Presented by Georgia-Pacific and Zoro Staff
As public health issues like COVID continue to impact work and life, ensuring the safety and well-being of customers and employees is more crucial than ever for small business owners, and it requires a two-fold commitment to hygiene. First, it requires a commitment to providing a clean and hygienic facility that gives those customers and employees peace of mind. And second, it requires providing customers and employees with solutions that enable them to maintain their own health and well-being.
But how can small business owners accomplish all this when costs are high and margins are low?
In this Ask the Expert article, Julie Howard, Vice President and General Manager of Towels & Napkins with GP PRO, a division of Georgia-Pacific, lends her expert advice.
Q: Outside of implementing a robust cleaning program, what can small business owners do to help keep customers and employees safe?
A: Many businesses both small and large continue to enforce social distancing measures or limit the number of employees, customers, or visitors they allow in their facility. Those are definitely good practices. But in terms of actions to take, recent research from GP PRO provides some perspective.
For example, our research found that 41% of employees have a more positive perception of their employer if the restrooms are clean and stocked. 34% said clean restrooms improve their job satisfaction, and 31% said clean restrooms help them be more productive. Labor challenges continue in virtually all industries, and this data seems to suggest that the condition of the restrooms could negatively impact employee retention. I would encourage small business owners to pay close attention to their restrooms to ensure they are clean, yes, but also well-stocked with necessary soap and paper products and inclusive of touchless fixtures. It’s also important to reframe this emphasis on restrooms as investments in customer and employee experience rather than just cost of operations.
Q: From a restroom cleanliness standpoint, is this simply a matter of making sure the surfaces are wiped down and the floor is swept?
A: I think everyone’s interpretation of cleanliness has changed over the past several years. What was once considered clean may still be clean, but now there’s an expectation of hygiene, which, to me, suggests more rigorous cleaning and using restroom products that are, by the nature of how they are made, hygienic.
For example, an open soap system, where you repeatedly “open” and refill the same plastic reservoir from a bulk bottle, can be a magnet for bacteria and germs due to its reusable nozzle and accessible soap reservoir. A closed soap system, on the other hand, like GP PRO’s Pacific Blue Ultra™ Hand Hygiene System, includes a hygienically sealed nozzle and reservoir that are part of a disposable refill, both of which help reduce the risk of cross-contamination and germ transmission.
Another example of a hygienic restroom product is a paper towel dispenser. Paper towels are a hygienic hand-drying option because they allow users to completely dry their hands after washing, which is a critical step in proper hand hygiene. But there is nothing hygienic about an unwrapped stack of folded paper towels that can be easily contaminated by dirty water, wet counters, and unclean hands. Keeping paper towels tidy and protected in a dispenser not only helps improve hygiene, but it gives the perception of hygiene.
Q: Speaking of dispensers, we hear a lot about the benefits of touchless restroom fixtures these days. Are they an expensive fad or a long-term investment?
A: Touchless restroom fixtures are likely one of the best, if not the best, investments when it comes to improving hygiene, sustainability, and productivity. From a hygiene perspective, nothing compares to fixtures and dispensers that enclose and protect the product inside and eliminate the need to touch the device itself. Whether it’s a touchless faucet, flush valve, or soap or paper towel dispenser, touchless devices reduce the risk of cross-contamination. Beyond hygiene, touchless technologies also help control the amount of product being dispensed, so they help reduce waste, and many are high-capacity, so product isn’t running out and doesn’t need to be replaced as frequently. Reducing waste and improving productivity can both impact cost savings.
Let’s look at GP PRO’s enMotion® Automated Touchless Paper Towel Dispenser as an example. It’s completely hands-free for the user—no product is dispensed until the user waves at the sensor, so it’s very hygienic. It also comes with a lifetime warranty, so a facility can choose this solution for the long term, knowing that the support of GPXpress® is only a click, call, or chat away for any replacement parts or questions. This is a device that checks off all those boxes small business owners need to check off.
The industry has definitely realized the benefits of touchless dispensers. In 2020 and 2021, GP PRO saw the highest demand for touchless dispensers, with demand as much as 25% greater than pre-pandemic levels. I think this kind of demand will lead to even more innovation that will deliver even greater benefits to customers.
Q: What are your thoughts on smart restroom technology? Is there a place for that in the small business community?
A: Solutions like GP PRO’s KOLO™ Smart Monitoring System systematize restroom maintenance so users are met with a steady supply of the products they need, product refills are addressed only when needed, and issues are resolved before they become complaints.
When we first launched the KOLO system, we saw interest primarily from high-traffic venues and larger office buildings with a large number of dispensers spread out over a large amount of space. Specifically, these customers were—and are—looking to drive labor savings, improve the employee or guest experience, and impact waste savings with ROI proportionate to their space. More recently, however, our KOLO team has seen growing demand from small business operators seeking these same benefits with an ROI proportionate to their space. In other words, while large-scale office buildings and high-traffic venues highly value hundreds of hours of labor savings, small business operators highly value eliminating seconds of wasted labor.
From a small business perspective, we are currently seeing the highest demand for smart technology in the fast-casual and quick-service restaurant space, along with convenience stores and retail. These are operations that often run with limited staff that have many competing job priorities. The IoT is helping them to optimize their time so they can stay focused on the highest-value objectives, which often revolve around personal customer engagement and differentiated, fast service.
I would encourage all small business owners to weigh their greatest operations challenges against the benefits of a smart restroom solution to see if the technology could be a viable path forward for them. They may be pleasantly surprised at the ROI they can achieve.
Q: Any last thoughts you think small business owners should keep in mind as they work to elevate hygiene in a cost-effective way?
A: I would encourage small business owners to not just assume improving hygiene is cost-prohibitive. What becomes costly is losing employees and customers and having to gain them back. Back to our research, it also found that 50% of consumers have chosen not to return to a business because the restrooms did not meet their expectations. And employees stated a workplace having clean and well-stocked restrooms was more important than amenities such as free or low-cost parking or an on-site daycare or fitness center. Working with a great distributor partner, like Zoro, will help small business owners find the right solutions to cost-effectively improve hygiene and give employees and customers what they want and expect.
As our conversation with Julie makes clear, hygiene is more important than ever in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic—and that can be a challenge for businesses concerned about their bottom line in a rapidly changing economy. Still, it's worthwhile for business owners to consider how hygiene and cleanliness impact the bottom line, particularly in spaces like restrooms. While innovations like touchless dispensers and smart restroom technology may require an upfront investment, they can also pay major dividends in the long run by helping businesses retain (and grow) their all-important employee and customer base.
Looking for hygienic solutions and products for your business? Find everything you need to ensure cost-effective cleanliness in your place of business at Zoro.com.
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