same as a homeowner with weeds and trash in his front yard. People just keep on driving by assuming that it is the same inside.

Clean Up

Start with collecting any litter that may have been missed during your normal outside pickup. Sweep up any leaves and dirt that are in your outside dining area. Cleanse Tec recommends using City Sidewalk Cleaner. Available in Powder or Liquid, this product lifts dirt particles off of the concrete so it can be easily washed away, leaving the sidewalk cleaner and whiter.

Update & Paint

A quick and cost effective way to give your business an update is… Paint! The most successful restaurants we have seen are the managers that follow a “Like New” philosophy. No matter how small a fix, do it right away! Refresh your storefront with a coat of paint and choose colors that represent your restaurants theme and atmosphere.

Add A Seasonal Touch

For spring, add some colorful potted plants and flowers in your outside eating areas.

Outdoor Menus

If you are in an area with heavy sidewalk traffic, outdoor menus are an excellent way to showcase your offerings. You can use a menu board or a simple paper menu in a display case or window to list your offerings. An outdoor chalk board can be used too. Display it prominently and change it often. Highlight the day’s specials or write amusing quotes to attract attention.

Start Cooking

Let the enticing smells from your kitchen attract hungry passers-by. Make sure the cleanliness of your restaurant allows the fragrant flavors of your cuisine to be noticed first!

Sidewalk Success!

Start your exterior update today. Visually invite people into your restaurant through outdoor dining. Make sure that your exterior restaurant design is attractive and eye-catching, and that it clearly communicates to onlookers what your restaurant has to offer. For more inspiration, check out timeout.com‘s article on NYC outdoor dining.

How to Rise Above the Competition: Back of the House Insider Tips

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Cleanse Tec blog heading - customer service and the competition - informational

A Step Ahead of the Competition

We should all feel pretty lucky – in America, if you woke up tomorrow and decided to start a business, you can! Small businesses greatly contribute to our economy, community and create jobs. Actually, if you take a walk downtown in your neighborhood, it can seem pretty overwhelming to see how many businesses are up and running. More businesses mean more competition – or does it?
Let’s take, for example, the restaurant business – notoriously known for how hard it is to break into, and then stay open for longer than a year. For hungry customers, the choices out there are endless. What about the hotel business? You can walk out of any airport and be confronted with at least 15 choices in one mile. So how does a business attract customers and start building up a regular client base?

Building a Base

In truth, it is a combination of many things – marketing, attracting and retaining the best employees, staying true to your main goal, growing and expanding as times change, planning and staying with-in a budget and customer service.
Today we are going to talk about customer service. If you have two equally good burger joints in your town, both serving delicious burgers (their main goal) BUT Burger Joint 1 has a rude hostess, wait service that moves too slow, it takes an hour to get your burger, no ever asks if you need a refill, the tables are dirty, the floor is sticky, the bathroom looks like you catch something by just walking by the door, you check is always wrong and the space is cramped and too dark. They may make great burgers, but at this point you’re thinking “So what?”. You may even take the next step thinking, if Burger Joint 2 is the exact opposite – attentive staff, pleasing atmosphere, super clean – you may even be willing to pay a little more or even wait in a line to experience a dinner out at Burger Joint 2.

Don’t Cut Down on Customer Service

Many companies treat customer service as an expensive that needs to be minimized – but taking this route will only hurt you in the long run. How can you achieve “5 star rating” in the hospitality business?

1. Go above and beyond

Does your hotel guest need an extended check out? Give it to them. Does your dinner need food prepared in a special way? Make it happen. Customers today want to know their business is appreciated. These little and relatively easy actions can make or break how your customers feel about you and your business.

2. Stay consistent

Be reliable. Your guest may have had a wonderful experience the first time they visited your business, they may have even told their friends – perfect! Now they come back and nothing is like how they remember it. They will be sure to share their negative experience with their friends as well.

3. Deliver on your promises.

Don’t be deceitful, pulling customers in with the promise of specials or savings, but never following through. While this may be a quick way to get people into the door, customers will quickly shy away from any business that doesn’t seem trustworthy.

4. Listen with an Open Mind

This may seem counter intuitive, but let your customers complain! Sometimes a customer just wants to be listened to. If you are then aware of a bad experience you can address it and hopefully have the customer leaving happy. This also gives you a chance to look into and change policies and procedures as need be. remember this extends to online ratings and reviews. Check out userlike.com‘s article – How Customer Service Can Improve your Google Rankings.

