Why Water Cooler Design Is More Like Hospitality Than Facilities Management

The design of a water cooler is more akin to hospitality than to facilities management. In both cases, the focus is on creating an environment that fosters interaction among people within the space. The design of a water cooler can help to facilitate conversations between colleagues, while the design of a hotel can help to create an atmosphere conducive to customer satisfaction. For Water Coolers Wales, contact https://www.waterforyou.net/

Management of facilities often considers water coolers as a needed utility within the buildings that they manage. Such conversations between facility managers and water cooler manufacturers focus on the ability of the cooler, the space that it occupies in the office, the maintenance requirements for the product, and its cost per litre of water. However, these factors alone are insufficient to ensure the effective use of water coolers within offices.

The thought process behind the placement of a water station within a hotel is different for hospitality compared to other industries. For instance, the placement of a water station within a hotel corridor shows a thought process regarding the value placed upon hotel guests, their experiences while staying at the hotel, and the ways in which the physical environment of the hotel conveys its values towards those guests.

Also, the office water cooler deserves the same level of thinking. Offices may not be hotels; however, those who work in the office and drink from the water cooler have an experience with that machine. Therefore, if the water cooler is awkward to operate, placed in an inconvenient location, produces unpleasant water temperatures or placed in an area that seems to be an afterthought, then the water cooler was specified without any consideration for the hospitality experience.

The best provision of drinking water in a workplace is not part of the facilities management.

It feels like someone thought about the person who was going to use this item.

That’s hospitality thinking applied to an unexpected setting.