Most Americans seek out – and spend more – at businesses with good bathrooms while canceling businesses with messy ones Businesses that fail to keep their restrooms clean and maintained are unwittingly flushing away customers’ repeat business and sales. According to the Healthy Handwashing Survey™ from Bradley Corporation, almost 60% of Americans make it a point to Read more
restrooms
Most Americans seek out – and spend more – at businesses with good bathrooms while canceling businesses with messy ones
Businesses that fail to keep their restrooms clean and maintained are unwittingly flushing away customers’ repeat business and sales. According to the Healthy Handwashing Survey™ from Bradley Corporation, almost 60% of Americans make it a point to stop at a business and will spend more money at the establishment if they know it has clean and maintained restrooms.
In fact, those age 25-44 are even more likely to shell out more cash based on the condition of a business’ restroom.
Conversely, there are negative business repercussions for experiencing a restroom in poor condition. More than half of Americans say an unclean or unpleasant public bathroom shows poor management and causes them to lower their opinion of the overall establishment. The 55+ age group is especially turned off by unkempt restrooms with more than 60% reporting a damaged impression of the overall business.
Almost 20% say a sloppy restroom actually makes them less likely to clean up after themselves.
The business fallout of unpleasant restrooms
Perhaps most damaging for customer-facing businesses is that 52% say a bad restroom experience causes them to vow not to return in the future or think twice about doing so. Another 32% will either tell a friend or post a comment on social media about the negative encounter.
While there are a variety of restroom maintenance issues that may tarnish customers’ restroom experiences, the most common ones include clogged or unflushed toilets; an overall appearance that is old, dirty or unkempt; unpleasant smells; and empty or jammed dispensers for soap, toilet paper and hand towels.
“Restroom maintenance may seem like a business no brainer but limited budgets and facility staffing issues mean that companies are doing more with less staff and resources,” says Jon Dommisse, vice president of marketing and corporate communication, Bradley Corporation. “Nevertheless, customers place a high value on clean restrooms – and reward businesses that offer them. It’s incumbent upon facility managers to prioritize regular restroom cleaning and make sure that everything is in good working order.”
Understanding the aversion to touching restroom surfaces
“In 2023, Americans continue to be in an elevated state of germ consciousness and don’t like touching things in shared public restroom spaces,” adds Dommisse. “As a result, people use all sorts of techniques to avoid coming into contact with surfaces.”
62% use a paper towel to avoid touching toilet flushers and faucet and door handles. 43% operate the flusher with their foot. 31% hover over the toilet seat and 27% open and close doors with their behind to eliminate contact. Women are considerably more likely than men to use these evasive actions.
With so many people deliberately avoiding contact with restroom surfaces, it’s not surprising that 82% believe it is important to have touchless fixtures in a public restroom. Another 60% are more likely to return to a business that offers touch-free technology like faucets, flushers, soap and towel dispensers in its restrooms.
“When asked what restroom improvements they’d like to see, cleanliness topped the list,” Dommisse said. “After that, Americans want touchless fixtures and better stocking of supplies, such as toilet paper, soap and paper towels.”
The annual Healthy Handwashing Survey from Bradley Corp. queried 1,025 American adults Jan. 4-10, 2023, about their handwashing habits, concerns about the coronavirus and flu and their use of public restrooms. Participants were from around the country and were fairly evenly split between men (45%) and women (55%).
For more information, visit www.bradleycorp.com/handwashing.
It’s often the more humble spaces and fixtures that we all take for granted which make the most difference in our long-term comfort and day-to-day productivity. For instance, most of us take our bathrooms for granted, but to be without one for a week would be completely unacceptable. This is why more companies are renovating Read more
It’s often the more humble spaces and fixtures that we all take for granted which make the most difference in our long-term comfort and day-to-day productivity. For instance, most of us take our bathrooms for granted, but to be without one for a week would be completely unacceptable.
This is why more companies are renovating their business premises and offices so that staff toilets are fully functional, can service many departments, as well as ensuring the need for maintenance is reduced to an acceptable degree.
Keeping staff toilets functional year-round does not happen in a vacuum. With the amount of footfall traffic toilets will encounter each year; it’s important to make certain that all of your functional requirements are up to speed. Furthermore, the Covid pandemic gave companies a new focus when planning out their closed spaces, as hygiene, function and design are three sides of the essential triangle of priorities that help these spaces shine in utility.
