As a business owner or manager, there are so many things to consider when it comes to keeping your customers happy - from pricing to customer service. One thing that’s often overlooked or neglected, however, is the quality and suitability of facilities, and more specifically bathrooms. If the rest of your business is in good working order, addressing your public facilities can be a quick win for further improving the perception of your business.

Offering a high standard commercial bathroom to your customers can hugely benefit a business. By giving your customers a better experience, you’re increasing the likelihood of them returning and recommending the business to friends and colleagues. As a customer there’s nothing more off-putting than a dirty, unhygienic, or poorly designed commercial bathroom. So, make sure you get your bathroom right. Whether it’s in a café, restaurant, shop, or any other commercial setting, follow our 3 biggest public toilet design tips.

Public Toilet Design Tips

There are lots of factors that help create an efficient and customer-friendly bathroom. But there are three main elements that take centre stage: layout, hygiene, and stock.

Plan your public restroom floor plan

The first thing you want to get right with your commercial bathroom is the layout and capacity. It’s essential that you account for people traffic and make sure that there are enough facilities for your customers, even at peak times. This will help the toilets to stay clean and tidy even when they are busy.

Optimising the layout so that it’s customer friendly is also extremely important. Good bathroom layout will minimise the amount of time that customers spend in there, reducing queues and delays.

Things to consider when you’re looking at optimising your bathroom layout include making sure that hand dryers aren’t located awkwardly behind doors. Ensuring that soap is easily accessible from the sinks. And making sure that mirrors are well located to prevent a build-up of traffic.

Think ahead: keep it easy to clean

The most common gripe that customers have with commercial bathrooms is that they’re dirty or unhygienic. Public bathrooms are already at a disadvantage compared to people’s personal bathrooms as they’re shared with strangers. But when they’re dirty on top of this, they become a problem.

This is especially the case in the food industry. In café and restaurant bathrooms, customers might believe that hygiene in the bathroom can reflect how safe and hygienic the kitchen is. Therefore, keeping your bathroom clean all the time is extremely important.

Buying the right fittings and fixtures is an easy way to ensure that your commercial bathroom is easy to clean and maintain. Choosing to install bathroom cladding for the walls rather than regular tiles can keep your bathroom cleaner for longer. As bathroom wall panels are 100% waterproof and can be wiped clean, they’re very easy to maintain. Choosing bathroom cladding over tiles will also stop black mould from forming in basement public facilities.

Once you’ve chosen the right fittings and fixtures for your bathroom you’ll need to organise a cleaning schedule. Organising a regular cleaning schedule that is kept consistent is important for ensuring that standards do not slip.
commercial bathroom design tips

Keep the toilet maintained

Another common problem that customers can have with commercial bathrooms is a lack of products and amenities. This includes products such as toilet paper, paper towels, bins, and anything else that you’d want to see in a bathroom.

Making sure that there is plenty of space in your bathroom to stock these products in large enough quantities to avoid having to refill them throughout a regular day is essential. Ideally, you will have enough space to be able to stock the bathrooms with enough products for several days. This will cut down on the amount of time that will be spent restocking it.

Without good stock levels, you run the risk of causing your customers to be uncomfortable and dissatisfied when they try to use your facilities.