The Men's Room Doesn't Lie
Trivia — or is it? — question: What is the question most often asked of casino employees? I’ll give you a minute to think. It’s “Where’s the restroom?”
I learned that from Gary Loveman, the chairman, president and chief executive of Harrah’s Entertainment.
However, that fact wasn’t trivia to a great businessman (and former associate professor at Harvard Graduate School of Business) like Loveman.
It came to him as part of a campaign to improve customer loyalty; he wanted to better understand the interactions between his employees and his customers, and so he needed to know what those interactions consist of so he could improve them.
And I want to go further today and offer up this IBP (Important Business Principle): The men’s room doesn’t lie.
I know that sounds like the title for a Sen. Larry Craig biography, but in this case it’s a principle of customer service. I believe you can tell a lot about an organization from its restrooms.
Nobody makes a profit on the restroom, although an amazing restroom can be a marketing tool (see the photos at www.urinal.net). In fact, it is precisely because the restroom is not a profit center that it serves as a measure of how much a company cares about its employees and/or customers.
Thinking about the restroom comes from deciding to start a series I’m calling “Love/Hate.”
The point is to congratulate companies that come up with terrific products and services, and ask more of those that produce detestable ones. The company restroom is a good place to start.
Specifically, I’d like to publicly thank all those managers who have installed a Georgia-Pacific enMotion® paper-towel dispenser. I’m sure you’ve encountered these kindly devices — you wave your wet hands in front of it, and it hands you a paper towel.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a human to do the towel handing. I’m not looking for conversation or companionship in the restroom, and to encounter a men’s room attendant is to encounter the deficiencies of capitalism. So, the electric dispenser is lovably right.
Contrast the electric dispenser to those terrible blower hand driers. I know they claim to reduce trash and to be sanitary, but they fool no one — they exist because management doesn’t want to be bothered with paper towels.
The situation would be different if the blowers actually dried your hands, but of course they can’t do it well: If they got really hot, they might burn someone.
So, you put your dripping hands under the blower and you get what feels like the breath of an overeager Chihuahua. In reality, it is the breath of management indifference.
And let me add another pair. Don’t you hate it when you’re in a one-person restroom and the door locks via a push button? The problem is that as the spring ages, the difference between locked and unlocked is all but imperceptible, leaving you to wonder if someone — maybe even a U.S. senator — will burst in upon you.
On the other hand, let’s give some appreciation to the management of those places that try to make the restrooms restful. My favorite is the San Diego International Airport, where the entrance has glass blocks with a bit of sand and a seashell in each one. You know someone cared.
If you’d like to join in with your own love/hate example, let me know at dale@dauten.com.
Dale Dauten is the founder of The Innovators’ Lab. His latest book is “(Great) Employees Only: How Gifted Bosses Hire and De-Hire Their Way to Success.”
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments