The world isn’t going to go back to exactly how it was before the coronavirus pandemic even after we find our “new normal”…things have substantially changed for now, if not forever! Many of these changes reflect the new reality that we’re all living in, and those changes include new anti-viral measures that we’ve never considered before.
One of the more unusual changes that we’re going to have to get used to compared to the pre-pandemic world is the necessity of public space sanitization. Sanitizing hard surfaces is going to take on an entirely new level of importance in public spaces, but that can only happen when everybody works together to take the right precautions. Keeping your floors sanitized is going to be a big part of your hard surface safety plan, but it requires the cooperation of your residents / customers / employees in order to make that happen. To help ensure that cooperation, here’s 5 tips to make sure people are using your sanitizing door mats before entering your commercial building.
1. Control your access points.
The best way to ensure that everybody uses your sanitizing mat system as they enter your building is to tightly control exactly where and how people come inside it. Think less of a free-for-all entrance like a shopping mall, and more like the security lineup at an airport. Have people queue up single file to enter (while maintaining social distancing, of course!) and have each person take their turn on the sanitizing mat. It’s also a good idea to have a hand sanitizer dispensing station at this point as well so that you can cover over the two main contact points people have with your building in a single step. You may need to use stanchions or guideposts to clearly communicate to people where they should queue to avoid “traffic jams” and accidental line-jumpers.
2. Limit the number of entrances.
Limiting the number of access points in use is also an important factor in making sure that everybody entering your building does so via a sanitizing mat. In order to be effective, you need to have a sanitizing station at every point that people can enter your building – which means either a big investment in many, many sanitizing mats and hand sanitizing stations, or by limiting the number of open building entrances to the number of sanitizing stations you have available. Limiting the number of open doors to the outside also limits the number of staff you may need to monitor these entrance points to ensure that everybody is following the sanitizing safety protocols you have established as part of your coronavirus health and safety strategy.
3. Post signage explaining your sanitizing safety strategy.
People get much less frustrated with waiting in line when they have a clear idea of where and why they’re queuing. Be sure to post signage up all along your entrance queue to clearly mark where people need to lineup in order to enter your building, and that people’s hands and shoes are being sanitized as they enter the building in order to comply with health authority directives on anti-COVID-19 measures. When people are clearly educated about what is happening with the sanitizing mat they’re stepping into, they’ll likely reverse their position from being annoyed at having to stand in line to being grateful that a building operator is taking such thorough steps to safeguard their health and safety.
4. Use the right sanitizing solution.
Using the right sanitizer is a huge component of getting people to use your sanitizing mats. BE SURE THAT YOU NEVER, EVER USE BLEACH OR BLEACH DERIVATIVES IN A SANITIZING MAT. Even if your sanitizing mat is resistant to the corrosive and damaging effects of bleach (and most aren’t), your residents’ / customers’ / employees’ shoes definitely won’t be! We recommend the use of quaternary disinfectants, and specifically endorse the use of Vital Oxide as it’s approved for use by the Carpet & Rug Institute in textile floor coverings, will not harm your floors around the sanitizing mats, and is so safe for human contact that it’s even food safe without rinsing surfaces after use!
5. Don’t use messy mats!
This is a hugely important point to consider for the second (and every subsequent) time people want to enter your building: don’t use messy sanitizing mats, because people will avoid them! Many of the cheap, moulded-rubber, open tray style sanitizing mats are simply not meant to be used with regular street shoes because they’re simply too deep. These sanitizing mats designed for use in an industrial or medical laboratory environment typically have wall heights of 2 to 3 inches. They’re intended for use by staff members wearing gumboots or waterproof shoes that will be fully submerged in the 1 to 5 gallons of sanitizing solution these types of mats often hold. While that’s great for a lab environment with specialized footwear, it’s not so great for your office workers wearing high heels or your retail customers wearing sandals or street shoes! Messy, open tray mats slosh and spill when people step into them – whereas sponge-style sanitizing mats stay much neater and tidier and eliminate the mess. Grizzly Sanitize is the only sponge-style sanitizing mat manufactured in Canada and is ready to ship!