Small businesses with ‘reduced scent environments’ face tricky conversations with customersSmall businesses with ‘reduced scent environments’ face tricky conversations with customers
It was after some clients complained about the different scents wafting inside her Vancouver massage therapy clinic, from perfume to cigarettes, that Rebecca Flanagan decided to create a new policy to cut down on odours.
The Canadian offices of MaidPro housing cleaning services switched to scent-free cleaning products in late 2017 after concerns from both customers and employees, president David Buckler says.
“We spent years trying to find a scent all our clients liked and it was impossible,” Mr. Buckler says. “We’d get complaints from clients who didn’t like the scent or employees who misused the sprays we provided. We’d also have employees who would get headaches from some of the scented cleaners we used.”
He said the performance of the unscented products is the same and clients are fine with the neutral smell. Now, its unscented products are a selling feature.
“We rarely get any complaints about the lack of fragrances, where we used to get regular complaints about it smelling wrong or too powerful with our old chemical line,” he says. “Also, zero headache complaints from the staff, which is probably the most important factor.”