Retail parks are home to multiple types of clients, from home goods to fashion. Each tenants have their own requirements from facility teams. For cleaning providers managing cleaning teams across the site, this can present its own unique challenges.
Balancing the expansive outdoor areas, high footfall, multiple tenants, and extended opening hours, maintaining consistent cleanliness will require more than the standard cleaning schedule. In this blog, we discuss how we coordinate our teams across large-format retail parks.
Understanding Retail Environments
Successful retail park cleaning depends on coordination, communication, and consistency. Whether the site is comprised of enclosed shopping centres or standalone stores, these sites require a tailored approach.
High Visitor Traffic
Retail parks attract thousands of visitors daily, often arriving by car and moving between multiple stores. With cleanliness being able increase footfall and drive sales by boosting customer loyalty it is crucial to ensure hygiene levels are kept to the highest standards.
According to Savills, 78% of shoppers can visit shopping centres at least once a week and 92% visiting at least once a month. With these high-level rates of footfall, this can result in high levels of dirt ingress, increased litter in car parks and walkways and heavy use of washroom facilities. It is crucial that your cleaning partner can curate a specialised schedule which can manage these requirements.
Varied Tenants Needs
Unlike single-occupancy sites, retail parks are often home to:
- Various retailers
- Food and beverage outlets
- Gyms and leisure facilities
- Healthcare and or service providers
Each tenant will have different expectations, operating hours, and compliance requirements, with some stores even requiring specialised event cleaning teams. Without clear coordination and communication, this can lead to inconsistent standards and tenant dissatisfaction.
Site Facility Consistency
Although retail sites are home to various tenants, consistency of service delivery is crucial. Ensuring washrooms, waste management areas, lift and other communal areas are consistent with one another.
To ensure this consistency, some areas may require more attention, such as:
- Car parks
- Pedestrian walkways
- External seating and smoking areas
- Washroom facilities
- Service loading bays
- Bin stores and waste areas
Producing a Centralised Cleaning Strategy
The most effective large-format retail park cleaning programmes will be built around a centralised strategy managed by the cleaning service provider.
Site Assessments
Before any cleaning programme is implemented, a detailed site survey is essential. This allows cleaning providers to:
- Identify high-risk and high-traffic zones
- Understand tenant layouts and access requirements
- Assess existing hygiene standards
- Highlight compliance or safety risks
With this information, we can then outline the foundations of a tailored cleaning plan for each area of the retail park.
Here is an example of how cleaning tasks can be structured depending on the area:
| Area | Key Tasks |
| Car parks and external areas | Litter picking, spill response, pressure washing |
| Washrooms | Sanitisation, consumable restock |
| Walkways and communal seating areas | Sweeping, spot cleaning |
| Bin stores | Deep cleaning, odour control, pest control |
Collaborating with Tenants
As retail cleaning providers, we believe clear communication and effective collaboration is crucial for a successful long-standing partnership. We ensure to work closely with retail managing agents, facility managers, as well as the individual tenants themselves.
Proofhub found that 96 % of decision-makers and 95 % of employees report that clear communication is crucial for workplace success. This collaboration ensures alignment on service levels, with clear escalation processes being established, ensuring there minimal disruption to site and tenant operations.
Communication Strategy
To develop a clear communication strategy, you need to combine the use of communication platforms, data collection, auditing and performance tracking. Implementing these techniques will help to optimise the cleaning service and overall site performance.
Communication Platforms
With multiple zones and varying footfall patterns, relying on manual reporting or fragmented communication can quickly lead to inefficiencies. Internal communication platforms are vital for coordinating cleaning team secludes. Platforms such as Facility Apps allow smarter and more efficient cleaning.
These platforms provide transparency of real-time updates, efficiency of smarter and targeted cleaning and instant reporting. For large-format retail parks, this level of transparency is essential. Our site management teams can access performance data at anytime, anywhere, all whilst being able to dynamically adjust resources based on footfall, weather conditions, or unplanned events.
By correctly utilising your cleaning partners communication platform, it can also support:
- Improved compliance tracking and audit readiness
- Consistent service delivery across multiple tenants
- Reduced disruption to trading hours and customer movement
Digital Reporting
Researchers found that organisations employing AI in FM can improve operational efficiency by up to 30%. Technology can enable cleaning teams to provide transparency and accountability during service delivery.
Digital reporting equipment such as TaqtOne, IoT-enabled digital solutions, can provide benefits from:
- Real-time task completion updates
- Digital audits and compliance records
- Instant issue reporting
- Operation cost reduction
This proactive approach prevents issues before they impact visitors. Over time, performance data will allow retail cleaning providers to:
- Predict seasonal demand
- Adjust staffing levels to meet hygiene needs
- Optimise cleaning routes for site performance
Auditing and Performance Tracking
To maintain consistent cleaning standards across large-format retail parks, it is essential to conduct audits and track site performance. Digital auditing tools allow cleaning providers to carry out regular quality inspections, measure performance against agreed KPIs, and identify trends across different areas of the site.
Ongoing performance tracking enables continuous improvement, allowing cleaning schedules and resource allocation to be refined based on real usage data, seasonal demand and tenant feedback. This structured approach ensures cleaning standards remain consistent, measurable and aligned with both operational requirements and tenant expectations.
Are you ready to transform your retail park’s cleaning strategy?
Partnering with a retail cleaning partner that understands the complex and varied needs of a retail park is crucial to ensure a smooth site operation.
Get in touch with our friendly helpdesk team today to discuss how we can enhance your space.