The Customer

I went to a bookstore yesterday. It was one of the large firms that can be found all across the country. You’d recognize the name. I got caught up in the computer section reading a book on Ruby on Rails and, after a bit, felt the need to visit the bathroom.

My requirement was of the second variety and as I entered the stall, I was greeted with a floor virtually awash in waste, sopping wet toilet paper (where other customers had tried to clean up) and a really obnoxious stench. I did what I could to clean up and protect my clothing, attended to what my aunt called “my duty” and washed up and left.

This seems to be a business where the customer requirements/needs are well down on the list of priorities.Based on my sample of one visit, it is risky to form conclusions (they may have been short staffed), but my thought was, “…here is a place that doesn’t care about its customers.

Consider the restrooms you have visited in the course of shopping, eating out, getting gas, going to the airport, etc. I don’t count, but I’d guess half the time they are a mess; offensive even. What does this say about the management’s attitude toward the customer? Obviously, the message is the customer doesn’t matter.

In a national chain, such as the bookstore, one might wonder if that indifference to the the customer is typical or was this particular store an exception. Is the quality of the customers’ experience left up to the local manager of each store? I did not conduct a survey, but it would be easy enough to do. My feeling is that the buying public does such a survey as they shop, although the scientific rigor may be lacking.

Better quality leads to better competitiveness. What is the cost of quality? That is, what is the cost of having a dirty restroom? How would we ever know? We certainly can figure out the cost of cleaning it (and people do). How much for the soap? How long does it take? How much water did we use? But what is the cost of the dirty restroom?

As has often been said, the most important statistics for management are unknown and unknowable. What is the benefit of a happy customer? What is the cost of a disgruntled customer? There’s no way to put a number on it.

What kind of restaurant would you rather visit? One that has a neat, clean, decorated restroom or one that is dirty, wet, smelly and foul? After the appetizer, do you want to face a bathroom like the one depicted in the upper photo or like the one shown in the lower photo? Does it make a difference even if the food is great?

You bet it does.