Boost Hygiene — And Your Business — With Luxurious Hand Soaps

While every BSC wants to present a fresh, clean restroom to building visitors and enhance the user experience, luxurious hand soaps provide a more significant benefit by bolstering the public health.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 80 percent of infections are spread through hand contact. Bacteria and viruses are easily spread in areas such as restrooms due to its many touch points — toilet and door handles, or faucets, for example — and a low-grade or engineered hand soap may dissuade customers from using the soap provided.

“The concern is that people are not washing their hands frequently enough and passing germs on to others,” Craven says. “Spa hand soap encourages people to wash their hands. If [the soap] doesn’t foam up nicely or smell pleasant, they aren’t washing.”

Users are more likely to wash their hands when luxurious hand soaps are made available, and wash them for the recommended 15 seconds of time, according to distributors, which increases the percentage of hand hygiene compliance and lowers the cross-contamination levels that occur in restrooms. It’s not only good for the public health, but also for the businesses that operate within the facility, Emrick says.

“Employers are looking to improve the health of the employees, so they are more inclined to invest in a better hand washing program than ever before,” he says. “It improves employee productivity and reduces sick days. It’s really about compliance and good hand hygiene practices.”

Luxurious Hand Soap Trend Will Trickle Down

As consumers continue to demand more luxurious, spa-inspired soap products, distributors say BSCs and other jan/san professionals can expect the luxurious hand soap trend to trickle down to all sorts of building environments — even gas stations and industrial facilities.

“We’re really seeing a big push right now,” Martini says. “It’s really everywhere — from small churches to Class-A offices. We’re moving toward aromatherapy, to other parts of the building that wouldn’t traditionally have a fragrance.”

So far, many manufacturers have just begun to offer luxurious hand soaps, but distributors say more will follow. In the meantime, distributors are working to educate BSCs who may not be aware of current product offerings.

“If you look at the marketplace, it seems every soap manufacturer is going this way,” says Schneringer. “It’s the new norm. The old, liquid pumps are outdated. For BSCs looking at keeping their customers happy, it puts them in a place to help a client out. There’s an advantage to helping their customers standardize.”

When a BSC can help their clients improve the image and health of a facility, it boosts their clients’ businesses as well.

“I think that it really shows the occupants that they are valued,” Martini says.