I’m pleased to be participating in the sixth Bathroom Blogfest.
The annual event, which now includes
more than 30 bloggers who come from
a variety of disciplines ranging from
design to home furnishing to marketing
and PR (that’s me), has looked at
bathrooms from a number of perspectives.
This year’s theme is Climbing Out,
which I take to mean looking beyond
the traditional role of public bathrooms
and how they can and do impact an
organization’s image and its customer
relations efforts.
Most decent restaurants seem to pay attention to their bathrooms.
I’ve been to some places where the bathroom is more spectacular
or homey than the décor of the eatery itself. And I’ve also been
turned off by restaurant bathrooms that are dark, dingy or just plain
dirty and unkempt. That’s not exactly someplace that will keep you
in the mood for a great meal.
Retail stores seem to have a wide range of bathroom quality, but
most seem to be clean and institutional. The same can be said for
bathrooms at major movie theater chains. Nothing great, but clean
and generic.
Supermarkets seem to be another story. Maybe the markets figure
no one even needs to go while grocery shopping, but hey, nature
calls anytime, anywhere. Supermarkets rarely have a public
bathroom, but instead send customers to the employee bathrooms.
In many cases, those bathrooms are in the bowels of the store. It’s
not at all appetizing to see the backrooms of a supermarket, which
are surprisingly unclean, in appearance at least.
It would seem that any store, restaurant or other place that has
customers or clients coming to visit would put some effort into
having bathrooms that are, at the very least, clean. And going the
extra mile to have bathrooms that sparkle and dazzle reflect caring
and concern for customers.
Climbing out of bare-bones bathrooms
makes good sense for any business that
has customers visiting. It’s good customer
relations, which translates to good business.
...
Here's info on all 33 Bathroom Bloggers this week.
Be sure to check out their posts during the coming week by
clicking here.
Amen, David! Yes, it's definitely good business and good customer relations. Thanks for being part of Bathroom Blogfest 2011 and helping elevate the conversation about the need to climb out of humdrum experiences.
Best,
CB
Posted by: C.B. Whittemore | October 24, 2011 at 09:19 AM
Bathroom cleanliness is a direct reflection on a business. It's akin to a person's hygiene if you will - at home it's the one room everyone makes sure is clean before a guest walks in - it's puzzling why some businesses don't get it.
Choosing the right tiles for the floors and walls can make bathroom clean-up a breeze. A quality tile contractor can also make sure the right setting materials are used so that there aren't problems with mold, residue and water damage - Thanks for reminding everyone to clean it up!
Posted by: Chris Woelfel. | October 25, 2011 at 11:31 AM
I agree with you: If a business doesn't care about a place many customers will visit, goodness knows what else they let slip that you don't want to think about.
Staff usually shares the restaurant bathrooms I've used...imagine how clean their hands are when they serve you if the soap dispenser doesn't work, there's only cold water in the sink and the place hasn't been scrubbed in a month. Yech.
For this reason I appreciate the letter grades restaurants and delis get in NYC.
Posted by: Jeanne Byington | October 25, 2011 at 11:56 AM
Good business done in bathroom blog fest.Your blog is awesome and quite informative.Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: bathroom renovations perth | February 18, 2012 at 12:50 AM
I’ve also been turned off by restaurant bathrooms that are dark, dingy or just plain dirty and unkempt. That’s not exactly someplace that will keep you
in the mood for a great meal.
Posted by: bathroom vanities | June 11, 2012 at 02:05 AM
The Bathroom Blogfest began in 2006 as the brainchild of Stephanie Weaver, Experienceology author and consultant, and Susan Abbott, business consultant and consumer researcher in Toronto, who “wanted to generate awareness for bloggers passionate about the customer experience at a time when blogging was more experimental‘ and an opportunity to discover and connect with new bloggers.
Posted by: bathroom suppliers | August 28, 2012 at 04:57 AM
Bathroom is the most common part of every house because without it man can not be survive. I am doing reconstruction of my old washroom because that was very conjugated.
Posted by: Sarah Lane | September 18, 2012 at 01:29 AM
Bathroom fest !! what is this. I have listen about the fest of interior decoration but not about bathroom fest, I think it will be very funny.
Posted by: Bathrooms wirral | October 03, 2012 at 05:23 AM