Most businesses know the basics of customer satisfaction – knowledgeable employees, good location, product or service availability.

But sometimes there are factors that affect a patron more than business owners may even realize.

Many experiences feed a customer’s opinion of your company – from their primary interaction to the ancillary observations. Details, like the cleanliness of your establishment’s restroom and infant changing station, should be a top priority every day.

Whether the feedback is glowing or harsh, you need to stay on top of how your visitors perceive their experiences. Beyond keeping a close eye on the state of your facility’s public washroom, we suggest practicing active listening and responding. Below a Yelp reviewer provides negative feedback concerning their experience attempting to change their baby's diaper in the facility. What otherwise could have been a positive review about the business, is overshadowed by the lack of a baby changing table and proper disposal receptacles.

Courtesy of Yelp Customer Review

Need a Clean Restroom? There’s an App for That

Technology can help improve many processes, including how businesses and patrons communicate.

When a patron is dissatisfied with your service at an establishment, he or she can instantly contact the business via a tweet or other forms of social media. If they want others to know about the excellent service they received at a local restaurant, their reviews can be immediately shared on websites and social media pages.

Since it can spread so rapidly, user-generated content has the potential to greatly help or hinder business growth. Websites like Yelp can drive patrons into a business or keep people away depending on what your customers say.

What many businesses may fail to realize is that these reviews aren’t always just about the food you serve or the products you sell. Patrons are judging your business on a variety of factors. including customer service and cleanliness.

Clean restrooms specifically are a topic of user-generated content. Restroom cleanliness has become so widely-discussed that phone and tablet applications have been developed with the specific purpose of reviewing and discussing the topic. Apps like Good2Go, Flush and Charmin’s Sit or Squat let users discuss which public restrooms are clean or worth using.

One significant feature of these apps is the user-generated information about restrooms and the availability for parents to change a dirty diaper. Some establishments don’t offer standard baby changing stations, while others limit changing stations to women’s restrooms only, eliminating a father’s ability to sanitarily change his child’s diaper in the men’s restroom.

Restroom cleanliness matters in today’s age more than ever. As technology grows, public places that don’t keep their restrooms and baby changing stations up to par are susceptible to fast-spreading viral complaints and negative reviews.

These apps can help parents who are out in public with a needy baby. They can also identify establishments with clean and hygienic changing stations or broken stations and others that aren’t clean enough for safe use. Even factors such as empty disposable liner dispensers can reflect on your business as parents easily discuss good and bad experiences online.

Taking Control of User Generated Content

User-generated content doesn’t have to be a bad thing for your business. You can have some level of control by asking for and listening to customer feedback.

Installing baby changing stations in both women’s and men’s restrooms and ensuring they are cleaned and sterilized daily can go a long way in improving the public’s perception of your establishment. Keeping your stations clean, well-stocked with supplies and in working condition will keep parents happy, and singing your praises online.

The next time you hear that a customer is disappointed over the state of your facility’s restroom, resist the urge to shrug it off. Details matter in the customer’s experience and how you respond to feedback will certainly impact your business.

Lastly, the minimal effort required to maintain a clean restroom could have a much bigger return on investment than you might expect.

Contact us or call 330-722-5033 to learn more about our products, including our baby changing stations and supplies.