5 Ways to Improve Your Customer’s Bathroom Experience

Everyone uses the bathroom. It’s true.

Mostly we prefer to handle our personal business in the comfort of our own homes, but that’s not always an option. Using public restrooms is a universal human experience. We’ve all been there. Sometimes it can be a perfectly pleasant trip. Other times… Well. Other times it can be an absolute horror show. There’s nothing worse than a disgusting public restroom, especially when you have no choice but to use it. As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to ensure that the restrooms in your facility are closer to the former than the latter.

Providing a positive restroom experience is an important part of customer service, and yet it is one that is so often neglected. When your customers have to use your restroom, they will use that as a way to judge the cleanliness of the whole business. If your bathrooms are gross, no one is going to want to do business with you in the future.

So here are some ways to ensure your customers have a great experience in your restroom.

1. Keep it Clean

Let’s get the obvious one out of the way.

Yes, we all know how important it is to keep your bathroom clean. But are you really making that a priority? How many times a day does your staff clean the bathrooms? Just once? Maybe that’s enough, but if you’re a higher volume establishment, you’re probably going to need to have a few scheduled cleaning times throughout the day. It’s a dirty job and no one likes to do it, but the alternative is potentially losing customers due to a very fixable issue.

We really shouldn’t have to say this, since it seems so obvious. But if it is so obvious, why are there so many filthy public restrooms out there?

2. Keep it Well Stocked

Cleanliness only goes so far. A good restroom experience goes a lot further than just a clean facility. You need to make sure your restroom is well stocked with toilet tissue, paper towels, hand soap, and hand sanitizer. No one wants to be in the middle of handling their business and find out that there’s no toilet tissue available. The same goes with the rest of it.

This is another situation where checking to make sure you’re stocked once a day is not enough. Make sure your staff checks the restroom multiple times a day. If you’re a high volume business, install towel, tissue, and soap dispensers that can keep up.

The right dispensers are key here, because customers can easily steal normal bottles of hand soap or stacks of paper towels or rolls of toilet tissue. With a proper dispenser those things will be locked up and only accessible in small amounts at a time, greatly discouraging theft.

3. Use Air Fresheners

The smell of a bathroom can be… less than pleasant. Many people just accept that as an unavoidable consequence and move on. But there are definitely ways to combat the smell of a public restroom.

There are lots of different kinds of air fresheners out there designed specifically for use in public restrooms. There are even metered air fresheners that will spray on a timer to make sure that your bathroom is always smelling fresh and clean.

4. Use Brand Names

This tip is less obvious, but it can definitely contribute to your customer’s experience. When they go into your restroom and see some strange brand name soap they’ve never heard of on the dispenser, they probably don’t think twice about it. But if they were to see a brand name that they know and recognize… Suddenly they recognize that you’re taking the care to buy quality products for your bathroom. It’s a small and easy way to show your customers that you care. Using brands like Purell in your restroom gives your customers a peace of mind knowing that you’re promoting cleanliness in your place of business.

5. Don’t Use Air Dryers

I know what you’re thinking. Air dryers are a great way to save money and reduce waste. They’re good for the environment and good for my business! Maybe. But they’re also terrible for keeping your hands clean.

Using an air dryer in a public restroom can cause a 176% increase in the amount of germs on your hands. That’s… a lot of germs. The whole point of washing your hands in the first place is to get rid of the germs. Using an air dryer only stirs up the germs in the air and makes sure they land right back on your hands. Not an ideal situation.

If you’re concerned about the environment, you can always go with paper towels made from recycled materials.

What steps do you take to ensure you have a clean restroom? We want to hear about them! Don’t forget to share in the comments below or on any of our social media accounts. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube!