Now more than ever, it is essential to regularly sanitize your place of business. If you are unsure how to incorporate a cleaning schedule into your operational procedures, you may want to hire a team of professionals trained in how to gurantee a thorough clean with long-lasting protection.
There are many companies in the San Antonio and Austin area offering Coronovirus cleaning services or spray disinfection services, but not all of these companies offer the same high-quality service. When choosing a professional disinfection company, we recommend that business owners and managers ask lots of questions to ensure that their business will be truly protected.
Below are our tips on how to choose a professional disinfection company in Central Texas that will meet your needs and help support your business as it reopens.
Why Should I Hire a Professional Disinfection Company?
Hiring a professional disinfection company provides a number of valuable benefits for your business.
1. Expert Training
First and foremost, hiring a company like Alpha Decon to professional sanitize and disinfect your central Texas business ensures that the job will be done right. Disinfecting company technicians are trained to understand the best systems for cleaning, including which chemicals they use, how to use the chemicals properly, and where which chemicals are best used.
It’s easy to think that you’ll leave sanitizing and infecting to an employee or your business’ janitorial service, however, someone who is not professionally trained in virus and bacterial sanitizing may not know how or where to effectively disinfect, which may mean spots will be missed or not thoroughly cleaned.
2. Save Time & Money Disinfecting Your Business
Hiring a professional sanitizing company can save you time and money in the long run. A professional disinfecting team will have access to their own cleaning chemicals. This can help save your business money, as store-bought cleaners are high in demand, and may be more expensive as a result. Disinfecting companies also buy cleaning products in bulk at wholesale rates and are able to pass this benefit on to customers.
When it comes to saving time, professional disinfecting companies have advanced spray technologies that can effectively disinfect large rooms – and everything in them from the highest shelf to the floor and in every nook and cranny – in a matter of minutes. Having an employee wipe down the same space by hand would take hours – time in which your employee could be better serving your business by performing their normal job functions.
Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Professional Disinfection Company
If you’re wondering how to choose a professional disinfection company, we recommend starting by drafting a list of questions for any prospective companies. This will help you find out which companies provide the services that work with your space, specific business, and budget. Here are some things you should consider asking a disinfecting company before booking an appointment with them
How much are your services?
Perhaps the most important question to ask before booking a professional disinfecting appointment is the price of each service. Prices will typically vary based on the size of your space, the chemicals that are being used, and whether you have a recurring appointment or one-time service. Some companies, like ours, offer a discount for recurring services. Be sure to ask if there are any specials or discounts available for certain services or long-term contracts.
Do you offer recurring appointments?
If you are looking to book regular disinfecting services, you should ask companies about their recurring appointment options. Some may only allow you to schedule on appointment at a time, while others may offer a variety of options, from daily to weekly recurring appointments. Being able to book a regularly scheduled disinfecting service will save you time in having to call back every day or month, and will help you to better plan treatments around your business’ schedule.
What kind of cleaning chemicals do you use?
The EPA maintains a list of products that it suggests are very likely to be effective against the novel Coronavirus, which typically includes products which have demonstrated effectiveness against other Human Coronavirus strains or harder-to-kill viruses. Ask the company what kinds of chemicals they use to determine whether they are employing those that the EPA recommends. Ask to see the product label – we’ve seen some companies advertising a “90-day clean” with a product that is not labeled as an anti-viral and thus will not protect your business against coronavirus! If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
If your business stores or serves food, you will also want to make sure that the company has a food-safe cleaning chemical available, and will need to ask what you should to before or after service to ensure food safety.
What sort of equipment do you use?
Different professional disinfecting teams will use different equipment to deploy cleaning chemicals in your place of business. Some may use a backpack like you might see a gardener or pest control technician use. These backpacks typically work by pressurizing a small amount of air and a good amount of disinfecting liquid to clean the surfaces in your space. This requires a heavy “wet” spray that can be damaging to electronics and wood or that is no longer effective when dry.
Other teams might use air sprayers, which inject the disinfecting liquid with air, creating a sort of plume of cleaning mist. This provides a spray safer for electronics like keyboards or pin pads, but does not necessarily guarantee full coverage.
