How hard or expensive is this fix?

I’m not sure where to start with this one.  I’ve always subscribed to the theory that you can tell a lot about a company by the LITTLE things they do or don’t pay attention to.  This is a picture taken in a bathroom of a restaurant.  A few things stick out to me as a professional in the Commercial Hardware Industry in Cincinnati, but also as a consumer and mother.

First let’s talk about this from a “commercial hardware” prospective.  This is a REALLY REALLY inexpensive and fast fix.  This is in a restroom, this is showing your customers that you don’t care about their privacy of safety.

Second is how a consumer looks at this.  Most restaurant diners are 35-54 years old.  This means they’ve owned a few homes and know how easy of a fix this is.  More importantly they’ve been alive long enough to realize how OLD this lock and hardware are.  This shows them the last time you remodeled your bathroom.  If you think consumers don’t think about these details, you’re wrong.  Research shows that for many retail businesses restrooms often make the largest impression on customers.  When they see a business that’s got the same (now broken) hardware that was there in 1980 then you’ve lost a lot of trust.  Thoughts start going through their head, how old is the kitchen, is the freezer  that old, is the food going to be OK, etc?

Third is from the prospective as  a mom.  When I was in my early 20′s and prior to motherhood this broken bathroom stall door would have been an inconvenience, but now as a mom I look at this much different.  I’m thinking about privacy and safety of me and my child.

Many of you won’t have examples this OLD  or minor, but look around your store and office and see what items catch your attention.  What are your customers seeing?  Little items like this can start to chip away at the brand equity you’ve built up in other areas.  I heard a speaker say “it’s not the stones, it’s the pebbles and sand that cause issues.”  His example was to take a jar and put a few big rocks in there, if you turn it on it’s side they come out.  Now take a bunch of smaller stones and sand and pack it in the same jar, it’s not going to come out as easy.

Don’t let your business get stuck in the jar!

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