29 Mar The Price of Protection
What is good business practice and why it counts
The importance of protecting your business interests
There are a lot of different reasons why a customer may choose to shop or stay with your business, not just limited to the product or service you’re providing, and the cost of it.
In an environment where hygiene safety, and cleanliness has become an increasing focus in the consumer consciousness, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s unsurprising that your customers are looking for more from you, and you are looking for more from your service providers to allow you to meet and exceed these increased Health and Safety, and hygiene requirements.
When it comes to hospitality businesses, such as hotels, cleanliness is now considered to be the most important factor when customers are determining where to stay, and brands that don’t operate to the highest standards run the risk of being named and shamed (like Britannia, who was named by Which? As the ‘UK’s worst hotel chain’, and only rated 2 out of 5 stars for their cleanliness) and rejected by customers who then take to social media, and review platforms to let the world at large know.
By failing to meet high standards of cleanliness and hygiene, your business could run the risk of having its reputation ruined, reduced bookings, an increase in advertising and marketing costs, and could even run into legal trouble, leading to the imprisonment and / or a fine.
The Health and Safety at Work Act (2005) applies to all employers, self-employed individuals, and employees in all places of work; as well as placing duties on designers, suppliers, manufacturers, and others concerned with work activities, and requires all employers to design, provide, and maintain a safe, risk-free place of work.
The penalties for breaching the health and safety legislation involve severe legal consequences, including summary proceedings in the District Court with a maximum penalty of €5,000 and / or up to 12 months imprisonment, or an indictment in the Circuit Court where there is a maximum penalty of €3,000,000 and / or imprisonment for up to two years.
So, the cost of getting it wrong is serious business, and regardless of the size of your company, or whether you deal directly with customers or not, you have a legal, moral, and ethical obligation to make sure your working environment is up to standard, and suitable.
False Economy and Making Smart Choices
Keeping your workplace and business clean and operating in compliance with hygiene standards is something that every business must do – it’s a necessary expense and operational part of your day-to-day activities.
It may be tempting to try and save money by choosing cheap hygiene solutions – but it very rarely works out to be successful.
Cheap, untested, or inappropriate cleaning solutions often lead to additional expenses (both in the expenditure of replacing the products, and in handling legal ramifications that come about through not being up to code), as well as much time wasted when you not only have to arrange for staff to re-clean everything but then have to spend additional hours scrubbing away at surfaces to achieve a similar result to higher quality products which provide a superior clean with a much reduced effort.
Sourcing your cleaning, hygiene, and health & safety products from a reliable, ethical, knowledgeable provider may not always seem like the cheapest option at the point of purchase, but once you include application time, the cost of meeting legal obligations, and the shelf-life of those products, you’ll soon see the false economy that ‘value’ brands can create.
We work with our trusted partners to source the highest quality products and utilise our extensive industry experience to closely monitor what levels of hygiene are required by law, what sustainable and alternative products provide a good as or better result than chemical heavy variants, and carefully select the products that will offer you the best results, and value for your budget.
Your business needs to spend out on Health & Safety, and hygiene – you need to ensure that you’re making smart decisions for your business that minimise the cost without cutting the coverage.