It's Good to Go Behind Swisher Hygiene

If you step into a restroom right after the Swisher guys have been there, you're probably going to have a pleasant visit.

Swisher's stickers are in many public restrooms that are cleaner than most. Not only are they good at swishing,  they're also good at driving. I don't know much about this company, but the more I notice the brand, the more I'm impressed I become.

This truck alone says a lot. They post an 800 number on the back  to keep their drivers accountable. If the employee really was driving crazy or speeding, it would probably make it hard to read the number to call it, but I just might call the number to let them know that the driver was responsible. Not many people take the time to report good news. I'm sure I could make someone's day and give them a story that they'd repeat for some time.

"Let me tell you a story about a happy lady who called," they'd say.

The logo is eye-catching and clever. You can tell this is a company that does something with lightning, curvy mountain roads or toilet flushing, but if you keep reading you get an extra hint through the website, www.SwisherHygiene.com. Those two words say a lot. It's smart.

Swisher offers customers a green hygiene option for customers who understand the value of using safer and more sustainable products. If they could figure out how to install aromatherapeutic ventilation systems in restrooms, I'd want to invest in them.

Harry's Broken Process Eats Up Time

Last night my husband and I drove to St. Augustine to enjoy an evening walk on the the beach and dinner. The walk on the beach was great, but the dinner experience wasn't as pleasant.
We strolled around St. Augustine checking out our restaurant choices. We passed by several for various reasons: we weren't  in the mood for Mexican, the music was too loud, the outdoor chairs didn't look comfortable, we didn't care for the musician, the wait for outdoor seating was too long, or whatever. And so we kept walking, until we came to Harry's of course, my husband's favorite restaurant in the ancient city.

Harry's has a quaint courtyard and they usually have a mellow live music on weekend evenings. My husband had Harry's on his mind before we even arrived, so I knew that he'd be disappointed if I chose another restaurant. But next time I probably will. 
 
We arrived at Harry's about 9:30 PM and we were told that we'd have about a 30 minute wait. So we got a drink and sat down on chairs in the outdoor waiting area. We sat down hoping to relax. About five or ten minutes later, two other couples with British accents joined us in the outdoor waiting area. Immediately, they started commenting about all the empty tables that we were looking at--some clean and some not so clean. They grew impatient quickly and the two men sat down at an empty table for two. A few minutes later, a waitress asked them to leave the table.
"We've been standing around staring at this empty table while our wives are holding their drinks on their knees," he said with his British accent. "What's the hold up?"
The waitress informed him that the kitchen was "backed up" and that they would be seating customers at this table soon. They had too many orders in the kitchen and they couldn't keep up.

In the meantime, we all joked critically about the empty tables, commenting about their slow service. The employees were all wearing black pants and black shirts so it was easy to identify three of them standing in a corner chatting.  If you know Harry, please let him know that it's not a good idea for customers to stand around waiting for service, while they watch three employees stand around talking. It gives us the impression that the customers here are a low priority.
The next time someone in black walked by the British customer, he asked, "Can you please let me know why we're standing in this waiting area when there are so many empty tables?"
"Our computer went down and our tech guy got in a fight with his girlfriend, so he left." The guys turned to us and brought us up to date with the latest report.
The next time I saw someone walk by in black, I asked if she could request the manager to come talk to us. A manager came out right away. She had black spiked hair and lips pursed with frustration. As soon as she came out to the courtyard, the people in black started looking busy. They walked over to the dirty tables, started wiping and pushing dirty dishes around. They ought to get some of these people back in the kitchen to lend a hand, I thought, to learn to make a salad or something!
"We've been looking at empty tables for almost half an hour. Is there a reason why we can't wait more comfortably at a table?"
"You've been waiting for 18 minutes on pager #152," she snapped. "We can't seat any more people or our kitchen will go down." I wondered how she knew our pager number. After getting home and downloading my pictures, my camera time showed 25 minutes between the time we arrived and the time I took a photo just after talking with the manager. I was irritated enough to check the time the next day!
When our pager finally went off and we went to the hostess station, I asked a young lady how long we had been waiting. "The pager time just cleared out," she said with a smirk. "Follow me please," she said as she grabbed two menus. I wasn't surprised that she wasn't tracking the promised time against the actual wait time. Their lack of appropriate measures was evident. If the restaurant had some better process measures in place, the manager could have improved customer service this evening. They obviously didn't have a goal of getting tables cleaned quickly or getting customers seated as quickly as possible.
We eventually got seated and had a good hot meal, but we certainly didn't have a romantic evening of conversation on Harry's patio as we had expected. Instead, we got caught up in conversation with other frustrated customers as we witnessed their broken process. We all agreed that we'd rather be waiting at a table conversing with our companions than standing on the sidelines. There weren't enough "waiting" seats for everyone who was waiting, even though there were plenty of chairs in the courtyard.
I shot a photo of my dinner plate when it arrived at 11:12 PM. If I had known we were going to wait more than an hour and a half for our dinner, I wouldn't have chosen Harry's.
If you're a hungry tourist in St. Augustine tonight, I don't recommend Harry's, but if you don't mind sitting or standing around in a nice courtyard for an hour or more, you might enjoy it.
We have visitors coming into town next week and we were planning on bringing about a dozen people to Harry's. Now we're working on Plan B. We've been going to Harry's occasionally for several years and this is the worst service we've ever experienced.
Does anyone know what's up with Harry? Is he doing OK? Even if a business is going down hill, it can survive by taking advantage of tourists who don't know any better. Tourists beware!
Harry could do any of the following to begin the journey of improving his customer satisfaction:

