What’s in Your Toilet?
Sorry for the clickbait, there is some sense to the question but let me explain the background.
When I was out on the road meeting law firms for the first time that I worked with for a panel membership scheme, the one thing I always did when I arrived in reception was to ask where the bathroom was and pay a visit.
It wasn’t just about a freshen-up, it had more to do with the state of the toilet facilities. I am a huge believer that the state of your facilities goes a long way to show how you run your files and help your clients and I haven’t been proven wrong over the last decade.
Toilets stuffed to the rafters with spare toilet rolls, cleaning chemicals, spider webs, rat traps, and still having 1970s decor, I’ve seen it all and some tragic places that you questioned whether you should close the door behind you. I even once left a law firm before the meeting even took place based on what I found in the toilets (that’s another story).
For me, you have to care about every part of your business, even more so the client facing aspects. I’ll get the argument now that clients don’t come in as often, but they do still visit the office, every client is not digital, not quite yet anyway, we’re still a couple of decades away.
It’s not just the toilet, that was my checkpoint, what’s in your meeting rooms, do you need those magazines in reception from 2018, get some nice photography books instead, are your brochures updated, all this sells your firm on first impressions.
My other bugbear is people who use the meeting rooms and don’t clear up after themselves, do you really want to take clients into a meeting room and there are used coffee cups there, it shows you just don’t care and leaves a bad impression on the next person. Every member of the team should have pride in their workplace, if they don’t do they want to be there in the first place.
It all works with the saying “Treat people as you wish to be treated”.
Action
Have a think about what would you like to see in a reception and how you feel walking into a toilet that’s a mess, what would you change and then make suggestions to the management team?
5 tips
Clear out the rubbish first, think minimalism, ditch the old magazines that have seen better days
Get some nice air freshener or even better a fresh coffee maker for clients to help themselves too
It’s old school but we went back to uniforms for the reception staff, they went shopping and chose what they wanted to wear but it had to match firm colours. It tied the whole experience together really nicely.
Invest in your client facing areas with quality furniture and fittings
If you can have your telephone switchboard in a different part of the building and have the reception staff focused completely on the people in reception, having conversations with them, and looking after their needs, it makes a massive difference when you walk into a reception and the staff aren’t on calls and asking you to wait a minute
Happy growing
See you next week
Chris
