Marketing guru Seth Godin raises an interesting point about clean bathrooms.
He states, “The facilities at DisneyWorld are clean. It’s not a profit center, of course. They don’t make them clean because they’re going to charge you to use them. They make them clean because if they didn’t, you’d have a reason not to come.”
Let’s look further into Godin’s statement. Clean bathrooms don’t necessarily translate to new customers or profit, that point we get; however, if bathrooms remain uncleaned and unstocked customers may be turned off by the fact your business can’t maintain a clean environment. If there is competition in the area, they may choose to take their business elsewhere, to a place where the customer is taken care of. Therefore, there is downside risk to not spending resources to maintain quality restrooms.
DisneyWorld is an extreme example, of course, but many times we do judge places of business based on their interior appeal, and this most certainly applies to restrooms.
Take our advice, keep your restrooms quality for customers because they just might appreciate it and keep coming back.
Image courtesy of Flickr / kerrinikolephotography