It's bad enough when there's an issue with your bathroom at home. A problem with the bathroom at your place of business can be a real disaster. Without a working bathroom, your employees won't be able to relieve themselves in a safe and comfortable environment. They won't be able to function as efficiently, and you may be forced to close until the situation can be remedied. Even customers need to be able to access the bathroom as you're more likely to lose sales if customers need to vacate the premises to find a restroom. Here are four things you should do to prevent bathroom catastrophes:

1. Keep the bathroom clean and stocked.

Bathrooms can easily be disgusting if they aren't cleaned regularly. Give your customers and employees the best experience possible by making sure your company's bathrooms are always clean. Assign bathroom cleaning duties to a member of your staff and make sure they clean everything at least once a day. Have someone periodically check to make sure there's enough soap, toilet paper, and paper towels in the restroom.

2. Have your bathroom maintained.

Making sure your bathroom looks nice and has all the necessary supplies is only half the battle. You also need to make sure the bathroom hardware and the plumbing itself is well-maintained. Unless you're a skilled plumber, you should leave this task to the experts. Hire a commercial plumbing company to perform routine maintenance in your company's bathroom. A plumber will do things like look for signs of rust and corrosion since this can lead to a breakdown of pipes. They'll also look for leaks and repair them before those leaks become a major problem.

3. Make sure you have a plunger available.

At times, customers might be too rough with your plumbing. People may throw tampons and other non-flushable objects down the toilet where they can get stuck in the pipes. A simple rubber plunger can dislodge many clogs, so it's important that you have one available. Ideally, you should store it in a closet or somewhere else out of sight where it won't disturb your customers. Make sure all your employees know how to use the plunger, so they can try to remove clogs if necessary.

4. Save the number of a commercial plumber.

Some clogs are more difficult to dislodge, and a plunger won't help. In this case, you'll need to call a plumber who can use a plumbing snake to manually remove whatever is clogging your pipes. Keep the number of a commercial plumber saved so that you'll always have it ready in case of emergencies.