Measuring perceived cleanliness in service environments: scale development and validation

This paper identifies dimensions of perceived cleanliness and subsequently presents a scale for measuring perceived cleanliness in service environments. The cleanliness perceptions scale (CPS) is more comprehensive than existing scales, which focus on how customers perceive the cleanliness of specific interior elements, thereby ignoring other dimensions, including the aesthetic quality of a service environment. Whereas existing scales are intended restaurants and hotels, the CPS was specifically developed for the facilities management industry, which is responsible for cleanliness in a wide variety of service environments. A qualitative study followed by two quantitative studies resulted in the twelve-item CPS, which covers the three dimensions of perceived cleanliness: cleaned, fresh, and uncluttered.