This One Item In Your Bathroom Could Be Making Your Customers Sick

There is nothing worse than a dirty bathroom.

As a customer, every time you have to use a public restroom, you’re crossing your fingers and praying that the business takes good care of it. You hope to see sparkling clean surfaces and well stocked soap, towel, and tissue dispensers. And obviously you’re hoping that it smells fresh and clean in there.

As a business owner, you know that the state of your restrooms is a reflection on you and how much you care about your customers. You want to present a pristine space for them to do their necessary business. But having a clean bathroom isn’t all about what you can see. Bathrooms, along with everywhere else, are filled with trillions of microbes. Bacteria and other forms of single-celled life are living on just about every surface around you. Not all of these microscopic critters are bad, in fact many of them live inside us and help us with things like digestion and our immune systems. But many of them are diseases that can cause great harm if they enter your system. This is the main reason we want to ensure our bathrooms are clean– to stop the spread of illness.

But one thing in your bathroom might be making it worse…

Your air hand dryers.

That’s right. These machines actually do a lot more spreading around of bacteria than you realize. We’ve talked about this phenomenon before, but it bears repeating. After using a hand dryer, your hands could actually have as much as 194% of the bacteria you had on your hands before using it. Not exactly an ideal situation, to say the least.

Why does this happen?

Well, the air that comes out of the air dryer itself is usually clean, but the problem is they stir up the air in the bathroom as a whole, which causes the bacteria to spread around the room and get everywhere. This is how more bacteria ends up on your hands after using one than was there before. Using air dryers in lieu of paper towels can spread illnesses like influenza, norovirus, e coli, and more.

So what can you do to prevent this?

Well the first step is obviously switching out your air dryers for paper towel dispensers. Study after study shows that paper towels are a significantly more sanitary solution for keeping your hands clean after using the restroom.

Besides making the switch to paper towels, there are many cleaning sprays and sanitizes that you can use to eliminate bacteria in the air. Keeping the surfaces and air in your bathroom clean goes a long way towards keeping your customers happy and healthy. Mostly it comes down to not neglecting your bathrooms. Clean them multiple times a day, especially if you have a busy establishment.

Ultimately, your restroom is a reflection on you as a business owner, and it sends a message to your customers that you care when you’ve taken steps to make sure they are safe from unwanted germs.

What techniques do you use to keep your restrooms clean? 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!