★★★★★ Would use this restroom again.
You know the drill. You are at an outdoor concert or festival, nature calls, and somewhere in the distance sits a row of blue plastic closets baking in the sun.
You lower your expectations, hold your breath and enter and exit with urgency. Paper products are never guaranteed. The foot-pump handwashing station technically exists, but somehow you leave feeling less clean than when you arrived.
One of my favorite bands was playing in Park City as part of Concerts on the Slopes. Although we have attended hundreds of shows over the years, this was our first concert at Canyons Village.
It was nearly 100 degrees. After a great barbecue dinner and drinks, the inevitable venue scan began for the dreaded blue boxes.
But these were no ordinary porta-potties.
Air conditioning. Flushing toilets. Running water. Clean counters. Enough room to turn around without making physical contact with three different surfaces. They even smelled great!
These portable restrooms were nicer than my first apartment.
So much about the evening was off-the-charts awesome, yet somehow I could not stop talking about the bathroom experience.
It would have been easy to roll in the standard blue boxes and call it good. Instead, the organizers understood their audience, considered the conditions and adjusted the experience accordingly.
Great venue operators know that the customer experience is not defined by the stage alone. It is shaped by every detail, especially the ones guests normally dread.
Concerts on the Slopes did not just provide a restroom.
They provided a restroom worth writing about.
★★★★★
About the Author
Dan Rodgerson writes about placemaking, guest experience, leadership, entertainment and the unexpected moments that make destinations memorable.
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