Mother left bad review of my business because of how we treated her 3 year old

[user1480264682]

I run a soft play centre in a small town. It closes at 6pm weekends but sometimes it closes at 3:30 for private hire parties.

Last Saturday it closed at 3:30pm. We did put that it would be closing
On facebook and on an A4 piece of paper outside the door of the centre. I We put the notice up three days before the early closing.

At 3:14pm one of our workers saw a young mum and her 3 year old arrisve excitedly for soft play. She took his coat and shoes off and handed over her £4.00.
The worker told her that the centre would be closing in 15 mins.

She was upset and said that her son would not understand why he couldn't go In and she had travelled half an hour to get here.
She told him that soft play was closed and he didn't understand so she asked if he could play for 15 mins. My worker said that if she wanted to play for the remaining 15mins she would have to pay full price. She said she couldn't afford £4.00
For 15 mins as she would have to occupy her son for the remaining hours afterwards so would need to take him somewhere else.

She said okay and was nice not annoyed. She never said she was upset at the time. She then left with her son who started screaming crying saying he wanted o go in soft play and she had to pick him up screaming crying. The worker didn't see or hear him crying but another who was outside did.

The mother has since gone on to write a bad review on out facebook page. She used to visit our centre up to three times a week and she has said it was very mean not to let her clearly disappointed son play for 15 mins as he was so excited to play and at his age did not understand it was closed. She also said she was willing to pay just not full price.

She has said she will never be returning and her son cried for an hour on the way home trying to run back.
I would have done the same as this worker and she is not going to be in trouble for this as you have to pay full price no matter what time you arrive.

AIBU? It may have been nice to
let him play for 15 mins but shouldn't be expected. In hindsight we may have considering the circumstances but we feel it shouldn't be expected.

Do you have signs up in your soft play saying you can close for parties and to phone to avoid disappointment?

It's on fb. I won't be posting the link anywhere. If anyone is that bothered they could search the fb pages of every soft play centre in the U.K. 😂

Sorry if I seem to be ignoring advice. There's far more replies than I ever expected so I just can't read them all at the moment but I will go through them all in an hour.

No there's no signs saying we sometimes close for parties but we do say that on our facebook page.

We have a website but it isn't updated with changing opening times.

I think YABU too - everyone is entitled to leave a review of your business, and as you have reviews enabled on your Facebook page, you know this. You really need to have a plan for how to deal with complaints better.

I agree with PPs about offering them something to make up for it, but don't put that bit on Facebook for everyone (otherwise you'll set a precedent) - just reply and say something like 'So sorry for the inconvenience, we could have communicated the closure better. We hate to let any customers down and all of our staff will be receiving customer service training to ensure nobody feels let down as you have been. Yf you could email me at [email protected], we'd like the chance to make this up to you and your son'

There's a couple other things you can do to get your hours in front of more people.

There's an option on Facebook to update your hours for one-offs so if anyone looks at your page they can see the hours for the day they want to travel.

If you don't have it already, you should set up 'Google My Business' for your centre. They do the same thing with ad-hoc opening hours but it means if anyone googles your business, or uses Google Maps to search for directions, it will show that you are closed.

You still won't catch everyone but should help :)

If the review is on your own FB page then it can probably be deleted if you wanted! But I think it would be good to tackle it and show that you can take heed of complaints and adjust where necessary.

I would have let them in for free - as it was only 15 minutes. Mum could have then decided if it was best taking him and out early - or just to leave it and distract him with another plan.

If I was going to check opening times of a soft play I'd look on the website and not Facebook so it's worth updating the website too. Saying that, I'd probably only check the first time I went.

Not everyone uses Facebook. I used to but don't anymore - so much horrible / useless stuff on there I now don't bother with it.

I think we've found the problem. This is madness! So regular visitors during the week would have no way of knowing this happened at the weekend.

No there's no signs saying we sometimes close for parties but we do say that on our facebook page. We have a website but it isn't updated with changing opening times.

Op, when you are thinking about customers, the key thing isn't if they are right or you are right. It is irrelevant for business in a customer-facing business such as yours. Unless there is a truly outrageous and totally unacceptable and dangerous request by customers, you do have to bend over backwards and to expect to do it to keep goodwill. Whilst this might not feel like the way to grow your business, it is the way forward. Customers will return and they will tell their friends what great service they received.

Your service (including opening hours which are transparent and clear to people who won't look on a website or Facebook page) must be excellent. This includes the people on the door/till. Your policies about charges and last entry need to be clear and fair. Last entry times 45 mins before closing deal with people wanting to pass less to come in with only 10 mins to go.

You have to expect complaints and to accept some won't be reasonable. Don't take them personally, but expect to apologise, to listen and to offer goodwill gestures of compensation, both when complaints are a bit unreasonable, but especially when there is something in them. Don't have the argument in your head about were you or the customers right.....your default position needs to be that the customer is right.
Defensive owners and managers who don't want to take responsibility and to blame customers, especially when the business is at fault infuriate people. They don't return,mother go on social media and they tell all their friends, who also tell their friends. Work hard to make sure there is nothing to complain about and when people still do, work hard to make sure they go away and say something positive rather than negative.

