dispatches from the new world of work

Gill MA & Success Tip #1

I've argued that as tough times loom (or are here, as they surely are as last week's statistics demonstrated), reviving a focus on the basics almost tops the "to do" list. Aiming mostly at the basics, we've been offering our own To Do list—145 Success Tips to date. Which brings me to Gill MA.

I usually fly to the Great City of Wherever from Logan Airport. The trip from Tinmouth VT to Boston passes through Gill MA. It's exactly halfway—hence the perfect place for a pit stop. With choices aplenty, I am nonetheless firm in my habit of stopping at the Wagon Wheel Restaurant. It's, in fact, a smallish coffee shop-diner. The food, including the fresh muffins that are about a foot away as you enter (typically at dawn's early light, in my case), is boffo. The attitude is boffo, too. But make no mistake, my custom is well and truly earned, a half dozen times a month, by the restroom!

It's clean-to-sparkling. (Come to think of it, despite the invariably crowded shop, I have never seen the tiniest scrap of paper on the bathroom floor.) Fresh flowers are the norm. And best of all, there is a great multi-generational collection of family (the owner's family, as I recall) pictures that cover all the walls; I invariably spend an extra minute examining one or another, smiling at a group photo from a local company dinner, or some such, circa 1930 I'd guess.

Well, the likes of Gill's finest won pride of place on our success tip list. Namely, the #1 spot went to "clean and neat," with an emphasis on restrooms. To me, a clean, and attractive and even imaginative loo is the best "I care" sign in a retail shop or professional office—and it goes double when it comes to employee restrooms!

Recession is upon us, and odds are it'll linger. Step #1: Mind the restrooms! The basics are more important than ever, and I can't think of a better place to start. (Or a better person than the owner or manager to be in charge.)

Tom Peters posted this on 11/03/08.

Comments

Could not agree with you more. Our day porter (I know, I know) is an invaluable member of our team and every restroom is cleaned hourly through the offices, including our plants. Details matter and never more than here and now.

Posted by David Porter at November 3, 2008 1:34 PM

Amen, Tom. The customer typically can't know how clean you keep the grill, or how regularly you wipe down the shelves in the pantry. But they can see the drippy faucet in the restroom, and they will draw their own conclusions.

This, to me, brings us back to young Lew Alcindor's lesson #1 from John Wooden: here's how you put on your socks and tie your shoes so you won't slip and won't get blisters.

Posted by Tim Walker at November 3, 2008 6:31 PM