5. Keep it clean!

This is so important. People want to feel safe and content. No one wants to eat or sleep somewhere dirty. Sanitize and clean in one swoop. Customers will start judging your business the moment they arrive outside. Are your store-front windows clean? Is your hotel front and parking lot nicely landscaped? All these things contribute to how the customer sees your business. If they think you care about your business, they are more likely to think they will be provided with a great experience.

These extra efforts will make a huge difference – don’t let them fall to side.

Customer service should be one of your main focuses and should be improved upon daily. You should also provide training to your employees; consistent customer service should be instilled among all employees.

Implementing a Social Media Plan for Your Restaurant

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implementing a social media strategy for your restaurant

1. Determine an overall budget

Think about how much you can realistically invest in social media advertising, whether it is $30 a month or $600 a month. Having an overall budget will help you plan what you can afford which will, in part, determine where the best place to put your money will be. If you can only spend $1 per day, you will not be able to use Twitter or LinkedIn. Facebook is your only option (it’s a good option and something that I recommend every restaurant invest in).

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Taking your restaurant inspections from a C to an A

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from a c to an a, restaurant inspects

Little things in restaurant inspections can take you down.  Are you looking for ways to up your inspection?  Here are some tips to help you improve your grade and get that A!

 

First and most importantly, be well versed on the rules and regulations. Included below are some publicly available documents on restaurant inspections in the New York City Metro area.

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Keep Your Floors Shining Like the ‘Top of the Empire State Building’!

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restaurant floorNeed floor cleaning tips?

Cleaning floors in your kitchen can be one of the most grueling and time consuming daily chores every restaurant faces.  Keeping your floors shining can seem nearly impossible.  But no one wants slippery or sticky floors when the kitchen staff are in full force on a busy night.  The smart folks at Restaurant-Hospitality.com came up with a surefire guide to cleaning floors properly and efficiently so your tired crew can go home at the end of the night.  Besides regular maintenance, make sure to check out their 7 Tips for Cleaning Commercial Kitchen Floors and ask your Cleanse Tec Rep for more tips and products we can offer to help make your life simpler and your wallet thicker.  Our floor products can help you maintain that cleanliness and shine that will set you apart.

Prevent Food Poisoning: No one wants to puke after eating at your restaurant

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food poisoningYour restaurant has all the makings for success: a great space, a top notch chef, a wonderful staff.  You’re reputation is spreading like wildfire and business is booming!  When suddenly one of your guests is struck by food poisoning.  Bacteria left behind from raw meats and seafood are among the leading causes of food poisoning in restaurants.  And no news spreads faster than negative press — this one incident can significantly damage all of your hard earned accolades in one fell swoop.
Preventing this type of scenario is possible.  Keeping food at correct temperatures, hands washed, and surfaces spotless are essential.   Having a soap dispenser and sink within reach of a food prep area makes hand washing a breeze, even at the busiest of times.  Here are some more details about preventing food poisoning from the wise guys over at wiseGEEK.

Are You Flushing Profits Down the Toilet?

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bathroom cleanersAt Cleanse Tec we are kitchen cleanliness experts, but we also can tell you: Unkempt bathrooms can send customers running faster than just about any other reason.

Considering all the media exposure to dirty establishments on TV reality shows, and the many choices of places to eat on every city block, patrons are now extra cautious about cleanliness.

First Impressions are Everything.

Your customer may never see how clean (or dirty) your kitchen is, but they will likely see your bathrooms.  If a bathroom is dirty or soap dispensers are empty, then they will likely assume the same is true (or worse!) in the kitchen.

Selfies require clean bathrooms. Don't Flush Profits. Call Cleanse Tec

Daily Staff Checklist. Do Not Skip This Step!

Ed Zimmerman of http://www.thefoodconnector.com/ suggests having a checklist that your staff uses daily to ensure every aspect of your restrooms and entire establishment, are properly and regularly maintained. His point is clear in stating, “Clean bathrooms might be the most important marketing job in your restaurant”.  According to a recent survey by Harris Interactive, nearly 3 in 10 consumers surveyed said there are no second chances with dirty restrooms — and they would never return to the restaurant again. If the public-facing restrooms are unkempt, of course patrons will have doubts about the standards in the kitchen.

Reputation Counts.

And probably worst of all, you can be sure that restaurant patrons who have a negative experience with a bathroom, from dirty toilets to grimy soap dispenses to bad odors, will tell friends and family about this experience, guaranteeing they too will think twice before coming to your restaurant.  Sparkling bathrooms, kitchens, tableware and more is the first line in ensuring your restaurant’s success.


Cleanse Tec can help keep you on the path to clean bathrooms and happy customers!  From our professionally maintained dispensers to all the best cleaning products on the market, just let us know how we can help make your restaurant sparkle.

Call Today: 718-346-9111