With that in mind, let’s consider how to improve the maintenance and setup of staff toilets; which can be exceptionally useful when generating new spaces in kind:
Plumbing Inspections
The best plumbing company can schedule regular inspections of your plumbing network and will be able to advise and call out to specific jobs and tasks where necessary. If encountering a leak, if fitting new toilets, or if needing to resolve damage within that space, then it’s important to take out a maintenance contract with a given firm in order to make sure that these needs taken care of immediately. Resolve problems before they occur, and you’ll save money, time and stress.
Restrooms-Per-Staff
There’s a legal requirement to have a certain number of restaurants per the amount of staff or guests within a business premises. From 1-5 staff members you only require 1 toilet, while 76-100 staff will require five restrooms with five washbasins. In men’s toilets, the urinals should match the number of toilets integrated. It’s also important to make sure privacy is properly aligned in these spaces, and that ventilation is taken care of so that these spaces are fresh, light, and hygienic. More on that below:
Hygienic Fixtures
Hygiene is the name of the game when it comes to ensuring restroom function; and there are many ways we can invest in this. “Urinal cakes” can control bacteria and reduce smell, while non-touch functions can be installed by a worthwhile contractor like motion-sensitive flushes, tap fixtures and hand dryers. These investments can ensure that hygiene is always kept up with, and we saw that companies which did have these implements installed already did see Covid spread throughout their teams with less ease and rapidity. As such, keeping staff restrooms functional means not only providing a space for their private affairs, but to keep them happy, hygienic, safe, and well-catered to. This is just one element of wider staff satisfaction, but perhaps the most noticeable in terms of the upgrades you can make and the crucial aspect of its maintenance.
With this advice, you’re certain to keep staff restrooms functional year-round in the best possible sense.
The New England Patriots create a green dynasty at Gillette Stadium. In addition to being the home of the New England Patriots, Gillette Stadium is a world class entertainment facility that hosts everything from international soccer matches to concerts by Jay Z, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Kenny Chesney. During what they call a full-stadium event Read more
The New England Patriots create a green dynasty at Gillette Stadium. In addition to being the home of the New England Patriots, Gillette Stadium is a world class entertainment facility that hosts everything from international soccer matches to concerts by Jay Z, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Kenny Chesney.
During what they call a full-stadium event, nearly 70,000 people crowd the stands—and use the restrooms.
Since 2009, Gillette Stadium has used XLERATOR high-speed, energy efficient hand dryers to cut costs, meet sustainability goals, promote restroom hygiene and improve the guest experience.
“The XLERATOR is a win-win-win-win for us,” says Jim Nolan, Chief Operating Officer. “First, it’s better for the environment. Second, we are saving money while our staff is spending less time cleaning paper off the floor and refilling dispensers. Third, staff is freed up to respond more quickly to fan issues. Fourth, and most important, fans prefer it to paper, giving them a better experience.”
Big Money Player
Originally equipped with paper towel dispensers, the stadium used an average of 6,264,000 paper towels per year, at a cost of more than $50,000 for paper, maintenance and waste removal. In September 2009, Gillette installed more than 125 XLERATOR dryers featuring exclusive, custom digital imaging cover technology throughout Gillette Stadium.
When you do the math, that means 125 XLERATORs do the work of 6 million paper towels.
“The XLERATOR hand dryers reduce the cost and maintenance associated with paper towels in the stadium’s restrooms,” says Jim Nolan.
The XLERATOR represents a 95% cost savings when compared to paper towels, eliminating their labor, maintenance and waste. It is the only hand dryer Made USA Certified® with a dry time of 8 seconds* — tested to guidelines from the Global Hand Dryer PCR published by UL Environment — and it uses 80 percent less energy than conventional hand dryers. The XLERATOR is BuildingGreen Approved and helps facilities qualify for the most LEED credits.
“We want to make sure our operations are as efficient as possible,” says Jason Stone, Senior Director of Operations. “Having the XLERATORs, we’re able to be more efficient in the bathrooms and provide our customers with a great experience.”