• put customer feedback cards on every table
• train the busboys and busgirls to help make salads when the kitchen gets backed up
• hire managers who have more empathy with customers
• redesign the measure that's forcing the hostess not to seat people at empty tables until the kitchen is ready

If you own or work for a business where you believe you can be doing a better job and would like help improving your processes, contact Dr. Lorraine today. Better now than later.

How Much Is Your Restroom Costing You?

On a recent visit to a doctor's office, I made a stop in the restroom. Here's what I saw--a bad sign! Someone in the office evidently thought it would be a good idea to put a basket of paper towels on top of the toilet tank. And the same person, or perhaps someone else, took the time to type, print and then tape a paper sign on the front of the toilet tank letting patients know they only wanted toilet paper in the toilet. The sign read:

Please...Only toilet paper should be placed in the toilet.

Are they serious? Where should I put the stuff I came in to get rid of? Now here's what makes the story even more interesting. They purchase the kind of towels that fold together, the kind that are meant for a towel dispenser, so that once you pull one out, the first fold of the next towel is cued up for taking, similar to the way a tissue box works.

I typically try to follow rules as much as possible, but when I pulled a paper towel to dry my hands, one more flipped over and fluttered right into the toilet. What a trap! Right about then I looked around the room to see if there was a hidden camera somewhere in the corner where someone was watching to see what I would do. Would I reach into the toilet and pull out the paper towel?

Well, I'm not quite that obedient. And by now, I've already decided they deserve a clogged toilet for setting up such a poor layout of the bathroom supplies. In the next picture you can see that they clearly have room for a towel dispenser closer to the sink.

In addition to making it easier to wash hands, it would also save the drips that end up on the toilet seat when people reach over the toilet with wet hands to get a paper towel. Don't you hate when you see a toilet with drips on the seat?

If you have a poorly designed restroom in your office or if you know of an organization who needs some help improving a restroom space, contact Dr Lorraine. I can help you set up a functional bathroom to meet your requirements and fit the theme of your organization. You may not think that your restrooms have much impact on your organization and you may not be thinking about other aspects of your environment that have an impact on the brand, image and impression that you deliver to your employees and customers.

Can you believe that a doctor would allow this in her office? One who knows much about the dangers of germs! The sign is dripping with germs, and advertises oversight on the part of the doctor and office manager.

If you'd like to learn more about bathroom ratings around the world, or provide your rating on a bathroom that you visited, see RestroomRatings.com.

Your customers and employees become more or less loyal based on the experiences they have with your organization. Why not take every opportunity to make a good impression and create a positive experience?

Two Feedback Questions are Better Than Thirty Six

My intent in providing feedback is to help organizations better understand how customers experience their product and service offerings. Most leaders and managers have blind spots they don’t even know about. In addition, many people are uncomfortable with genuine feedback, so they find ways around it. They collect examples to support their own desires. And they gather excuses to avoid the things they don’t want to deal with. For leaders who are open to change and growth, I provide just one opinion that they may or may not find helpful.

