There are plenty of different elements of a restaurant business that need to function correctly for the business to succeed. For instance, you need to have a great menu, an excellent location, and just good food that people want to eat. Customer service is also critical, but there’s another element of your restaurant that needs to be addressed if you want it to thrive.
In fact, one could argue that everything we’ve mentioned is void if this one other thing isn’t taken care of. So, what’s the secret? What is the one thing you need to fix to make your restaurant business thrive? Poor hygiene standards.
Yes, if your restaurant has low standards of hygiene, nobody will want to eat at it. Everyone will stay away, no matter how nice the food is or how good your customer service is. When it comes to food, people want to feel safe in the knowledge that their meals are being prepared in hygienic settings. Therefore, you need to put a lot of time and attention into maintaining a hygienic and sanitary restaurant.
How can you do this? Here’s some advice to help you get started.
Draw Up a Regular Cleaning Routine
Ensure there’s a cleaning schedule in your restaurant that is followed religiously. This will include cleaning the restaurant every single day as it closes, but it should also include regular cleaning throughout the day of the bathrooms. Obviously, all of your workers should know to wipe down and clean every table after it has been used. If you aren’t doing this, you can wave goodbye to any customers! Having a strict cleaning schedule – and letting everyone understand their roles – will ensure the front-of-house side of your restaurant is always clean.
Ensure the Kitchen Is Cleaned Throughout the Day
The kitchen itself needs its own cleaning schedule. Here, it’s more a case of getting the chefs to clean up as they go. If they make a mess, it should be cleaned right away. Or, if they are busy, hire someone whose job is literally to clean up after the chefs. This will keep all the surfaces clean and clear from any contaminants. It prevents cross-contamination in your restaurant and ensures that fewer germs are lingering around on the surfaces. If you don’t clean as you go on, you will only clean the kitchen at the end of the day. Think about how many meals have been cooked in that time, and how many different things have been slapped down on the same surfaces. Keep the kitchen clean throughout the day, and it will be a lot easier to maintain high hygiene standards.
Unclog Your Drains Every Evening
When your restaurant closes for the day, go to all the sinks and toilets and pour bleach or a drain unblocking product down them. This gives them a deeper clean and prevents things like limescale from forming, as well as dissolving anything that might clog the drains up. Otherwise, there’s a tendency for restaurants to suffer from clogged drains, particularly in the kitchen where they become full of grease and other food particles. You can find commercial plumbing services that’ll unclog the drains for you, but you should ideally prevent this. Otherwise, your restaurant is full of the smell of blocked drains, which smells a lot like sewage. As you can imagine, this is hardly the most sanitary experience for diners.
Make Kitchen Workers Wear Protective Clothing
This is such an essential tip when it comes to preventing the spread of germs in your restaurant. COVID-19 has shown us just how effective wearing protective garments can be to stop germs from spreading from person to person. In a restaurant setting, you need to wear things like plastic gloves or masks when in the kitchen. Many restaurants use disposable gloves when handling raw meat, completely eradicating the chances of cross-contamination. Not only that, but things like hair nets are essential to stop hair from falling in food. If customers know the lengths you’re going to keep your kitchen hygienic, they are far more likely to come and pay you a visit.
Educate Your Workers
Finally, educate your staff on good personal hygiene for when they’re at work. This means teaching them how to wash their hands correctly, telling them the right way to catch a sneeze, and so on. When your staff understands how to be hygienic, it’s much easier to maintain high standards in your restaurant.
Restaurants that meet a high level of hygiene and sanitation are more likely to attract customers than those that don’t. It’s a simple case of wanting to eat somewhere where you feel safe that your food isn’t riddled with germs!
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