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25 Mar, 2014

Survey Rates Restroom Cleanliness as a Factor in Determining Stops on a Road Trip

CINCINNATI–(BUSINESS WIRE)–March 21, 2014–When you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go, but a recent poll from Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ: CTAS) suggests that the size of your bladder isn’t the only factor when it comes to where travelers stop while on the road.

The survey, conducted online for Cintas by Harris Poll from March 13-17, 2014 among 3,035 adults ages 18 and older, revealed that the number one factor overall in influencing where to stop was not surprisingly how badly one had to “go,” but that the cleanliness of the restroom and the facility also plays a role in the decision.

“Organizations often don’t recognize the effect an inadequately maintained facility can have on their customer’s perception,” said Dave Mesko, Senior Director of Marketing, Cintas Corporation. “Customers pay attention and they don’t forget a bad experience. Maintaining a clean and safe facility is a great way to win their trust and business, while enhancing your reputation.”

The top five factors that influence respondents’ decision of where to stop to use the restroom include:

How badly they have to “go” 72%
Convenience to the highway/road 61%
Safety/security of the area 54%
Cleanliness of the restrooms 53%
Overall building/facility cleanliness 41% (tied)
Location of the restroom (e.g., indoor restroom, exterior restroom requiring a key) 41% (tied)

 

Americans also cited the exterior appearance of the building/facility, previous restroom experience at the location, time constraints, other people in the car, the condition of the parking lot and the reputation of the facilities’ restrooms as factors of where to stop to use the restroom.

The data also revealed older Americans (65+) ranked facility-based factors such as restroom cleanliness (65 percent) and overall facility/building cleanliness (54 percent) higher than adults aged 18-34 (38 percent and 30 percent respectively). Also, women are more concerned with the cleanliness of the restrooms than men with 58 percent of women citing it as a factor compared to 47 percent of men.

“While some of these results may not be surprising, they reiterate the fact that a facility needs to pay attention to not only what their customers want, but who their customers are,” added Mesko. “Sometimes the most often overlooked factors are the most important.”

For more information about Cintas’ solutions for facilities, please visit http://www.cintas.com/facilityservices/.

Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Poll on behalf of Cintas from March 13-17, 2014 among 3,035 adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact Jennifer Petersen at 312-664-1532 or via e-mail at jpetersen@mulberrymc.com.

About Cintas Corporation:

Headquartered in Cincinnati, Cintas Corporation designs, manufactures and implements corporate identity uniform programs, and provides entrance mats, restroom cleaning and supplies, tile and carpet cleaning, promotional products, first aid, safety, fire protection products and services and document management services for more than 1 million businesses. Cintas is a publicly held company traded over the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol CTAS and is a component of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.