A Strong Defense Against Dirty Restrooms
In addition to cost savings, the XLERATOR has helped increase restroom cleanliness and hygiene—while freeing maintenance staff to focus on other areas.
“With the XLERATOR hand dryers, we’re not finding paper towels all over the floors, toilets, urinals and sinks,” says Stone. “We had to have staff continually monitor the bathrooms. Now, if we have a spill out in the concourse area or in a seating section, they’re able to get to those issues a lot quicker and enhance the experience of our guests.”
While the XLERATOR hand dryers make the restroom experience faster, cleaner and more efficient for fans, they also hold up like workhorses against high traffic and usage.
“One thing we really like about the XLERATOR hand dryers is that they’re very reliable,” says Stone. “With the millions of people who have come through the facility, we really haven’t had to change any of the units out since they were first installed. We’ve just changed the covers on them, from a branding perspective, but the main components have not been switched out.”
Gillette makes great use of Excel Dryer’s custom cover option—keeping the branding fresh with updated designs and communicating their sustainability mission to fans. Excel Dryer’s cover finish options are the most diverse in the industry, including custom cover options for corporate branding or environmental messaging. Exclusive patented Kolorfusion digital image technology is used to customize covers with graphics, team colors, corporate logos, green messaging or any other high-resolution image.
Championing Sustainability
From the stadium’s inception, the designers and contractors focused on long-term sustainability, energy efficiency and ecosystem management. In 2002, they won the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s New England Environmental Merit Award for the stadium’s design.
“When we built Gillette Stadium, we used a lot of recycled materials, from concrete to steel. We daylighted a portion of the Neponset River that was going through the horse track that was here,” says Jason Stone. “Sustainability and green initiatives are a big part of our operation.”
Gillette Stadium employs several cutting-edge sustainability practices, including:
• Timing devices installed on the electrical distribution system that enable all nonessential lighting after hours to be automatically shut down, minimizing energy use.
• An on-site wastewater treatment facility that treats the stadium’s sanitary drainage such as wastewater generated from hand washing, laundry and bathing. This water is then reused in thousands of toilets throughout the facility, saving millions of gallons of water annually.
• During the construction of the stadium, more than 130,000 cubic yards of blasted open rock was processed through on-site crushers and reused on site. This process resulted in more than 90% of the residual product being reused as opposed to being added to the region’s diminishing landfill capacity.
• A photovoltaic power system that generates approximately 525 kilowatts of clean, renewable solar power at Patriot Place, the 1.3-million-square-foot entertainment, retail and dining destination adjacent to the stadium. The system supplies approximately 30% of Patriot Place’s power and approximately 2,800 crystalline photovoltaic panels span seven building rooftops at the complex.
The facility management team at Gillette Stadium continues to search for new ways to expand its conservation efforts. “Some of our latest sustainability initiatives include our food waste diversion program where we recycle approximately 200 tons of food waste per year,” Stone says. “We send that off-site where it gets converted to electricity. We’ve also incorporated LED lighting throughout the facility, including converting the lights that illuminate the game field to LED.”
“While our primary focus remains on creating the ultimate fan experience, we’re continually looking for new areas to make environmental improvements,” says Jim Nolan. “Updating the restrooms with XLERATOR hand dryers represented another large step in reducing our carbon footprint.”
A Bright Future in the NFL
“The NFL currently has XLERATOR hand dryers installed at its New York headquarters, NFL Network Studios in Los Angeles and is encouraging the use of high-speed, energy-efficient hand dryers at stadiums as part of the league’s ‘Green Initiative’,” says David Krichavsky, Director of Community Affairs, National Football League.
“We are proud of our relationship with one of the most respected organizations in professional sports,” says William Gagnon, Vice President of Marketing and Sales, Excel Dryer. “The Kraft Group has created the model franchise in the NFL. Its team, operations, business and green initiatives are a proven blueprint for success.”
Sleek, contoured design offers a superior rinse and water savings Streamlined for a clean, modern look with an inverted back wall, American Standard’s Greenbrook High Efficiency Urinal (HEU) is the latest addition to the one-pint flush urinal collection. With an inverted back wall that provides superior splash protection, the Greenbrook also uses up to 87 Read more
Sleek, contoured design offers a superior rinse and water savings
Streamlined for a clean, modern look with an inverted back wall, American Standard’s Greenbrook High Efficiency Urinal (HEU) is the latest addition to the one-pint flush urinal collection. With an inverted back wall that provides superior splash protection, the Greenbrook also uses up to 87 percent less water than standard 1.0 gallon per flush (gpf) urinals.
