What message do your toilets give?

Now you may argue that I am a pedantic hygiene freak, however I am not alone – however much of a hygiene freak I am. This is a topic of conversation I love to talk about with friends, with family, with customers…. and I do recall a conversation….. a friend’s husband went into the loos, and encountered a chef who had been in there….. toileting and he didn’t wash his hands – the husband dragged his wife out of there...... hungry……

So the point is customer perception is really important. In the story about the chef that didn’t wash his hands….. it may have been the case that he was heading into the kitchen straight to the hand wash basin to wash his hands with antimicrobial soap. But that is not what the customer perceived.

So your toilets really are a window into your kitchen. Your toilets have to be as clean as your kitchen.  I was recently in a restaurant, and I went to the toilet, and in the toilet there were several toilet roll dispensers, Wall mounted soap dispensers, and wall mounted hand towel dispensers. None of these matched – and it looked really unprofessional. Dispensers that looked tired, old, stained, or broken send out the wrong perception of your establishment.

Your dispensers should always match, should be kept clean, and replaced when necessary. This is important. If you have soap dispensers, they should always be used.  A small bottle of soap lying next to it, looks so amateur and rubbish. 

Use your hygiene supplier…. ask them for new free ones, some hygiene suppliers get dispensers free, and when we get free dispensers we just give them away for free.   This is not only useful for our customers, but it is a good will gesture and it means a lot to our customers.

However there are other considerations when you’re getting free dispensers. Do you need to paint again? Are the new dispensers the same shape as the old dispensers? Or will you be left with a nasty old piece of wall that needs to be re-decorated? Because that looks rubbish…. These are things to think about. 

If you do want to go down the ‘Oh yes my toilets look lovely and professional with these nice new dispensers’……… you must must must fill them, keep them filled ….. because there is nothing more displeasing than going in to toilets, finding a household toilet roll which doesn’t fit in the toilet roll dispenser, a towel (clean or not) next to your paper towel dispenser and some little bottles of soap next to your wall mouted soap dispensers. 

This just screams …… we’re so disorganised…… or we don’t have enough money to pay for the toilet roll or handtowels that go in this dispenser. This all adds to the perception of your establishment.  If I were using these toilets and the dispensers were empty, I’d be thinking, OK so if these are empty, what kind of ingredients are going in to my food…. If they are struggling so much that they can’t put towels in here, what are they putting in my dinner? 

I do want to touch on the overall first impression of your toilets. Are they clean, like clean clean?  Are the corners of the room clear of any grime, grimy bits, fluff, wet bits that have been shoved there by the mop – if not, just wipe them down.  There is nothing more unsavoury than being in a wash room, and looking at the floor and thinking ewww, its dirty down there. 

Skirting boards, are they wiped regularly – it does seem small but they do add to the overall impression.  Bins, are they emptied regularly, no one wants to touch the contents of any bin – let alone a bathroom bin.  Bin Lids – wiped?  Toilet seats should never be cracked or stained, or marked – just get another one! Mirrors, clean, without any cracks or wear and tear?

You know those bathroom checklists that you see on the back of the doors…. This bathroom is checked 20 times through out the day………. I never believe they have been checked that many times…. They have totally over egged the pudding …… not believable!

But I think we could take this concept, and water it down a bit.  We don’t have to let the customers see how many times the toilets are being checked, but maybe 5 times a day could be workable?  Draw up a table, put some times in it, and stress the importance to your team.  Get them to write their name against when they’ve checked it, so that you can hold them accountable if your toilets aren’t up to standard.  This checklist doesn't have to be displayed to customers, but make sure it's part of your teams performance review.

If you can get on top of these things, you’ve won half the battle……

Next time, we’ll talk about smell – the way your toilets smell really gives a strong impression, and there are ways which hardly anyone even knows about to combat smells, and make your customers restroom experience so much better!

Thanks for reading!