Entering a hotel, a guest’s eyes scan the lush plants, plush carpet, and fine, polished mahogany furniture. The guest smiles and thinks how nice the rooms must be. But will they still seem nice when he discovers the black plastic trashcan with an ill-fitting liner that’s hiding in the corner?

Aesthetics matter. The wrong trashcan speaks volumes — slander mostly — for the image of a customer’s facility. The value of waste receptacles lies not only in their usefulness but also in the image they do — or do not — portray. “It’s a reflection on the facility’s existence,” says Richard Renert, vice president of Eastern Paper of New England, based in Hamden, Conn. “Things need to look clean and neat for the property’s image… If they’re in health care, that means they have an image of cleanliness. If the receptacle is the wrong color or is deteriorating, people tend to think, ‘What is it doing there?’”

Dudley E. Day, president and CEO of West Haven, Conn.-based Sanitary Maintenance Service Inc., agrees. “I know for a fact that the aesthetics of the properties that our clients currently own are important to them, and the receptacles should be important to them,” he says. “Waste receptacles should be subtle, conforming to the design, color and architectural accoutrements of the site… The designs should be specific to the facility so as to blend with the structure while still making it obvious that these are receiving points for trash and litter.”

More and more, facilities want to convey a certain feel or portray their corporate image to their customers and employees, and they invest significant amounts of money into the appearance of their sites to do so. Waste receptacles are no exception with respect to the image of the overall décor — or to the money facilities invest in it. “If [facilities are] going to put a lot of money into a container, they want it to enhance their appearance,” says Bob Zagers Sr., owner of Zagers Sanitary Supply, based in Tampa, Fla. “If you walk into the lobby of the company and it has attractive containers, maybe in your mind it would be more of a first-class operation.” Selling with an eye for the aesthetic value of waste receptacles can change a customer’s judgment of them from an afterthought to an essential aspect of a room’s design.

In the Limelight
The need for aesthetically pleasing receptacles depends on both the location of the unit within an end user’s facility and on the particular end user’s industry. “Attractive containers are important where companies are concerned about their appearance and their customers,” explains Zagers. “In a warehouse, it wouldn’t make much difference, whereas in the front of the office it might.” Other areas that call for attention to aesthetics are lobbies, break areas, hallways, and high customer-traffic areas such as the corridors of malls or outdoor public walks.

Aesthetically pleasing waste receptacles are particularly important to certain types of facilities such as health care facilities, office buildings, lodging facilities, colleges, private schools and amusement parks. The buying trends within these industries often vary to meet their specific needs. For instance, says Zagers, four and five-star hotels want highly attractive containers in their lobbies and hallways, particularly very classy, brass receptacles. Amusement parks are looking for attractive but efficient trashcans for their grounds and higher-end containers for their administration offices.

Custom waste receptacles are becoming more popular, says Renert. Educational facilities, for instance, want to reinforce their image and name in order to add value to their business. Also, public areas such as malls and parks are using the panels on custom waste receptacles to sell advertising space. While custom-designed units may require a higher initial investment, the overall cost to the end user for these is relative to the funds received from the advertisers.

“It’s all about seeing it as an avenue for the customer,” Renert says. “The customer can get funds by renting space to pay for the whole entity.”

Choose Carefully
The distributors Sanitary Maintenance interviewed agree that the key to selling waste receptacles is thoroughly determining the customer’s needs and then matching products accordingly. The common issues a customer needs to consider include size, shape, color, durability and purpose, as well as fire proofing, maintenance and materials.

“You interview the customer to find out what they want,” says Zagers. “Price or budget would be the key, then you find the products.” He suggests first determining the end user’s budget and showing him or her the products in that price range, then also attempting to upsell by showing the more aesthetic and higher-quality options that are available.

“We’ve found that if our sales representatives present these options to their customers, it creates desire for something more upscale,” he says. “So if sales representatives use the catalogs correctly from the manufacturers, they can create some very nice business.”

Showing the receptacles through the catalogs helps the customer get a solid visual picture of the products, Renert says. But to better serve the client, he also suggests bringing in the manufacturer’s sales representative.

“The manufacturer’s representative has a better sense of which product works better, so the representative helps in the sale. Because there’s so many choices in receptacles, some choices look good in the catalog but may not be appropriate for the location.”

In his sales approach, Day focuses on the value of finding the perfect product for the customer’s needs rather than focusing on the price.

“You will get what you pay for — no more and no less,” Day says. “It is all based on price and value, which are equal.” Day finds that end users have a tendency to settle for lower-priced but less appropriate waste receptacles, which leads to the customer making a number of purchases before eventually finding the right product. In the long run, these replacement costs become far more expensive than they would have been had the customer originally paid the higher price for the product that perfectly matched their needs.

Day, therefore, sells his waste receptacles based on need, design and longevity. “I believe strongly that people can, through the guidance of proper professionals, buy the right product the first time, ultimately saving the most amount of money and gaining the most cost-effective product.”

Who’s the Fairest of Them All?
During the selling process, suggesting factors that play into the customer’s needs may help distributors better serve customers and possibly increase the value of the sale. Beyond size, color, space, durability, and other such basic factors that customers often consider, an antimicrobial-treated or fireproof product might be in order. As Renert explains: “Manufacturers are attempting to add value to the waste receptacles for the customer. Some receptacles are registered UL (Underwriter’s Laboratories) approved; some manufacturers have the inside, plastic liner treated with the anti-microbial or anti-germ product.”

Another factor commonly overlooked by customers is the ease of maintenance for the cleaning staff, who have the most frequent contact with the containers.

“The customer should think about the most effective use of [the cleaning staff’s] time, which ultimately reduces the cost impact of the maintenance of the unit,” explains Day. He suggests, for example, that a customer consider whether the receptacle needs to be raised from the ground in order to clean and maintain both the receptacle and the area around it.

Zagers suggests considering the ease of emptying the container, and making sure there’s a plastic liner that properly fits the unit. Other maintenance factors include having a uniform system of waste receptacles so they don’t require cleaning staff to carry an assortment of liners. Also consider the vacuum effect created by a plastic liner along the smooth sides of a container, which can lead to much heavier lifting when the cleaning staff empties the trash.

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POSTED ON: 8/1/2002