Bad management that's a terrible system to run. She should've been given the 15 mins free as a goodwill gesture but you need to stop this current system as its not working. Just offer parties from 6pm (for older kids) or every other Friday afternoon from 4pm or every Sunday is party day or something current system would make me take my business elsewhere.

Careful with your PMs, OP, could be journalists sniffing round a good story.

YANBU, what if he had vomited or pooed (which seems to be the primary aim of most 3 year olds at soft play) just before the party?
Besides, since when were the wishes of a toddler reasonable? He would have screamed whenever he left because he likes it. She sounds like a 3 year old herself.

Flipping heck, that would have to be one hard-up journo.

We have a website but it isn't updated with changing opening times.

This is completely unreasonable and totally useless. Why would I look at a FB page? I would always go straight to the company website.

Fluctuating opening hours are also madness, and bound to lead to this sort of issue.

The lack of information provided to customers is indeed crazy!

Even IF you continue with the random changing of opening hours I agree with pps who said word it as

Closing time 330pm with occasional extended hours

Rather than your current set up. How long has the business been open?

Personally businesses that HAVE a website but don't keep it updated really annoy me.

You havent lost her. Offer her something as an apology. Something decent and put it right.

Oh and relying on FB as the only means of communication and not updating website is also very poor. Lots of people don't use FB - I do, but I would still go to a company's website first for standard quick info searches like opening times before their FB page!! I would expect something as obvious as times to be right there slap bang first page on website!

'I would expect something as obvious as times to be right there slap bang first page on website!'

Yep in big clear print and wording too.

The OP does not have to 'bend over backwards' to accommodate customers unless she thinks that is the best way to turn a profit. Sometimes it's worth being more flexible, sometimes not. It depends on what the outcome might be, not on some blanket principle that she should kiss the arse of anyone who walks through the door, no matter how unreasonable. I am not saying the customer in this case wasn't disappointed, but there is no reason a company shouldn't be able to close at short notice, it's not grounds for complaint in and of itself, and no-one was rude to her or tried to rip her off. She wanted to take the toddler in for 15 minutes and she only got annoyed when told there wouldn't be a discount. She is entitled to find this unreasonable, but it isn't innately so - it is a matter of opinion. The OP will have to decide whether it is commercially viable for her to change her policy, but it isn't a given that she should just because one person wasn't happy.

This sounds like a new business to me.

Such a terrible system of variable opening hours, which in themselves will put people off, plus the fact that they aren't even communicated effectively,mounds like total beginners to me.

The angry response to some negative feedback, also makes this sound like a new business, especially because the customer being irritated was entirely rational. All businesses have to expect to get some negative feedback, some which will be warranted and some not. Established businesses don't like it, but they cope with it and manage it.

OP have a look at some of the sites of successful businesses that get lots of reviews and see how the business responds to negative feedback. They always acknowledge that the person is upset. They often comment that they would like to discuss the matter further and give details of how they can get in touch to have a chat and resolve the matter. They acknowledge when they have got things wrong. They give goodwill gestures always, when they have been at fault, and often when they haven't too.

No, the Op doesn't have to bend over backwards to accommodate customers. It will be her choice.

It will be her choice if she wants to insist that having a variable opening policy is fine and that she can open and close when she likes and she can inform people of the details in FB if she likes, but not on the website. Of course she can do that.

She can argue that the customer was wrong to post on FB and unreasonable and not give an apology or goodwill gesture.

She can decide that the customer is the enemy, especially one who complains. She can be defensive and refuse to acknowledge that there were issues in this situation which contributed towards the upset which could have been differently, and that the customer was clearly at fault for not knowing the closing times, or not wanting to pay full price for 15 mins.

All of those options are totally open to her.....she can continue to run the business as she has,mooing exactly what she wants because she is in charge and it is her business so what she says goes. It can become a matter of pride to have a rigid system with no flexibility within it, and to insist on the letter of the law with all customers....her business, so her rules. Do we see those businesses with those approaches lasting?

If I turned up at a cafe I wanted to go to and it was shut I'd be a bit annoyed. If I turned up with a toddler and it was shut that could be the last straw in a difficult day. If the staff further were happy to see my little one crying I would be cross and tell my friends. Daft behaviour if you want to appeal to your target clientele.

You should have let them in for 15 minutes without charge - it would have cost you nothing and shown goodwill to one of you customers who was planning on spending money and time with you but couldn't because you changed your hours.

Instead you tried to charge her full price for 15 minutes (Seriously WTF was your staff member thinking?) and she has gone off with a grumpy child feeling disgruntled.

It's really not very hard to understand is it?

and she hasn't left a bad review because of how you treated her 3 yo, but because of how you treated her.