5 top floor cleaning trends to watch

Floor care is an essential part of the service offered by cleaning companies and often the first impression visitors have of a facility. Cleaning companies need to constantly innovate to attract and retain customers and need to stay on top of both current and future trends to be successful.

In this article, we detail 5 trends that will shape floor cleaning in Europe that cleaning companies need to know.

Cleaning trend 1: safety and sustainability are hard points

• Keeping employees safe and working in a clean and hygienic environment is no longer just an expectation, it is a legal requirement. 
• Offices are part of talent attraction and recruitment, so it is important the image and the well-being perception of working areas have extra attention.
• Open-plan spaces, managed workspace, and co-working have increased in popularity, bringing higher infection prevention concerns, which in turn, require highly efficient cleaning operations to safeguard employees.
• More awareness of occupational hazards for cleaning employees has led to more demand for safer items and cleaning machines.

Safety and the environment are closely related. European governments are driving change by targeting the reduction of carbon emissions by 20% by 2025. The European Commission has defined EU green public procurement criteria to make it easier for public authorities to purchase goods, services, and works that have a reduced environmental impact. 

The mandatory EU Ecolabel criteria areas for indoor cleaning services include:

• Use of cleaning products with lower environmental impact
• Use of microfiber products
• Reduction in product use by encouraging users to use correct dosages and avoid overdosing
• Staff training
• Basic environmental management system
• Solid waste sorting and disposal

And optional criteria such as:

• Increased use of cleaning products with low environmental impact
• Use of concentrated, undiluted cleaning products
• Use of microfiber products
• Use of cleaning accessories with low environmental impact
• Energy efficiency for floor cleaning machines

Cleaning trend 2: deliver savings as part of the service

Cleaning processes are going through a transformation. New contracts now often require generating and sharing savings with the end customer.

In floor care specifically, this demand is shaping the development of scrubber driers that allow maximum productivity with features such as:

• Smart brush pressure technology for increased battery autonomy
• Intuitive design and manoeuvrability to increase productivity
• Water and chemical dosing embarked technologies

Cleaning trend 3: the demand for skilled staff 

Increasing demand for fast and efficient hygiene results as well as environmental performance demands higher skilled staff. To keep their services at the highest level, cleaning companies need to attract, train and retain their employees.

Scrubber drier manufacturers are developing technologies designed to help deliver customer satisfaction and also motivate employees such as:

• Pre-defined cleaning programs
• Integrated training modules in the machine
• Intuitive dashboards

Cleaning trend 4: digitalization progress

New challenges, pressure on time, and a drive for even greater productivity mean cleaning companies are actively seeking new technology that can provide them with a total solution. With cloud-connected technologies, employers can now have complete visibility on employee attendance, compliance, and full asset tracking remotely, 24 hours a day. 

Telemetry modules can dramatically change the way machines are maintained by providing proactive services that help limit the risk of downtime with features such as:

• Remote service
• Full-service history recorded
• Battery management
• Predictive service

Cleaning trend 5: insights-based cleaning

In conjunction with the digital trend, cleaning has evolved to be more "facts-based" cleaning. While cleaning was supposed to happen following a predefined schedule and cadence, cleaning operations can now be carried out in identified areas that demand it. Thanks to intelligent cleaning machines and connected and analytic tools, cleaning companies can know precisely which area of a facility requires cleaning and the use of a specific machine. 

TASKI IntelliTrail 2.0 for instance, records, stores and communicates multiple data points during operation. Over time, combined with service history and other data sets, cleaning companies can understand the use and operation of their machine fleet, allowing for better insight and better-informed changes which ultimately lead to better performance.

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References

New EU Green Public Procurement Criteria for Indoor Cleaning Services

18 December 2018

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