Adults are Babies in Big Bodies

It’s been a while, but I still remember one of the first things I was told when I started my first role in corporate training. My boss said, “Adults are babies in big bodies.” What he meant by that is, even though you are training adults, you can’t forget that they need food and drink, and they need to use the restroom. I had multiple user experiences recently that made me think of that. I’m going to share one of them.

It was a very rainy Sunday, which killed my plan to go to an outdoor art show. I decided to go to an antique shop that I had been to a few times. It’s more than an hour’s drive from my house, and previously I had been to it when I was out that way for some other reason. I grabbed a few beverages (hydration!) and hit the road.

This shop is out in the country, so about an hour and 15 minutes into the drive I was starting to feel like I was never going to get there, and also that I really needed to get to a restroom. Remember, this was my first time going there without making other stops first.

I finally arrived and immediately started to look for a restroom sign. After a minute I asked a fellow shopper if she knew where the restroom is. She told me there isn’t one, and then suggested the nearest one she could think of, before remembering that business isn’t open on Sundays. I walked toward the counter, which had a sign I hadn’t seen on other visits that said there are no public restrooms. I asked the lady working there where the nearest available restroom is. She asked which direction I am going, and I replied whichever direction has the nearest restroom. Looking a little sheepish, she told me that no matter which direction I went, it was going to be about a 15-minute drive. So basically, the nearest restroom was about 15 miles away. Remember, these are country routes, not busy city streets with lots of traffic and lights that make the trip longer.

What I wanted to do was stay in the shop and poke around through the many intriguing items I noticed as I was scanning for the restroom, but I have an aversion to wetting my pants. I drove further west to reach a restroom, and then drove east, right past the shop and headed for home. I was too annoyed to stop again.

This shop is open for 7-8 hours a day, so I’m pretty sure there is a restroom on the premises. I doubt she locks the shop and drives 15 miles away to use one. In my opinion, when they made the business decision to not provide a restroom for customers, they were not thinking about the user experience. If the nearest restrooms are 15 miles away, you aren’t quite in the middle of nowhere, but you’re close. Normally if the small business I’m in doesn’t have a restroom it’s because it’s in an area that has multiple shops that share public restrooms.

I don’t know what antique shops are like in other parts of the country, but here in the Midwest they usually have multiple vendors who rent space. Items tend to be crowded together, and you need to spend time looking through everything for that treasure you can’t live without. Their goal should be to keep people in the shop for as long as possible, because they are more likely to find something to buy. I bought something from this shop on every previous visit, and probably would have this time too. Most small businesses can’t afford to have sales walk out the door.

You also have to consider what this communicates about your values. You aren’t willing to risk that someone might come into your shop and use your restroom without buying anything, but you have no qualms about sending your customers to another business to use their restroom without buying something.

So, to recap my user experience with this business:

Total time spent in car getting to shop: ~ 80 minutes

Total time spent in shop: 2 minutes

Money spent in shop: $0

Aggravation level: Highly Elevated

When running a business, consider the basic amenities needed to satisfy customer needs. Your goal should be to make it as easy as possible for customers to spend their money.