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November 01, 2006
The Great Bathroom Blogfest
This week, a number of women bloggers (including yours truly) are writing about and taking pictures of bathrooms. Not home bathrooms (thankfully), but restrooms in retail and public locations.
It's all part of Bathroom Blogfest. Stephanie Weaver, a consultant and author of the upcoming Visitor Experience Handbook, and Susan Abbott, a consumer researcher in Toronto, came up with the idea so that companies will pay more attention to a common -- but often neglected -- component of the customer experience.
Yesterday while shopping on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago, I snapped a few pictures of every ladies room I encountered. Most were clean but some stood out. Like this one at Pierrot Gourmet, a charming cafe and wine bar that is part of the Pennisula hotel.
Warm colors for paint and tile. Thick and cloth-like paper towels. A big woven wastebasket. Metal fold-down baby changing table. And a first: a Diaper Genie to put the smelly diapers in. Nicely done.
Speaking of babies and diapers, these plastic baby changing stations always look dingy and the last thing I would want to put a baby on. This one was in the ladies restroom on the third floor of the Shops of North Bridge shopping center.
Contrast that with the silver metal changing station on the wall in the Pierrot Gourmet picture above. Moms are especially challenged with taking care of their little ones in pubic bathrooms. So catering to their needs goes a long way in affecting how she feels about your establishment.
For more Bathroom Blogfest, see:
Customers Are Always
Customer Experience Crossroads
Experienceology
Fast Company Now
Flooring the Consumer
What I Do For a Living
Other blogs that reference The Great Bathroom Blogfest:
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» Singin' Sinks in Public Bathrooms from CCUCEO
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It amazes me how many companies and other entities skimp on one of the most important aspects of a bathroom: the toilet paper.
When I worked as a resident assistant in the dorms in college, I took it upon myself to buy Charmin (not a client) for the two bathrooms in my wing. The girls in the dorm would sneak into the men's bathrooms to use our stalls. The hall director finally got the message and started equipping all bathrooms with premium toilet paper.
C'mon folks, narrow, single-ply sandpaper is not acceptable.
I agree with you about how the diaper changing stations look. However, I wonder what the inside of that shiny metal one is like. Think how cold the metal would be against the baby's bare skin (even when using a liner) compared to the molded plastic/vinyl/whatever.
Paughnee,
I've not opened the metal changing station, so I'm not sure what's in there. Next time I'm there, I try to remember to take a pic.
You've got me curious to see!
Hey! I like your post. With all my traveling I do I've really come to appreciate a nice public restroom. I find Starbuck's to be some of the worst! I've come to realize that a business' public bathroom is a good indicator of what kind of service you may receive or how much they really care about their customer's.
Great title on this post- it got my attention from myYahoo! reader.
I was in Heathrow a couple of days ago and noticed a timer on the loo wall. It counts down 90 minutes with a notice that the bathroom is checked within the period and cleaned if necessary. Thought it was remarkable given that Heathrow in general facilitates a poor travel experience, but at least they keep the toilets clean.
dear ben and jackie,
my name is dane sanders and i am a photographer who runs a weekly video podcast called http://simplephotominute.com . i get about 90,000 visitors a month right now and am finally clueing in to your genius. despite these exciting numbers (at least for me), i've been discouraged at the lack of "talk back" i've received. that is, before i actually tried employing some of your wisdom ... wow.
my first stab at having a conversation with my viewers (customer + delta) literally happened this afternoon. i've been passively collecting email addresses on my blog for a while so i did a trial run at a seven simple question survey to about 400 people. I have received 65 back in about 3 hours. only 3 people declined so far. we'll see what the rest of the folks do as they see it, but regardless, i can't tell you how fascinating the feedback is (and how encouraging ... a totally unexpected side benefit). my viewers are willingly telling me stuff i had no idea about. people are actually talking back ... amazing.
thanks to you, I feel like i have a hope of really delivering on helping to make people's photo lives simpler because i'm getting to know the people who's lives i'm trying to influence. Thank you thank you thank you ... thanks also needs to go to my buddy and fellow photographer david jay ( http://www.opensourcephoto.net ) who put me on to you in the first place.
have a great weekend.
dane
ps ... the link to my survey is here if you're interested ...
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=185632829315
___________________________________
dane sanders
http://danesanders.com
http://simplephotominute.com
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Don't forget the modern dad taking care of diaper changes in public spaces! A lot of our washrooms don't have change tables at all. Very frustrating and disappointing.
You are so right. When I was a field manager for Pearle Vision, the first thing I would do when visiting a location, after saying hello, was ask to use the restroom. It gave me a great indication as to the manager's ability to pay attention to detail.
Is it used as a storage closet? Are there too many posters - or inappropriate messages that you wouldn't want a customer to see? Is it fully stocked?
There are few things worse than going into a filthy ladies' room, and establishments need to do a better job of policing them. (I should never be the one to have to tell the hostess in a restaurant that they need to replenish the toilet papaer.) But I also wish that women would be neater and cleaner. If you don't want to sit on the seat, kick it up before you pee - or at least wipe the seat off when you're done; toilet paper goes in the toilet - not on the floor; used paper towels go in the receptacle, not on the floor; don't leave hair in the sink; etc. Just say no to public restroom slobbiness.
Dane,
Thanks so much for the report about how your feedback campaign is going! That's terrific that people are engaged with helping you help them better. Sounds like you definitely have some customer evangelists : )
Keep up the great work!
Hey did you see the Charmin bathrooms being istalled in Times Square for the christmas shoppers? What a great idea.The shoppers will be able to stay and shop alittle longer.I think Charmin knows the spirit of Christmas. BC
I hope all those companies will,someday, come up with an altenative to this toilet paper thing :)
