Top restaurant owners know their business isn't just about food. They have to keep their customers happy with every aspect of their experience, and that includes the restrooms.
Yes, restrooms. According to a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive for SCA Tissue North America, 50 percent of restaurant patrons who have a negative experience with the restroom— bad odors, grimy soap dispensers, dirty toilets, and other cleanliness problems— blab about it to friends and family. And 29 percent will never return to give the restaurant a second chance.
Every restaurant wants to provide customers with a clean, hygienic restroom, but the technology doesn't always make it easy. Traditional soap dispensers require hand pumping, spreading germs; and they also tend to leak, resulting in an unappealing congealed blob on the sink. Toilet levers notoriously spread germs. And let's face it— restrooms don't always smell good.
Touch-free systems offer a solution to all these problems, and more restaurants and businesses are adopting them as a result.
"We're getting a lot of orders," said Elliott Greenberg, owner of www.TouchFreeConcepts.com. "People are concerned about spreading germs, so they get touch-free faucets, touch-free auto soap dispensers, and automatic flushers." He's selling them not only to restaurants, but to hospitals, health clubs, and churches, and other businesses.
"Any place that has a restroom buys from us," Greenberg said. Touch-free Concepts' soap containers are hermetically sealed and hold more than regular dispensers, saving labor. They're guaranteed not to leak and have a 10-year warranty.
"I've found it to be very convenient," said Michael O'Grady, operating partner of P.F. Chang's at Kierland Commons in Scottsdale, AZ, who buys from Touch-free. "It saves us money because you don't overuse any product. The hardware is all installed, which makes it easy to use."
"There's no pumping. It's more elegant in our restroom," said chef Michael Garcia of the upscale Fleming's Prime Steakhouse in Chandler, AZ. "It smells better and feels better. You don't have to clean it all the time like the other kind."
Comments like these are the reason companies nationwide are installing more touch-free products.
"Growth in our touchless systems is strong double-digit growth," said Donna Santoro, senior product manager of the washroom solutions global business team for Rubbermaid Commercial Products. "We live in a world that is consumed with hand sanitizers and green living. The consumer is acutely aware of those things that cause the spread of germs and bacteria. And it is all about touching."
Touch-free flushers and faucets also reduce water consumption, she said.
"Consumer demand…is strong for products that keep us healthy and help us to live in a safe environment."
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