Bathroom Blogfest ‘07: My Favorite Ladiesroom Around Des Moines
November 4, 2007 by Sandy Renshaw
Filed under Editor: Sandy Renshaw, Iowa
My favorite ladiesroom Around Des Moines is at the Von Maur store in the Valley West Mall.
Why? Because they have clean, roomy facilities - and plenty of them. I’ve never seen a waiting line there! The stalls are stocked with ample supplies and there are hooks and shelves for your belongings. There’s a lounge to relax in and make a free local phone call. There’s a separate Mother’s room with plenty of room to roll in your stroller and it boasts a large changing table. Here’s a few photos, although these pictures don’t do it justice.
And all this makes for HAPPY customers!
Where is your favorite ladiesroom?
Why am I talking about ladiesrooms? We’re just finishing up the annual Bathroom Blogfest! held during the National Kitchen and Bath Month. This event started out last year with 9 bloggers and gained momentum with 22 24 bloggers signed up to participate this year. During the week bloggers around the globe wrote about the importance of bathrooms in the customer experience. Earlier in the week M.R. Feld wrote about Restrooms in Des Moines. Read what other participants in Bathroom Blogfest ‘07 said:
- Kate Rutter—Adaptive Path
- Laurence Helene Borel—Blog Till You Drop
- Iris Shreve Garrott—checking out and checking in
- Susan Abbott—Customer Experience Crossroads
- Maria Palma—Customers Are Always
- Becky Carroll—Customers Rock!
- Toby Bloomberg—Diva Marketing
- Stephanie Weaver—Experienceology
- Linda Tischler—Fast Company Now
- C.B. Whittemore—Flooring the Consumer
- Ed Pell—K+B DeltaVee
- Helene Blowers—Library Bytes
- Claudia Schiepers—Life and its little pleasures
- Katie Clark—Practical Katie
- Sandra Renshaw—Purple Wren and Around Des Moines
- Reshma Anand—Qualitative Research
- Marianna Hayes—Results Revolution
- Carolyn Townes—Spirit Women
- Sara Cantor—The Curious Shopper
- Anna Farmery—The Engaging Brand
- Dee McCrorey—The Ultimate Corporate Entrepreneur
- Katia S. Adams—Transcultural
- Katie Konrath– getFreshMinds
- Jennifer Brite, of Kitchen and Bath Business
[tags]ladiesrooms, Bathroom Blogfest ‘07, Iowa [tags]
Now that I have had a chance to glance at other writers’ take on the topic, I discover two things. One, the issues are very similar for all the writers. Two, there are many issues that are ignored.
In short, public ladies’ rooms should be clean, accessible (i.e., if we need one, we should be able to find one), with room to sit bags and to hang coats, with spaces for mothers and their children, and with supplies. A few writers also noted directly that restrooms also have a social networking function. (Try to duplicate that on the Internet!)
The same week that this blogfest was being held, there was a presentation that I saw on some television news cast about toilets designed for use in underdeveloped countries and in parts of the world with little water. I started thinking about all of the issues that were not discussed as part of the ladies’ room blogfest.
Granted, the reason for the blogfest was the annual kitchen & bath show and that guided us in our approaches to the topic. We did not discuss how much marketing or selling of products should take place in the ladies’ rooms. Do we sell perfume, tampons, condoms, diapers? We did not talk about the plumbing or the number of women maintenance workers. Having to jiggle the handles of public toilets and spend time adjusting sink faucets so they don’t drip, plus the times I’ve had to run to another floor in an office building because a man was fixing a toilet or faucet, I really should have given more time to these aspects of the experience. Maybe next year.