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How far do you have to go?
Wed, 01/09/2008 - 22:57 — Kevin M
I was forwarded your site by your neighbor. I have owned a restaurant for 25 years. My manager has been saying we need to improve our ladies room for our customers. I say, it is clean and very functional, but deep down I wonder — can it REALLY improve business?
How far do you have to go to make it outrageous and talked about? Down the street the restaurant has glass doors that fill with smoke to block out the view when you lock them. They were the talk of the town for 6 months.
You may be right, but I still am not sure about spending $15k for a new bathroom.
A great restroom can
A great restroom can absolutely improve business—and it can do so without going to the extreme of making your bathroom into a tourist attraction. Of course people will flock to see an outrageous restroom that makes the news—and that is one strategy. But over the long haul, most people would rather have a private haven for taking care of business than a facility with lots of looky-loos.
Your restroom should be treated as an extension of your dining room—with the same care and attention to detail. Cleanliness is certainly the top priority, but a great restroom also includes special amenities and decor. Women like to feel that they are being pampered and they are very passionate about restrooms.
I invested less than the cost of one small color newspaper ad to upgrade our business' bathroom—and got more response than we ever received from any media advertising. We get many unsolicited rave reviews, including that we have the best restroom in town. My book has loads of ideas for inexpensive ways to make your restroom into a showstopper. (Start supplying trendy lime green 3-ply toilet paper, chalk the cost up to marketing and I bet people will talk!) It is about hospitality and making impressions. Just last week, a woman told me how she hates it when she goes to a nice restaurant and then into a so-so restroom which spoils the mood. Good impressions boost your bottom line: they lead to repeat business, referrals and sales.
It's Not about money! The
It's Not about money!
The best restrooms I've ever been in aren't the ones that had expensive acoutrements. They are ones that have a little space between the stalls and the rest of the bathroom, because women often need to do a lot more than "business" in the bathroom. They are always clean, and have some way of handling foul odors (a small window, way up high or a fan that runs all the time are ideal), and most importantly, show some sign that the people that own the business care about the people using the restroom.
I know of a restroom in a tiny, 10 seat luncheonette which is not a whole lot bigger than a closet. It has the requisite throne and a tiny corner sink. But it also has a window with a fan built into it to handle odors, is painted a lovely pastel color with stencilling done by the owner's daughter, and has some fake flowers in a vase on the windowsill. It is always perfectly clean, which should not even have to be mentioned, but so few restrooms are clean enough to want to use.
If the business owner wants his restrooms to make customers happy, all he needs to spend is enough time cleaning the place and making sure that supplies never run out. If he wants to have ecstatic customers, all he needs to do is supply nice toilet paper, ample paper towels and lotion hand cleanser (not Dial, which is the cheapest and smells bad) at the sink. If you provide a clean changing table and a chair in the area just outside the restroom, you will be sainted.