The best equipment, and gold standard for spray sanitizing, are electrostatic sprayers that use a mist that is statically charged to ensure that the disinfectant will stick to all sides, top, and bottom of all objects in a space.
What are your hours?
Of course, most professional disinfecting companies will have their hours listed online, but you may still want to ask about them. They may not have updated their hours recently, or they may have posted hours that reflect when their office is open, not the hours that they actually perform the services. The best way to ensure that you will be able to book an appointment at a time that works for you is to ask a company about their hours.
The Alpha Decon Difference
Alpha Decon professional sanitizing provides a unique and highly effective service. Whether you need cleaning for a locally owned restaurant or a large retail store, we’ve got a solution for you. We offer professional disinfection services in San Antonio and Austin, Texas.
Experience Disinfecting for a Variety of Businesses & Industries
We are proud to provide professional disinfecting services to a wide variety of businesses and organizations in the Austin and San Antonio areas. Some of our clients include grocery stores, hotels, public venues, restaurants, retail, schools, churches, warehouses, and manufacturing plants. Our technicians are experienced in the needs of many different business types and are able to provide sanitizing advice unique to your business.
Electrostatic Spray Equipment
Unlike many other spray sanitizing companies or traditional janitorial services, we use Spectrum Electrostatic Sprayers which positively charge the disinfectant droplets, making them smaller, more evenly dispersed, and causing them to stick to surfaces and infiltrate small, hard-to-clean spaces.
Because we use a mist-spray system, we are able to safely disinfect objects that many companies using flood-spray technology cannot, like pin pads, self-checkout screens, and other high-touch electronics. The electrostatic component of our sprayers ensures complete coverage and better adhesion of sprayers to all surfaces.
Highly-Effective Chemical Combinations
We utilize disinfecting products that are either on the EPA-maintained list of chemicals believed to be effective against SARS-CoV-2 or have demonstrated efficacy against other human coronaviruses. The three most commonly-used chemicals are Quarternary ammonium compounds, Peroxide, and Silver Citrate.
Quaternary ammonium compounds have continuous activity after they have dried. The concentration of these compounds typically required by the manufacturer for demonstrated effectiveness versus Human Coronavirae. SuperQuats do require a rinse and wipe once they have dried, so they are typically recommended for hard surfaces that are not used for food service or storage.
Peroxide is extremely effective at killing viruses and bacteria, however it is not continuous-acting. It is a great choice to disinfect a space immediately, but it is not recommended for spaces with soft surfaces, as peroxides may bleach certain surfaces, such as fabrics and upholstery.
Silver Citrate is our recommended chemical for most surfaces. It is continuous-acting, and labeled to provide 24 hours of activity. The concentration of this treatment that Alpha Decon technicians employ does not require any rinsing or wiping, so it is perfect for businesses that serve or store food.
Contact Transmission Demonstrations
As a part of our services, we also offer a demonstration on the dangers of contact transmission. Throughout our blue-light demonstration, you will be able to see just how germs and bacteria spread throughout your space during normal operations and procedures. You’d be surprised how quickly germs can move from a single doorknob, all throughout your space and onto your staff’s faces. This is a great way to show management or corporate leaders the necessity of booking a regular professional disinfection service.
Santitizing Best Practices Consultation
During your first treatment, our experienced technicians will walk with you through your space and help you to develop a plan about what needs to be sanitized and how frequently. If there are red-flag items that may need to receive special treatments or be removed from your business during this time, we can help you to identify them. We’ll provide information you need for keeping things clean between sanitizing sprays and will be your partner in developing a reopening plan that best supports your employees’ and customers’ good health.
Ready to Book Your Professional Disinfecting Appointment?
During the Coronavirus crisis, we’re working 7 days per week providing disinfecting services in San Antonio and Austin businesses. Our professional and courteous team is experienced and knowledgeable and is able to provide fast services to local businesses. We’ll make your coronavirus disinfection a priority.
Alpha Decon offers one-time services, as well as daily or weekly recurring plans. Long-term contracts are available for negotiation. If you are ready to choose Alpha Decon as your professional disinfecting partner, please give us a call at (866) 623-0013 or request a quote online.