Defined by sleek curves and a modern, practical design and style, the vitreous china wall-mounted urinal features optimized surface contours and a water flushing spreader to ensure a thorough rinse, plus splash protection. Compared to an ordinary urinal, the Greenbrook’s smooth EverClean surface contains antimicrobial properties that inhibit the growth of stain and odor causing bacteria, mold and mildew on the urinal surface. The double-coat glaze also helps with maintenance, continuously repelling dirt and grime.
American Standard’s newest HEU fulfills its WaterSense certification by operating with a low flush valve consumption of 0.125 to 0.50 gpf, compared to the 1 gpf rate from standard urinals, pairing exceptional performance with water saving power. Greenbrook also meets California Energy Commission requirements for water conservation when used with a 0.125 gpf urinal flush valve.
Built with American Standard’s signature durability and reliability, the Greenbrook’s chrome plated non-metallic strainer can also be upgraded to the vandal-resistant, stainless-steel strainer for the ultimate protection from wear and tear.
The Greenbrook HEU is available at bath showrooms nationwide. To learn more, visit americanstandard.com.
Bradley Corp., creator of the all-in-one hand washing concept, opens a world of washroom design possibilities with a new extension of its award-winning WashBar® series: WashBar® with Undermount Basins. WashBar with Undermount Basins pair Bradley’s original clean+rinse+dry technology with a selection of cast-formed undermount basins made of either Evero® natural quartz or Terreon® solid surface. These durable basin materials allow designers Read more
Bradley Corp., creator of the all-in-one hand washing concept, opens a world of washroom design possibilities with a new extension of its award-winning WashBar® series: WashBar® with Undermount Basins.
WashBar with Undermount Basins pair Bradley’s original clean+rinse+dry technology with a selection of cast-formed undermount basins made of either Evero® natural quartz or Terreon® solid surface. These durable basin materials allow designers to create their own customized restroom decks in varying lengths, L-shapes, cut outs or even different counter top materials.
A perfect alternative for applications featuring a complex or restrictive restroom deck design – yet still call for the design simplicity and functionality of the WashBar – this flexible fixture makes the most “impossible” designs entirely possible.
The complete system includes the WashBar, a cast-formed basin designed specifically for use with the WashBar, a one-gallon foam or liquid soap container, and an optional access panel. With a wide array of basin designs and color selections – Evero in eight colors and Terreon in five colors – the WashBar with Undermount Basins enable unlimited design options.
“This extension of our WashBar family allows greater design flexibility when designers need it,” said Will Haas, senior product manager, Bradley Corp. “Our cast-formed basins have been designed to work together with the WashBar to keep water in the basin and off the floor, and together they integrate into any type of countertop or deck.”
Award-winning clean+rinse+dry technology
Designed to enhance all the fundamentals of hand washing, the cutting edge WashBar is comprised of a single piece of chrome-plated metal that combines soap, water and dryer. LED lighting on the fixture helps to visually orient the user through the hand washing process with easy-to-identify icons on top of the bar. Using a bowl designed to work with the WashBar will keep water in the bowl and avoid splashing outside the basin onto the floor, walls or user, improving washroom cleanliness and safety. The system’s integration of soap, water and dryer into one sleek fixture eliminates deck and washroom clutter.
Basin materials provide a high aesthetic and durability
Bradley’s exclusive Evero natural quartz offers a long life cycle. Made from a blend of granite, minerals, and other natural stones, this material is beautiful, resilient and environmentally friendly. Constructed with a smooth, seamless finish, Evero’s non-porous surface does not support microbial growth, and is stain, chemical, scratch and heat resistant.
Also seamless and non-porous, Terreon and TerreonRE recycled solid surface materials will not support the growth of mold, mildew or bacteria, and will last for years to come. Highly durable, this material is easy to clean, maintain and repair.
Both Terreon and Evero have achieved GREENGUARD Gold Certification.
For more information, please visit https://www.bradleycorp.com/washbar.