In our opening article, we said that there are four main areas that should be considered when making the choice between paper towels or hand dryers, which are: cost, hygiene, image and the environment. Of all of these, it is image which is rarely explicitly considered by the various manufacturers, yet in practice, it is uppermost in many people’s minds when kitting out their washrooms.
For the purpose of this article, we are going to look at different types of image which organisations are likely to be trying to portray, and consider whether hand dryers or paper towels might best fit the bill.
1. Clinical, hygienic
This is likely to be the case for hospitals, medical surgeries, and medical companies as well as staff facilities in catering establishments or food manufacturers. In these situations, there are hand dryers which will definitely give out the perception of cleanliness, but paper towels will probably also do this, providing that the washroom is very regularly cleaned – wet paper towels on the floor would soon undermine the hygiene image.
2. Luxury
High-end hotels, prestigious office blocks, executive washrooms would probably fall into this category, and whilst there are quite a few hand dryers which would fit the bill, it is hard to see paper towels making the right type of impression (although mini hand cloths, used and re-laundered each time would certainly score well).
3. High tech
Predominantly corporate washrooms or organisations involved in the design and tech sector, such as Mercedes Benz or Apple, or providers of modern office space are likely to need to reinforce their image in a high-tech washroom. High quality paper towels, in a smart dispenser, may well not damage this image, although there are several hand dryers which would positively reinforce it.
4. No-nonsense, value for money
This covers quite a lot of establishments and companies – ranging from public sector organisations and schools (who are often keen to send the message that they are careful with public money) to village pubs and restaurants.
There are certainly many hand dryers which will give the impression of being effective, but at the same time not luxurious, but the case for paper towels may be less obvious. This is because whilst the financial case for paper towels is generally pretty terrible (see our earlier article on this), by no means everyone is aware of that fact, and paper towels may well give the impression of an organisation trying to save money.
So, although we have only looked at 4 different types of image an organisation may be trying to give, in general terms we have probably covered the majority of organisations. Hand dryers can comfortably cope with all of them, and paper towels may work in 2 of them. In practice you may have a mixture of these elements to consider so it may not be quite as simple as this, but it feels safe to say that if reinforcing the right company image to your customers or employees is important, then making the right hand drying choice is clearly important.
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