I arrived at Lake Yale Baptist Conference Center (LYBCC) after dark on Friday, so my first impression was that it was a difficult place to find. Their directions from Jacksonville told me to come via SR-40. After I turned onto SR-40, I saw a sign that said Road closed 11 miles ahead, local traffic only. This didn't bother me. I justified that I would drive slow through the road construction and act like local traffic. Ten miles later, I came to another sign that provided one more important detail: Bridge closed, local traffic only. Bridge closed! Why didn't they mention this 10 miles ago? Why didn't MapQuest tell me this several hours ago?

Over the years I've become an expert at getting myself out of being lost. So I came prepared with my Florida map. I drove off the side of the road and pulled my reading glasses out of my luggage. When I was younger I didn't need the reading glasses step, but now I do. I studied the map and found out how I was going to go around this bridge closure. Here I was on a very dark night on the back country road in central Florida. I was disappointed with MapQuest, with LYBCC, with road construction procedures and with myself for not having gotten the memo about the bridge closure.

I was already on a tight schedule and now I was certain to be late for the Friday-night keynote speaker. But I had a conversation with myself, saying that I could get the notes, have lunch with the speaker or hear him at another conference. When I made the first right turn, all I could see in the sky was the moon smiling at me. It was a crescent in the shape of a smile. I felt safe knowing that God was watching over me and giving me yet another life lesson. By now, I was all cheered up, because I realized that I couldn't change what happened. I could only go on with this day from right here, right now. This detour ended up costing me about an extra 45 minutes.

Not only was it a challenge for me to find Lake Yale, but once I did find the property, I drove around turning my car into strange positions on the roads to shine my headlights on the building names trying to figure out how to find my group. The building names were hard to see in the dark.

When I woke up on Saturday morning, I found myself at a serene conference center on a lake. After staying here Friday night and driving around the campus a few times on Saturday, I recognized that there doesn’t seem to be any tight security here. There’s no gate at the entry, no special tags for the cars and no formal check in. Anyone can drive on or off the property with ease.

The breakfast and lunch didn't thrill me, so I ventured off site for a Subway dinner even though it was about 15 miles away. I used a map from the Guest Information notebook to navigate my way to the nearby small town of Eustis. Not only did I want a healthy dinner, but I was also craving a good cup of coffee with cream. All they served here was weak coffee with fake flavored and sugared creamers. I don’t like that stuff! I also don’t like this coffee addiction I have, especially when I’m on the road. Sooner than later, I must do something about it, but not today.

So I ventured out and got a Starbucks doppio espresso with doppio shots of hot water. This satisfied my coffee craving. As I sipped on my espresso doppio, I did a bit of reflection on my personal vision and mission. I love thinking through things or writing as a caffeine buzz kicks in. Then I went to Subway--you can always count on them for a quick healthy sandwich.

Back at LYBCC on Saturday evening when our conference room was too cold, I was able to use a phone on the wall in the in the entry of the education building to call for assistance. I called and got an answering service. This didn’t give me a lot of confidence about how quickly we would get heat, but to my surprise, we got help within minutes. The message got through quickly and a staff member adjusted the thermostat within a few minutes. He must have been here on site and responded to a page right away. The quick response time was impressive.

LYBCC really has an opportunity that they’re missing. Early on Saturday, I checked the times for their café & bookstore. They were only open from 2-4:30 PM on Saturday. I saw a lot of people walking around campus and surely these people would want to buy a coffee or other food if there were good options in the café. In addition, the café is separate from the cafeteria. Since both relate to food and coffee and people may want to eat or linger beyond cafeteria hours, I think they ought to combine the café with the cafeteria. I recognize that they would have to set up some good procedures to make it work and do some renovations, but I believe it would be to their benefit.

The cafeteria has a view of the lake, but the café doesn’t. The café only had a few unhealthy quick food options. Neither the cafeteria nor café offered a good cup of coffee with cream. Why call it a café? The cafeteria salad bar at lunch was pretty good. They offered several vegetables, but the blue cheese dressing wasn't the greatest. The drink lines weren’t set up efficiently. The Styrofoam cups were placed right in the middle of a combination drink and condiment stand.

