I was talking to a PRO recently who had been called by users at a public event at all hours of the day and night complaining about the cleanliness of his units. He was fed up with taking the blame for overused restrooms when it was the spendthrift customer causing the problem.
I’m sure this has happened to you, too. The PRO had served the same local fair for several years, and each year he recognized the telltale signs that the customer was trying to get by with too few restrooms and too little service. When his technicians showed up in the evening to clean the restrooms at the festival, the holding tanks were almost at capacity, paper products were often used up, and the units were generally messier than others on the company service route.
MY NAME ON THE UNIT
The contractor feared the dirty units were starting to tarnish his company’s reputation for quality service, so he sat down with the fair organizers to find a solution. The customer, however, remained steadfast in the belief that no additional restrooms were necessary to keep fair attendees happy. The PRO thought he faced a no-win situation … he could keep on serving the customer and risk further erosion of customer satisfaction, or he could give up the lucrative account.
“That’s my name on the restroom, and that’s who the public is going to blame for the dirty restrooms,” he said. “So I didn’t have a choice. I had to fire the customer.”
The buck certainly seems to stop with the person whose name is emblazoned on the restroom labels. It’s his phone number a disgruntled fairgoer would dial after an unpleasant experience. And the over-used restrooms aren’t going to be a good calling card for potential customers who happen to swing the door open and use one.
I can respect what this contractor did. He took short-term revenue off the table to retain a sterling reputation. In some respects, he’s absolutely correct. The value of his good name in the community is worth more than the profits derived from a single client … almost no matter how big the paycheck is.
But you hope a run-in with a penny-pinching customer doesn’t come down to a Donald Trump moment. You’d like to think there’s a diplomatic solution, a way to provide adequate service and keep the customer. So what are your choices?
Provide additional equipment and services at no cost
If preserving your reputation is on the line and you want to keep the customer, you can always offer to bring additional units and provide added services on your own dime. Hopefully there’s still enough profit built into this big job to make it worthwhile even if you provide a half-dozen more units and clean them more frequently. If you follow this strategy one time, perhaps the customer will see the results you predicted – cleaner restrooms and happier patrons – and will take your advice the next time around. Or at the very least, your generosity of upping the ante of service will engender loyalty from the customer when the job is bid out again.
Become an event sponsor
Tell the event organizers you’d like to exchange additional equipment and manpower for being added to the fair’s sponsor list. While this will cost you extra money, it accomplishes two nice goals. First, restrooms will be cleaner and you don’t have to worry about your company’s reputation or getting calls at all hours to respond to messes.
But the added bonus in sponsorship is that more potential customers will see your name on fair promotional materials and maybe even at the main gate entrance with other great local companies. To the average fair visitor, you will be seen as a generous financial contributor to one of their favorite local events. They will know your donation is supporting many local charitable groups and youth who participate in the fair.
Offer units to exhibitors and food vendors
If the fair organizers don’t want to pick up the tab for additional equipment, maybe exhibitors and food vendors will see the value in renting their own units for visitors. For the food vendors, you can provide better hand-wash facilities that will be appreciated by their customers. And the local 4-H group or other farm association might want to bring a unit or two closer to the exhibit barns for the families that spend all week showing and caring for their animals.
You could appeal to these potential customers by saying their contribution of restroom units will help the fair overall present a cleaner and more professional image. You can also stress the value of exhibitor customers being able to choose where the restrooms and hand-wash stations are placed. You might find out that some of these exhibitors have been unhappy with having to walk a far distance to find a restroom or wait in long lines to use the current facilities.
Every unit an exhibitor or vendor orders will take stress off the existing number of restrooms. And they will be easy and convenient to place, service and pick up because you are already working at the fair.
Suggest providing units dedicated to fair workers
The idea of segregating restrooms for VIPs or employees at special events is one that seems to be taking hold across the country. It lends a status to the festival’s most important stakeholders. Employees and volunteers who spend 10 hours a day, five days in a row at a hot and dusty county fair, for instance, will appreciate the special treatment of having their own private restrooms in a low-traffic location. A spiff like that will help encourage their current volunteers to work longer hours, and help recruit new volunteers to the event.
Upscale units may be placed near an entertainment stage area for performers. When the fair’s VIP visitors get used to this amenity, the fair may start to order better portable restrooms or request a restroom trailer in the future. The VIP service then starts to bring more profits to your company.
The obvious benefit to a tiered system of restrooms for workers and VIPs is that they help take pressure off the restrooms placed for the general public. With these specialized units, you may find you no longer have the over-use issue that was your first concern.
YOU MAKE THE CALL
These are all potential solutions for a stingy special events customer. If one of these ideas works, your bottom line might be better off in the long run. But if, like the PRO I talked to, you just can’t make the numbers work to your advantage, you may still decide to drop an event and walk away. You have to keep in mind that your first priority in business is to turn a good profit. The work is hard, and you must be compensated for it fairly.
