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Waterloo NSW 2017

Click-and-collect areas where Waterloo customers enter a goods space

Click-and-collect turns part of a warehouse into a customer area. A Waterloo showroom that once had a staff-only back dock now has members of the public standing in it, which changes what the space has to look like. The scope has to change with it.

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In short

A collection point inside a goods area is judged as a customer space even though it functions as a warehouse. Customers see the floor, the counter, the staging racking and whatever is behind it, so the presentation standard rises for an area that was previously scoped as back-of-house.

Clean Best defines the customer-facing zone separately from the working area after a walkthrough from Seven Hills, with its own frequency and method. Staged orders are not moved or handled. Where the customer zone and the working area are not physically separated, the scope names the line and the site is asked to mark it.

A back space that is now on show

Collection areas were rarely designed as customer spaces. They evolved out of a dock or a rear counter, and the surfaces around them were specified for a working environment: bare slab, industrial shelving, exposed services. Customers standing there notice all of it, and they judge the business by what they can see. Exposed services and unpainted walls read very differently to a customer. None of it was chosen to be looked at.

The realistic response is a defined zone with a presentation standard rather than an attempt to lift the whole warehouse. The floor within the zone, the counter, the customer side of any staging rack, the entry and the signage area are what people look at. Concentrating on that band produces a visible improvement without changing what the working area costs to maintain. It also keeps the working area priced as a working area.

Marking a line that does not exist

In many of these premises there is no physical boundary between where a customer stands and where the forklift operates. That is a safety question for the site as much as a cleaning one, and it is worth raising even though it is not a cleaning matter. From a scope point of view, the line has to be named so the crew knows which standard applies where.

Asking the site to mark it, with a rail, a barrier or line marking, benefits everybody. Until that happens, the scope describes the zone against a physical feature such as the counter, a column line or the edge of a staging rack. Guessing where the customer area ends produces an inconsistent standard that nobody can check. Marked lines also give the crew something to clean up to.

Staged orders and the handling rule

Orders waiting for collection are picked, labelled and staged in a sequence that lets staff find them quickly when a customer arrives. Moving one to clean beneath it puts it out of sequence at exactly the moment it needs to be found, which is a visible failure in front of the customer it belongs to. Labels facing outwards are also easily obscured if something is shifted.

So staged orders are not moved, and the floor beneath them is cleaned as positions clear. Where the staging area is permanently full, that is reported, because it usually means the collection process or the space is undersized. Packaging left in the customer zone after a collection is cleaning work and should be attended promptly. It is the one part of the zone that customers watch being cleaned.

Collection area items in Waterloo

  • Customer zone defined separately with a presentation standard
  • Zone described against a physical feature until a line is marked
  • Site asked to mark the boundary with rail, barrier or line marking
  • Counter, customer-side racking and entry included in the zone
  • Staged orders never moved or handled
  • Packaging left after a collection attended promptly
Clean Best supervisor checking a cleaned warehouse floor in Wetherill Park NSW

Working in Waterloo and the Inner South

Waterloo in the Inner South mixes apartments, offices, showrooms and mixed-use property, with a concentration of retailers operating showrooms attached to their own warehousing. Collection points in those buildings have grown out of back docks and staff counters, which puts customers into spaces that were specified as working areas. Clean Best services Waterloo from Seven Hills and scopes the customer zone separately, because the standard a member of the public expects is not the standard a dock was built to.

Questions about Waterloo

Why not lift the standard across the whole warehouse?

Because it would cost a great deal for very little return. The working area is a working area and it is not being judged by anyone standing in it. Concentrating the higher standard on the defined customer zone produces the visible improvement, and it keeps the cost of maintaining the rest of the building unchanged. The zone is where the return sits.

What if there is no line between customer and working areas?

The scope describes the zone against a physical feature such as the counter, a column line or the edge of a staging rack. Asking the site to mark the boundary properly is worth raising, since it is a safety consideration as well as a cleaning one, but a described feature keeps the standard checkable in the meantime. Marked lines help everybody.

Can staged orders be moved to clean the floor?

No. Orders are staged in a sequence that lets staff find them quickly when a customer arrives, and moving one puts it out of sequence at the worst moment. The floor beneath is cleaned as positions clear. Where the staging area is permanently full, that is reported as a process or capacity matter. Capacity problems are reported rather than absorbed.

Who clears packaging left after a collection?

Cleaning covers it as part of the customer zone, and it should be attended promptly rather than left to the next scheduled visit, since it is in front of customers. Where staff are unpacking or checking orders at the counter, immediate response during trading is generally quicker from them than from a scheduled attendance. The scope should say which applies.

Does the collection area need a different method?

Often yes. A presentation standard on a slab or a sealed floor usually means more frequent attention and a different finish than a working area requires. The counter and touched surfaces need a hygiene method rather than a warehouse one. Listing the zone separately is what allows both to be specified properly. Both standards then sit in one document.

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