A Restroom Runaround: A Tale of Customer Experience Failures

We’ve all been there. That moment of sheer, desperate urgency when finding a restroom becomes your single, all-consuming mission. Now, imagine that moment is compounded by a confusing gatekeeper and a hidden solution. This isn't a hypothetical scenario; it’s a true story that perfectly illustrates how a brand’s promise can be shattered in a single interaction.

A friend of mine was recently traveling through France with his wife and two children. After a busy journey, they arrived at the station to catch the Eurostar back to the UK. My friend had two immediate priorities: find the Premier Lounge for his family to wait comfortably, and find a restroom—immediately.

He located the lounge first and, in a state of increasing urgency, asked the steward at the door to direct him to the toilets. The steward’s response was deflating: "There are no toilets in the Premier Lounge. You'll have to use the facilities on the main concourse."

So, off he went. He hurried back through the crowded station, navigated the long walk to the public restrooms, and thankfully made it in time. Physically relieved but mentally frazzled, he returned to the lounge where his family was waiting.

And that’s when he saw it.

As he walked back in, the same steward was standing there—directly in front of a clearly marked restroom door.

Confused and then rightfully angry, my friend confronted him. “Why did you tell me there were no toilets in here?”

The steward’s reply was a masterpiece of poor customer service. “I didn’t know you were a Premier Lounge customer. These toilets are only for people in the lounge.”

My friend, exasperated, replied, “You never asked for my ticket. And why would my family be sitting here if I wasn’t with them?”

The steward’s response? A shrug before he turned and walked away.

This story is a classic case study in two fundamental customer experience failures.

Failure #1: Prioritizing Policy Over Empathy

At its heart, customer experience is about humanity. The steward was so focused on enforcing a rule—" lounge toilets are for lounge customers only"—that he completely ignored the human need right in front of him. The need to use a restroom is a universal, often urgent, human experience. A customer-centric employee would have first solved the human problem (“The restroom is right here, let me quickly check your ticket on the way”) and then verified the policy. Instead, the steward chose to inflict unnecessary stress, potentially risking a far more embarrassing situation for a guest. He was a gatekeeper, not a helper.

Failure #2: Deflecting Blame Instead of Owning the Solution

The steward’s defence—“I didn’t know you were a customer”—isn’t the one he thought it was. It highlights a complete lack of initiative. His role is to facilitate a positive experience for guests. A simple, proactive question like, “May I see your ticket?” or even noticing the family already settled inside would have prevented the entire ordeal. Instead of apologising for the misunderstanding, he deflected blame onto the customer for not instinctively knowing an unstated procedure. This move from a simple mistake to a defensive posture turned a service failure into a memorable reason never to trust the brand again.

The Takeaway: Empower Your People to Be Human

The real failure here likely isn’t with one individual steward, but with the system that trained and empowered him.

• Hire for Empathy: Customer-facing roles require more than just following instructions. They require emotional intelligence and the ability to read a situation. Who you hire matters.

• Train for Empowerment: Employees should be trained to use common sense as their primary guide. Empower them to make small, human-centric decisions that solve problems first and worry about minor rules second. The cost of a restroom visit by a non-customer is negligible. The cost of a negative story like this one is far greater.

The Eurostar Premier Lounge sells an experience of ease and comfort. But in one interaction, that promise was broken. It’s a powerful reminder that no matter how premium your service is supposed to be, your customer’s experience is only as good as your least empathetic employee.