What do we expect from the ‘away from home’ washroom?

We all know how frustrating it is at home when the toilet paper has run out and the last person to use it hasn’t replaced it. But it’s even more frustrating when you’re away from home and you come across a toilet without paper. Unlike at home, it’s not a simple fix of just grabbing some more out of the bathroom cupboard!

When we’re out and about, we fully rely on facilities to provide clean, well-stocked washrooms for our use. We will notice if there’s no soap, or if there is an unpleasant smell or a broken hand dryer. And because the bathroom is usually either the first or the last place we will visit inside a venue, we will remember the experience if it’s a bad one. This of course is detrimental to a venue’s reputation, and it’s worse than you think. One 2016 study from Business Insider Intelligence suggested that one bad experience can require 12 positive experiences to nullify.

Necessary, but not neglected

An ‘away from home’ washroom is a necessary place, but it’s not necessarily the place to be. After all, no one visits a public washroom for pleasure! Most of the time, people want their washroom experience to be a quick, clean and efficient one.

This doesn’t mean that washrooms can’t be inviting and attractive places. In fact, if venues want to provide the home comforts that we enjoy daily, our away-from-home spaces should mimic our spaces at home. For example, a pleasant fragrance is clearly important to residents in the US, as a huge 71% of US households purchase air care products. According to the article ‘Exploring the science, safety and benefits of aircare products’*, the use of aircare products can lead to significant benefits as studies have shown that indoor malodour can cause adverse effects, negatively impacting quality of life, hygiene and the monetary value of homes and cars. Additionally, studies have also shown that scent can have positive benefits related to mood, stress reduction and memory enhancement.

In fact, Vectair’s Vice President of Marketing Chelsey Schwartz believes that most of us expect our away-from-home washroom environment to align with a facility’s brand. So, for example, a washroom in a high-end hotel should reflect the grandeur and opulence of the venue in order to impress its guests.

Branding should continue into the washroom

Speaking to European Cleaning Journal magazine, she says that our impression of a washroom is just as important as any other guest-facing space and its atmosphere should reflect that.

“Everything should match the ambience your brand wants to deliver, from the wall coverings to how the washroom smells and the quality and type of hand care provided. Operators should therefore focus on making sure this is reinforced when a customer enters the room. It should start with a tidy space and continue through to full soap and towel dispensers and a fresh scent.
“Facilities should focus on excelling at the basics. And they should only elevate the experience once they have mastered all the essentials.”

Easy to use means easier to maintain

Mastering the essentials, like providing a clean and working feminine sanitary waste unit in the ladies’ toilets that aren’t overflowing and unsightly relies on frequent servicing, but also on easy-to-maintain systems. The easier a product is to maintain the easier it will be for the facility to provide the clean and tidy washroom that the customer expects. That’s why we made Femcare SIMPLE.
Making the most of programmable aircare dispensers like Vibe Pro® is also a great way for venues to ensure the scent experience is a great one and more importantly, a consistent one. By programming scent to fill a space at the busiest of times, they can rest assured that in between cleaning the atmosphere remains a pleasant one.

References:
*https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08958378.2019.1597221?scroll=top&needAccess=true&role=tab&aria-labelledby=full-article