Everyone has some pet peeves when it comes to using a public restroom. So, as a business owner you should be concerned with the comfort of your customers, even so far as to care about the state of your restrooms. In addition, you and your staff may be using these as well.
Chances are you have been, at one time or another, in a public bathroom that was so foul you took your business elsewhere and resolved to, in the future, find a new place to get gas or necessities — somewhere that the owners care about all your needs, including the condition of the public restrooms.
You know, those times you are traveling and stop for gas and decide to make a pit stop while you are there, but the restrooms are in horrible condition? Obviously, those business owners do not care about the state of their public restrooms; hopefully, they don’t use those in that condition but that’s a whole other issue. So, what are some mistakes are you making can cost you lost revenue, an unfavorable impression, or discomfort to your guests?
Mistake Number One – Silence
Although you may think having a shy bladder is rare, but it isn’t. So, if you are truly concerned about your restroom users, consider having music piped into the restroom. If your business is a restaurant, you may already have a sound system piping soothing or mood setting music. For example, in your Italian restaurant you may have music that transports you to Tuscany; why not route some of that into the restroom? If there is dead silence, the shy bladder is difficult to get started until left alone in the restroom, but sometimes that is a long wait, many times necessitating leaving without going.
Mistake Number Two – Peek-a-Boo
I think it is safe to say that no one likes an audience while tending to their business, but how many times have you been to a bathroom where the metal panels are warped or barely held together by loose screws? Although the actual gap between the peek-a-boo panels is small, from your standpoint it seems to be very large with regards to privacy, especially when small children are left unsupervised to the point that no one but you is concerned about the kid’s eye plastered to the crack!
Put a little more of your budget into the public restrooms and go for the look of a private bathroom by using materials such as tile and constructing side walls that go down to the floor on either side and six inches higher than traditional panels at the top. In addition, look for systems that have doors with either privacy panels between the gap where the door connects to the side post or is wide enough to do away with the gap just like the bathrooms at home.
Mistake Number Three – Lock Down
This mistake is closely related to mistake number two – doors that don’t lock and a poor fix or no fix. Over time, cheap cubicle locks can become loose between the side panels and the door, causing the locking mechanism to fail. In many cases, the fix is to install a side bolt latch instead of replacing the door or original lock. And we are back to the privacy issue because it makes your stall appear to be open and may result in a surprise visit.
Mistake Number Four –Unsanitary Conditions
Let’s face it, bathrooms can quickly become unsightly, especially public bathrooms, with paper towels and toilet paper on the floor, sinks and counters flooded, hand soap all over and clogged toilets. As a business owner, it is your job to ensure those bathrooms are being taken care of by either assigning an employee the job of checking and attending to the bathrooms or doing it yourself.
One thing that turns people off quickly is a wet toilet seat cover. It doesn’t matter what the actual liquid is, perhaps just water from the bowl from a too vigorous flush, the impression is already indelibly made, and it’s not good. What if you had an automatic wiping mechanism to clean and dry that seat before another customer sat down? Well, the good news is, we have the next best thing – automatic toilet seat covers.
Brill Hygienic Products, Inc’s sanitary toilet seat cover system is a system that pairs a toilet seat with a plastic sleeve that automatically feeds a fresh sleeve around the seat while shredding and storing the old in the dispenser – one side feeds the new, the other side stores the old.
Running a business is labor intensive, and the restrooms may be forgotten when dealing with the day to day operations, but you can’t afford losing customers because your restrooms are subpar.