People bottlenecked at the drink/condiment stand, trying to get a coffee or hot chocolate and then step sideways through others in line so they could make their way to the creamers and stirs. People were stirring their coffee while others were reaching across them for ketchup. Since none of the staff asked my opinion about their assembly line, I didn't say anything. This is the don't ask and don't tell principle in action. This would be a good project for a college student wanting to become a process specialist.

The dining hours were limited to one hour and I don’t mind that so much, as long as the food is good and they can get people through the lines quickly. I liked how the lines formed inside the building rather than outside. Last October I went to the LifeWay Glorieta Conference Center for a writers conference and I remember shivering in line because the doors had to be propped open to accommodate people waiting in line for their food. During some meals the temperature was in the 40s. It made for a very uncomfortable wait. The architects didn't plan to accommodate the long lines at dinner.

The pillows in the LYBCC rooms were all the same—too big and too puffy. I’m petite and my neck was propped up too high. I felt the kink in my neck on Saturday and Sunday mornings. This is the reason that some people travel with their pillows. Maybe I should look into some small travel pillow to solve this issue. I’m constantly trying to reduce the amount of stuff I travel with, however, so I’m not eager to add items to my travel checklist. I think that they ought to have a variety of pillow sizes in each room, or at least offer an extra one or two with less poof. Even if they’re trying to make sure that the bed looks balanced when it’s made, they can provide housekeeping with instructions to put two flat pillows in the middle of the king bed and two poofy ones on the sides. That way it would all balance out. Problem solved! Another way I can solve the problem is to accustom myself to sleeping flat on my back so I never need a pillow anymore. Maybe I'll find some time to read up on this to see what the sleep experts say.

Something else I really didn’t like about the room was the fact that it was somewhat musty and the window was bolted shut. The only way to get air in the room was through the noisy HVAC unit. If the room didn’t have carpeting, but had hard surface flooring instead, it probably wouldn’t hold onto as much dust and odor. Don’t get me wrong, the room was clean on the surface. Other things in the room can carry musty odors as well, such as the mattress, the bedspread, the furnishings and even the walls. On both mornings, I woke up stuffy and my eyes had that squinty red look I get when my allergies are acting up. I often feel this way when I wake up in older hotels with poor ventilation. I slept with the HVAC unit off because I don’t like the noise of a loud fan going all night.

Here are best things I found about LYBCC:

• This is a beautiful property with lake views. Because it’s in central Florida and far from malls and outlets, it really promotes rest and relaxation.
  
• The facilities seem to be well maintained and basic procedures seemed to be quite effective.
  
• Since “Baptist” is in the name, I assume that the facility is backed by the Baptist church and therefore probably has the means to promote and improve the facility for greater maximization of its asset. I noticed a campsite on the property, for example. This mixed use of the property is an innovative idea and provides visitors with options.

So if LYBCC were to improve on a few things, here’s what I’d suggest in order of importance:

1. Enhance the dining experience by doing some or all of the following:
   a. provide outdoor seating with a view of the lake
   b. move the café to the same building as the cafeteria and keep the café open for most of the day so people can buy drinks & snacks during their breaks
   
2. make contact with the people who come on site, give them the option to keep in touch by signing up for a newsletter and/or provide a brochure that they can take back to their church. Some type of front desk check in would probably work best. I spent the weekend here and had very minimal contact with anyone from LYBCC.
   
3. Continuously improve the look & feel of the rooms:
   a. provide a way to freshen up the smell of the room, while minimizing the noise. Hint: the answer is not a deodorizer! The room is often a big part of a person’s first impression at a retreat center.
   b. provide some pillows with less stuffing
   c. add color to warm up the white walls

There’s no question in my mind that LYBCC has put effort into pleasing their visitors. They placed a Guest Information notebook in my room. I had notebook #417 and I was in room#709. These differing numbers indicates to me there’s probably an opportunity for improvement. I visualize a manual inefficient process going on behind the scenes. Because the notebook has so many pages, I imagine that it’s time consuming to go through it after each guest departs, to make sure that any missing pages are replaced.

