Transport Focus has released its 2018 report into the best and worst of England's 111 motorway services, following its survey of 9,600 motorists on their experiences. One purpose of the survey was to identify which aspects of the visitor experience most influence overall satisfaction and of course washroom facilities and their cleanliness have had a big impact, bearing in mind that the vast majority of respondents cited the need to visit the toilet as the main reason for visiting services in the first place, since the fuel is prohibitively expensive.

The reason I mention this, is that the independent transport user watchdog carried out its first large-scale survey in 2017 and has compared this year's results with those findings, identifying which facilities listened to their customers and made improvements. Those that made improvements have seen a massive rise in rankings.

Motorway services areas need to make money; the more visitors they have, the more money they're likely to make. Almost half of the survey's respondents (45%) said they plan beforehand to stop at a particular services, which shows that there's no room for complacency with regard to the facilities.

When it came to the quality of fixtures, only 50% said they were very happy both years; 33% said they were fairly happy in 2017 and in 2018 this figure had dropped to 31%.

That's not really very good, is it? Clearly, refurbishment is called for in some of these establishments if they're going to continue to attract visitors.

I know you may be involved in the manufacture and supply of high end bathroom products, but even if you are, just imagine being able to market them by having hundreds of thousands of customers use them every year, who may like what they see and remember your brand when they come to refurbish their own hotels, pubs, restaurants etc, as well as their homes! I'm not just talking toilets, basins and furniture, but showers for long distance drivers and facilities for the disabled, too.

"Toilets rated highly for cleanliness and the number available, but the quality of fixtures scores somewhat lower," said Jeff Halliwell, chair, of Transport Focus. "However, there were plenty of comments noting and appreciating where improvement works had been carried out and new facilities provided. Investment is recognised and welcomed." Knowing you can help these facilities make money while advertising your brand, surely warrants a phone call or few then?

www.facebook.com/KBzine  

Yours,

Jan Hobbs