by Asha Uniyal

The UAE is home to the tallest tower and biggest shopping mall in the world. The retail industry is thriving in the Middle East. There are quite a number of shopping malls across the region and most of them are almost full most of the time. Shopping malls attract high traffic volumes and therefore require cleaning on a frequent basis, both during opening hours and after hours. To retain the customers and the tenants, it is very important to keep the mall clean all the time. The cleaning process of a shopping mall is not as easy as it seems. Once the mall is open the waste bins fill quickly, thousands of people can use the toilets in a short space of time, and spills can occur frequently making the environment a potential hazard.

Andrea Deutschbein, Director FM-SFM, The Dubai Mall, shared with us how they address the cleaning task of the world’s biggest shopping mall. “Ensuring the highest standard of cleanliness, maintaining The Dubai Mall’s image as an iconic destination of Dubai and enhancing the costumer experience by providing a clean, comfortable environment every day all year around is indeed a challenge for our SFM (Soft Facility Maintenance), a 24/7 task possible with a strong, well organized and experienced team.”

We also spoke to Majed Al Fahim, Senior Manager, City Centre Deira about the cleaning procedures at the shopping mall. He says, “Majid Al Futtaim contracts out to professional cleaning companies to undertake the task of keeping our shopping mall clean and safe for our guests. In addition to quality control measures and regular training, there are specific processes and procedures to follow to ensure optimum cleanliness.”

“In a shopping mall, such as City Centre Deira there are various internal and external common and back of the house areas that all require cleaning, including public corridors, entrances, food courts, lifts/stairs/elevators, public toilets, prayer rooms, loading areas, parking areas, facade, canopies and glass windows, walkways and so on,” he adds.

The Dubai Mall, being the biggest mall in the world, has a huge area that has to be cleaned every day. According to Deutschbein, “Except the shops which is the responsibility of the tenants, we clean pretty much everything in the mall, starting from floors at the common area which is more than 150000 sq m to all hygiene areas like bathrooms and baby changing rooms, prayer rooms, the food courts including the tables and chairs, carpets and furniture.

There are escalators, travelators and elevators to clean; thousands of meters of glass barricades and all the doors need to be cleaned. Several offices and the BOH (back of house) need our attention. There are thousands of planters to maintain, hundreds of bins to be emptied and a huge external area at the promenade and surrounding the mall that needs cleaning. Last but not the least we have 3 car park buildings with loading bays and all the car park spaces, all the sky glass and high level areas – internal and external, tons of waste to remove as well the pest control.”

The cleaning process of the mall is a systematic process as otherwise it would be difficult to oversee cleaning of the whole mall. Al Fahim says, “At City Centre Deira, we deploy approximately 150 cleaners across two shifts. We ensure our cleaners adhere to the below procedure: divide the mall into zones, define the cleaning method, tools and frequency to clean each zone, deploy the required manpower in zones, quality control checks and continuous training.”

Deutschbein explains the cleaning process at Dubai Mall, “There are two different processes - cleaning / maintaining during mall opening time, where the focus is on the hygiene areas like bathrooms and prayer rooms and the food court, the bins and litter picking. The main job starts after the mall closes at night. All the marble and granite floors need to be machine cleaned and polished. All hygiene areas needed to be deep cleaned, by scrubbing and disinfecting. Carpets and sofas need to be vacuumed and arranged. All the table and chairs at the food court need to be cleaned and disinfected. Not to forget the glass cleaning and stainless steel polish; the cleaning and disinfection of all bins, and a lot more. With a footfall of 80 million visitors – these cleaning tasks are a daily requirement.

There are certain cleaning tasks that are to be done on a weekly basis like shampooing of carpets, wet cleaning of escalator, deep cleaning of the car park, etc.” She further adds that about 800 staff including cleaners, technicians, machine operators,

supervisors, specialists like rope access technicians, etc. are deployed every day for different services within the SFM department. They ensure that the service provider’s staff is BICSc trained and qualified and they have a strong control and audit system to ensure the requirements are fulfilled at alltime in all areas.

Further, special equipment and tools are required to clean large areas, also considering the limited time available to complete the task. Majed Al Fahim says, “There are various equipment and cleaning agents used such as cleaning tools, disinfecting chemicals, toilet consumables and industrial machines including as ride-on, vacuum, buffing, scrubbing, etc. As part of Majid Al Futtaim’s commitment to sustainability, we also ensure that our cleaning agents are eco-friendly to minimise impact on our environment.”

Andrea Deutschbein remarks, “Since there are different service providers on board, all have their preferred products. Our service providers do have a free selection on the products so long as they are within our specification. We do not focus on the cleaning recommendation from the manufacturer but also on the environment and sustainability of the product. The same applies to the machines.”

Among the many challenges of maintaining a shopping mall, the biggest one is to keep it clean at all times. Al Fahim says, “City Centre Deira is a high traffic mall, so the obvious challenge is to ensure that the mall is kept clean and hygienic despite high numbers of visitors, in addition to minimising any disruption for guests. To maintain this balance, our cleaners have to exercise extra efforts in ensuring a high standard of cleanliness.”

Deutschbein adds, “There are two different challenges – one is to maintain the highest standard of cleanliness during mall opening time without any disturbance to customers. Secondly, we need to finish all deep cleaning tasks at night within the timeframe. The mall closes at 1am and customers are there almost till 3am as the cinema is open until then. Many customers visit the mall early in the morning as they want to enjoy the sunrise at the Burj and have breakfast at restaurants nearby. All maintenance tasks need to be done at night; painting or other repair work needs to be carried out; fit outs for shops with contractors on site or new set up for mall events and special promotions, etc. All services need to be done latest by 8am, and we have only one hour left for the final touch.”

Providing a comfortable and safe experience to the customer is of utmost importance for any business. If it’s a shopping mall it becomes even more important to retain the customers. Al Fahim says, “City Centre Deira is a leading shopping destination, and we are committed to providing the best possible customer experience from the moment they walk into the mall. By ensuring that our mall is clean and hygienic at all times, we are providing a safe environment for our guests and reinforcing our commitment to creating great moments, for everyone, every day in a safe environment.”

“To ensure we can still open The Dubai Mall with the expected cleanliness, shiny floor, fresh smell and treat every guest as the first one ever, requires a strong organised cleaning regime, good communication within departments and a passion for the profession,” Deutschbein concludes.