The Importance of Commercial Restroom Hygiene
Over the past several decades, awareness of the importance of restroom hygiene has risen dramatically. New investments in this space have ushered in improvements such as touchless fixtures, antimicrobial coatings, and improved cleaning procedures. Though these changes represent a shift in the right direction, many aspects of bathroom hygiene still have not yet been thoroughly addressed. For instance, nearly everyone can recount an experience with a filthy restroom floor or dirty toilet seat.
Maintaining proper cleanliness is essential to public bathroom users’ health, wellbeing, and general satisfaction. Nothing generates a lousy impression among clients or demoralizes a company staff more than a poorly maintained restroom. And while a clean bathroom is rarely a topic of discussion, users will never forget to talk vividly of a dirty one!
A recent study titled Restroom Cleanliness Impacts Facility Perception revealed that 86% of adults in the United States equate the cleanliness of a restaurant’s bathroom with the cleanliness of its kitchen. Another 75% of adults would not return to a restaurant with dirty restrooms. While these statistics are specific to guests’ perceptions of restaurants, it is needless to say that the importance of maintaining restroom cleanliness applies to any type of business.
Furthermore, studies indicate that the impact of a dirty restroom may extend far beyond the experience of any individual guest. A Harris Interactive poll published in USA Today showed that guests frequently used social media and online review sites to share cleanliness-related experiences. The study indicated that 50% of people would discuss a dirty restroom with Internet friends and family. In the modern business environment, where marketing and brand education are happening entirely digitally, it is crucial for managers to protect their online brand and reputation.
10 Steps To Improve Your Business Restroom Hygiene
Restrooms take up 5% of the space of the average commercial facility but contain 20% of the dirt and account for 80% of building complaints! Following these ten steps will ensure a cleaner, more hygienic restroom, a better company image, and increased customer satisfaction.
Keep A Well-Equipped Arsenal of Tools
Investing in more complex, specialized tools to increase cleaning efficiency and effectiveness is one such approach.
Properly Position Handsoap Dispensers
Having soap dispensers readily available and fully stocked is vital to promoting good commercial bathroom hygiene. Keeping hands clean creates a healthy environment and prevents germs and bacteria from spreading between individuals. According to the Center For Disease Control (CDC), effective hand washing should take a minimum of 20 seconds. The CDC estimates that 80% of all infections are transmitted via our hands. Conveniently placed and well-stocked soap dispensers encourage users to take the proper hand-cleaning steps and reduce the spread of disease.
Provide Paper and Electric Hand Drying Options
An easy improvement any company can make is offering both paper and electronic hand-drying choices for guests. Surprisingly, the opinion of users is quite polarized as to which method they prefer when it comes to efficiency vs. environmental friendliness. Offering both options is an easy and cost-effective way to ensure every guest has their preferred choice.
Install Proper Waste Management
Convenient access to waste bins is one of the best ways to fight littering and other waste-related messes. Well-placed and labeled waste bins encourage proper disposal habits among staff and help prevent trash from ending up on floors or in clogged toilets.
Provide Proper Female Sanitary Care
Facility managers and employers must ensure that safe and discrete hygiene solutions are available, such as sanitary bins and bag dispensers for female restroom users. Baby changing areas should also have customized hygiene treatments administered by experts to avoid the spread of germs and harmful bacteria to young children.
Use Odor Control Products That Contain Metazene
While there are many odor neutralizers in the modern marketplace, none work as well or better than Metazene. This dual-action, colorless additive neutralizes odors at a molecular level with the help of industrial science.
Perform Routine Deep Cleans
This process will include three primary rules: clean from top to bottom, clean from wet to dry, and work from the inside of the area towards the exit. This routine is essential to ensure that easily neglected areas, such as walls, grout, equipment, and faucet taps, will not build up grime and bacteria. It also ensures that staff do not soil clean parts of the restroom as they work through it.
Go Touchless With Equipment
For many companies, the trend is to invest in touchless bathroom equipment. This can range from automatic flush systems, faucets, and tissue and soap dispensers to auto-opening trash cans and even doorways. Another great addition to your bathroom can be the cleana, self-lifting toilet seat.
Focus on Restroom “Hot Spots”
According to Dr. Charles Gerba, an environmental microbiologist with the University of Arizona, the dirtiest bathroom spots are generally the floor, outside the sanitary napkin disposal container, the sink, and the toilet seat. He believes that any effective restroom-cleaning program must consider the primary hot spots for germs and bacterial growth. These particular areas are most often touched by human hands, including the door latch on the inside of the stall, the sanitary napkin box, the paper towel dispenser, the floor, the faucets, and parts of the sink.
Installing Self-Lifting Commercial Toilet Seats
Toilet-related messes are the #1 concern of guests entering a public restroom; nothing leaves users with quite as bad an impression as a dirty toilet seat. To solve this, the Cleana team working out of BU and MIT has invented an automatically-lifting commercial toilet seat that prevents restroom messes. Market research shows that 80-85% of men urinate while standing, and 75% will not lift their seat before out of negligence.
This behavior often results in guests opening the stall door to the repulsive sight of a dirty toilet seat.
The Cleana toilet seat rests in a lifted position when not in use, preventing these messes from happening. When a guest needs the seat to go down, they can use an antimicrobial handle to set it down. After the guest finishes and leaves the stall, the seat automatically lifts within 30 seconds, using its patented zero-battery mechanism. The Cleana toilet seat prevents messes, reduces the need for cleaning, and easily installs on any commercial toilet bowl.
Cleana Self-Lifting Toilet Seat
- July 13, 2022
- 12:33 am