The notebook included numerous computer-generated pages organized into five categories:
· Emergency Services
· General Information
· Guest Services
· Around the Area
· Comments

It looks like several people have put a lot of effort into doing this research and compiling these pages over time. It does look rather homemade, however, cheapening their effort. I think they would benefit by converting some of this information into more condensed and graphically pleasing brochures to lay out in the rooms. I'm not saying this to harm the organization, but to help the organization. If I thought it looked homemade, it's likely that someone else thought the same thing.

The three-page evaluation form in the last Comments section probably goes unnoticed by most guests. And even if a guest did notice the “Guest Evaluation” form in the Comments section of the notebook, I doubt if many people would complete a three-page form that would take longer to complete than filling out an application for a drivers license. The Guest Evaluation form does, however, provide an instrument for people to communicate to them and they clearly identify all the areas where they’re seeking feedback:

• Office Staff
  
• Housekeepers
  
• Dining room
  
• Groundskeepers
  
• Audio-visual crew
  
• Miscellaneous
  
• Comments

It’s tempting for me to type out this three-page form so you can check it out, but I think the main value in this list is internal, for the benefit of each department head. The questions aren’t numbered, but I counted up 36, not including the option to include additional comments!

They’re organizing the customer’s comments by their departments, rather than how a customer experiences a weekend or week on their property: check-in process, room, conference rooms, dining experience and so on. Their "Guest Evaluation" might be a good checklist for the staff, but I’m certain that if we counted up the number of people who slept at LYBCC in 2007 and the number of people who completed the Guest Evaluation form, I bet we’d discover that less than 5% of the visitors found the form and completed it without any prompting. If people did complete it, it’s probably because their meeting organizer included it in their participant packets and requested them to fill it out. I'm notorious for providing feedback, but this one was so long that I didn't want to fill it out.

One final note about the Guest Information notebook is that it also included the business card of their Director of Guest Services--a bold gesture for any organization. I’ll send her this note and see what happens.

After the conference, I learned that much of the staff here are volunteers who work hard to keep this beautiful facility running. Again, I'm only one opinion, but I believe that that they are achieving their stated mission and they're doing it at an affordable price which provides an open door to many.

How do you know if your mission is translating into the results you want? What are your measures?

Are you open to feedback in the way that your customer wants to give it to you--the way the experience goes for them? Are you sure? Learning to accept feedback takes time. For individuals, it's transforming. For organizations, it's a cultural shift.

Is it worth it to you to work toward getting better and better each day? It's up to you.

Are You Still Working on Your Salad?

One of my pet peeves is waiters who ask if I'm still working on my meal. First of all, I'm on vacation today, so I'm not "working!" But today when my husband and I went to lunch at the Cabana Cafe in Destin, FL, the waitress came to our table and asked me if I was still working on my salad. This is a very common misuse of the word work. Most people work to eat, not the other way around. And if I was working on my food, I'd be the one doing the cooking in the kitchen, not the one going to a restaurant so I didn't have to work to prepare the meal!

After she walked away from our table, my husband asked me why I didn't tell her that I wasn't working today. I usually return a comment back to servers saying something like, "No, I'm not working right now, but I am still eating." But it's a hopeless solution. For starters, some waitresses look at me confused when I say this, so what's the point anyway? I can go on correcting servers throughout the United States the rest of my life and not solve this linguistic faux pas and national epedemic.

Another interesting thing happened with the same waitress. After I placed my order for the Asian salad, she told me that this was a very bland choice and she suggested that I change my order. Huh, I thought? I thanked her for her opinion and glanced over the menu again. Nothing else on the menu looked as good as a salad with lettuce, fresh mandarin oranges, sliced almonds, cucumbers, red onions with ginger soy dressing. It sounded great to me!

"I prefer vegetarian, so I think I'll stick with this salad," I said. Since she said it was bland, I asked, "can you please bring extra dressing on the side?"

"Would you like chicken or shrimp with that?"

Huh, I thought again! "No thank you," I said.

I wonder if Wayne Anderson, the owner/manager is providing enough training for his staff? I know that Wayne is the owner because when we got our bill, it was attached with a clothes pin to a Cabana Cafe post card. The post card includes a picture of Wayne with his general manager, Mandy, and his coffee roaster, Sophie. I really like the gesture with the postcard and the wooden clothes pin with a joke written on it:

It's good for a man to believe in something. So I believe I'll have another beer.

