I visited a rather memorable public toilet at the weekend, but unfortunately it was for the wrong reasons. I won’t name the culprit on this occasion, however, it’s highly disconcerting that a global fast food chain who receives hundreds of visitor’s everyday of the week could allow one of their loos to be left in such an unthinkable state. Not to mention the customer who evidently forget basic toilet etiquette in this particular establishment.

I’ll spare you the graphic and nauseating feedback (trust me it was bad) but will come to the slight defense of the customer - their widespread ‘deposit’ could have so easily been a frantic emergency, however, I can’t excuse the poor monitoring and maintenance by the chain. Naturally I didn’t use this particular loo and was forced to try to the next cubicle, but even that was lacking in satisfying cleanliness.

So, I deployed a tactic that I’d never really considered using before and one that, I believe, millions of people probably execute all the time in public toilets: I placed loo roll on the seat. I appreciate that this is hardly a revelation, but I now realise how frustrating and inconvenient it must be for people who ‘have’ to be seated when using the toilet. And more importantly, the resulting hygiene issues too - overall a disagreeable experience.

Rather unsurprisingly then, more than half the number people who use public toilets in the UK never sit down for fear they might catch something, according to a recent tork.co.uk survey. The same crowd of washroom users also wanted to see either a toilet seat cleaner or a paper cover offered too. Both concepts would certainly work, but should we really have to go to such lengths as paying customers?

You could argue that a business, irrespective of its size, is ultimately responsible for the upkeep of its toilets, but to make sure the facilities are acceptable to use every minute of the day, then maybe the above suggestions are realistic solutions for total customer satisfaction.

Our washroom solutions, including toilet seat sanitisers, tissue dispensers and Dyson Airblade hand dryers, help public washrooms across the UK in raising hygiene standards, but companies still need to be vigilant and reactive in order to prevent little encounters like mine at the weekend.