“The code is 05xx#.”

“What?” I asked.

“The pass code to get into the restroom is 05xx#. I saw that you wanted to get in there,” responded the store employee.

“Thanks.”

We had taken the Max downtown that evening to attend a presentation and had arrived early. With time to kill, we went to a nearby store to do a little shopping. Finding nothing interesting to buy and with the start of the program approaching, we headed towards the door. Spotting the restrooms as we neared the front escalators and not sure if we would find facilities at the presentation, we made a quick stop only to find that you needed to enter a pass code on a keypad to get into the restrooms.

We seemed out of luck. Rather than go back to the cash wrap area to ask if we could get the code, we just started to head over to the program. But that is when the store employee came to our rescue. He saw our failed attempt with the restrooms and decided to help us out with the requisite pass code.

I understand the ideas behind the secure restrooms. I don’t necessarily disagree with them. Stores want to make their restrooms available to their customers and not the public. It is tough to keep restrooms cleaned and stocked when there is heavy traffic especially in urban areas. (Full disclosure: During college, I worked as a janitor for this company and cleaned their restrooms.) Loss prevention and security are among other issues related to unsecured restrooms.

None of this seemed to matter to the store employee that evening. He just saw some store visitors that needed the restrooms and decided to help them out by giving them the pass code.

To him, it probably seemed like a small thing. But when it comes to great customer, isn’t it all about the small things?