Wayne's restaurant might survive simply because it's near the beach in an area that draws a lot of tourism. But Wayne's restaurant might not make it if he doesn't start asking his customers the two magical questions:

1. What is the one thing that you enjoyed most about your experience at the Cabana Cafe today?
   
2. What is the one thing we most need to improve?

If Wayne doesn't ask his customers these questions, he will be running his business blinded by the opinions of his own semi-loyal employees. I'd like to send my feedback to help Wayne with his business, but he has made it quite difficult for me to reach him. I didn't see or receive a feedback form when I was there today, and this evening when I looked at his website, I discovered that the website doesn't have a contact us area. I did, however, find an e-mail for a Wayne Anderson who is on the Board of Directors for the YMCA of Florida's Emerald Coast. If it is the same Wayne Anderson, then I'm impressed that he is giving to his community not only through a small business, but also through his community service to the YMCA.

The salad was very good. I wish Wayne the best with his business venture into his not-so-specialized coffee/cafe, pizza/salad buffet, lunch, dinner and everything-about-food ice cream shop.

The next time a waiter asks you if you're still working on your food, can you please help me out and tell them that you're paying them to work on your food? I think I'll ask Susie Ross of Waiter Training to help too.

Hair's a Good Story About Eyes

This evening, I had a hair appointment. Everything started out fairly normal, except that they were out of clean smocks, so I had to keep my shirt on. It was an off-white shirt that I like, but I wasn't too worried about it. I was enjoying my typical entertaining conversation with my stylist, Shelly, while she added color and foiled my hair. My long hair, held up with purple foil, was sticking up everywhere.

Shelly then looked me in the eyes and asked me if I wanted to have my eyebrows done. Right about then, the whole salon went black. No kidding! This was a first for me. All the ladies in the salon began gabbing loudly:

"Where are the candles?"

"Who has a lighter?"

"How am I going to go to work tomorrow with half a haircut?"

"The whole street is blacked out!"

"Let's get outta here before the ghosts start acting up."

"Ghosts?"

"Yeah, strange things happen in this place."

"Huh?"

"Who has a key to lock up?"

"Turn off the water. Don't shampoo! Our water pump doesn't work without electricity."

"These candles are great!"

"Can you come to my house to finish my color & cut?"

"Where's a candle? I need to find my scissors."

"I can't find my purse."

While all of this commotion was going on, I found my blinking cell phone in my purse and confirmed with my husband that we had power at home. My husband joked, "tell them to pay their electric bill." No one else thought it was funny. I asked Shelly if she would follow me to my house to finish my color and cut. She agreed.

"Where are my keys?" someone said.

"Don't worry about paying."

"Let me put a cap on your hair. Don't let your head touch your car seat."

"Blow out all the candles."

"I can't find my cell phone."

"Can I borrow your phone?"

And so it went until we all finally huddled around the door and walked out together into the darkness. As I walked out the door, I was glad that I had my shirt on and not one of those loose doctor's-office-like polyester smocks. Headlights from passing cars provided moments of light as we all found our way to our cars. The clock was ticking for me or who knows what color my hair might turn. She followed me home, even though her gas tank was on empty. She wanted to get gas first, but the gas stations were down too. No power, no gas.

Shelly said that she hoped that this was the end of time, because she'd rather be in heaven anyway. At times like this, I'm reminded of the story that Stephen King tells in his book, The Stand. It's an eerie time when people are dying of of plagues and every modern convenience is shut down. No electricity, no running water, no phones, no roads. People are so ill that they're dying along the roads, so the roads become impassable. It's miserable for the people left behind.

And that reminds me of the Left Behind series telling the story of Revelations to come:

...on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.

On this night, Shelly and I both made it to my house. She disassembled the foil in the laundry room. I shampooed my own hair in the tub. Then she did my cut on our back porch, while I coaxed my husband into trying a new, more spiked style. So then he got a great cut.

Shelly didn't know what to charge. She left it completely up to me. She said that she wasn't sure which one of us should pay the other tonight. She's great! She's customer focused because she looks straight into the eyes of all her customers. That's the nature of her business. I gave her a hug and walked her to the door. Many people are too far removed from their customers and may never look into their eyes.

Who are your customers?

Do you have the advantage of looking into their eyes?

If your lights went out, would you leave them behind?