Welcome to our website! Months in the making, lindaloo.com and skiptotheloo.com are online! All are invited. Our target audience is small business operators who wish to attract customers, primarily female, with a powerful marketing tool: their restroom! Visit frequently to stay on top of breaking news, network with other restroom hosts, share your expertise, and explore ways to improve your facilities.

Comments from shoppers are encouraged: You are the ones who can provide valuable input for those retailers who strive to create an exceptional restroom experience. Let us know what a good restroom means to you. Tell us the features that you like. Send us pictures of great restrooms—or special details.

In a poll of 24, 055 voters, 96% said they would BUZZ about a public or restaurant bathroom that was unexpectedly clean, demonstrated an extra effort to be trendy, or was so dirty that it was to be avoided. Get people buzzing about YOUR restroom for the right reasons, and use it to help build your business!

My favorite source of home fragrance for more than 15 years, Yankee Candle, is now offering fragrances for metered air fresheners. For all who are unfamiliar with the concept, metered air fresheners are those curious plastic housings hanging high on many commercial restroom walls. Battery operated and loaded with a container of fragrance, some emit scent continuously and others can be set to burst at various intervals.

This today from the Corporate Curmudgeon, Dale Dauten at HartfordBusiness.com:

"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.

Mama C’s blog post offers insight for restroom hosts regarding the restroom experience for women with young children. Visual interest on the walls that provides entertainment and distraction for little ones makes the job of changing diapers in a public facility an easier task. Mama C also points out that the extremely loud noise of electric hand dryers is startling to adults—but upsetting to babies.

Happy Valentine's Day

From former book store owner, Joe Schmidt, of Orlando, FL: “Congratulations on writing a book on a subject that has long been overlooked. I look forward to seeing Skip to the Loo! on the New York Times Best Seller list which I read every week.”

Now an octogenarian, Joe muses over the history of the business restroom, especially where there was a lack of plumbing. “Even today, if you travel on the back roads of states such as West Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee, and stop for gas or go in the general store, you will find that the restroom is not indoors, but rather down a path at the back of the store.” Nevertheless, Joe feels there is still room to provide amenities such as a hook for a purse, a mirror — or even a fancy toilet seat. Marketing to women with special touches can occur even in the humblest facility.

Joe has honored my book with a piece of original art. Take a look at the attachment to see his special representation of what Linda’s Loo may have looked like in days of yore. Thank you, Joe!

Many women are reluctant to touch restroom door handles when they exit. They fear subjecting freshly washed hands to germs deposited by those who bypassed the sink. According to an August 2007 study by the Soap and Detergent Association and the American Society for Microbiology, 12% of females (and 34 % of males) don't lather up. Rather than avoid public restrooms altogether, many germophobes use the following preventative measure: they grasp the door handle with a paper towel—even a fresh wad of toilet paper—then toss it on the floor. It's not a pretty sight for the next guest.

Earlier this month, my husband and I attended the 2008 Photo Marketing Association Convention and Trade Show in Las Vegas. Of particular interest was keynote speaker, Joseph Pine. Co-author of the book, “Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want", Pine delivered some relevant pieces of information. Specifically, that in today’s marketplace . . . price, quality, and delivery times have become very standardized. The new differentiator is the shopping “experience”.

In my mind, this experience includes every place that a customer sets foot (or hits bottom!). Yet many washrooms fall by the wayside. Businesses spend thousands of dollars crafting and polishing an appealing showroom or retail area—only to tarnish it with a neglected bathroom. It spoils the effect. Any area that customers visit should be treated with the same attention to detail and care.

The general feeling of most retail restroom facilities (in my experience) is that they are being offered out of obligation. They rarely feel welcoming and are frequently in disrepair. Restrooms matter. They are part of the entire shopping experience and powerful enough to make a significant impression—for better or for worse. It doesn’t take an expensive remodel to transform a lackluster restroom into something special.

As a testimonial to my restroom, nearly every woman who uses it comes out and compliments it—or thanks us. The positive effect has even spanned other demographics: one elderly man hugged me for it, and children have written thank you notes.

Small improvements can make a big difference. Skip to the Loo! was written as a guide book to help others in this respect. Covering all aspects of the restroom experience, it is packed with so many ideas that any reader is sure to discover the right fixes for their situation.