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.

Wrt your pay fill price no matter when you turn up - 'Penny wise and pound foolish' is your approach here and you may find it will bite you in the butt.

Slender, I agree.

It's not about businesses having a right to close when they want on whatever day they choose. It's about them recognising that customers want a consistent service and times and to know where they are. Successful businesses recognise that this is important to customers and so don't close early on an ad hoc basis, even if they post it in a place that not everyone looks or always make their ad hoc closures the same time. It still irritates customers who need simplicity about timings and a business that doesn't recognise this but puts its own desire/reasons for early closure ahead of what works for the it customers will lose custom.

Trifle good point my mistake. But I do think however it's done it needs to be more organised ie "on X days we may close earl for private hire". I'd be less likely to make the effort to go somewhere that could be shut at any point whereas if I knew early closing was only on certain days I would just plan around it.

LadyVampire: That is your choice as a customer. It's still not unreasonable for a company to choose to offer more flexible private hire availability. If that makes them more money, that is how it is. No-one is being ripped off or lied to. The alteration was advertised (within reason) and the woman failed to read the sign. I can't really see grounds for complaint.

BTW if you don't have the capacity to keep part of your premises open to the public while you run parties, you're probably going to lose more business than the parties make in profit!

If I went out of my way to go to a business like that during it's normal hours and found it closed, I probably wouldn't bother going next time it was raining and kids were bored, i'ld go somewhere I knew was always open. I see this a lot with small businesses who then complain that chains put them out of business - but what really put people off was nonsense like closing early if they were quiet etc so you never knew if it was worth going there or not.

Why can't you cordon off some tables for the party and then just include access to the soft play along side the public?

The whole POINT of soft play is that it's a parenting cop-out! Those days when you can't be arsed and just wanna sit and drink coffee without having to plan activities…. if a soft play has variable hours and expect you to research them each day you're thinking of going.. I'll just do something else like put cebeebies on, because the days when I use soft play are the kinda days when I can't be arsed to be phoning ahead/checking badly maintained websites

TinselTwins so true!

The info wasn't on the website. She travelled 30 mins to get there. She accepted there was only 15 mins left, but asked for a reduced rate (which given the fact the centre was closing earlier than expected wasn't unreasonable) and was faced with inflexible and seemingly uncaring staff and left with a crying child. Id say those were ground for complaint.

However, negative situations can be made into 'winners' by companies. The business could have profusely apologised for the inconvenience and given tickets for another visit for the mother plus a friend and their children. Or they could have allowed her in for 15 mins and given her a free coffee for the inconvenience she had faced. These are cheap and easy ways to handle the problem - could result positive comments,mor at least less negative ones.

I can't really see grounds for complaint

It's still bad business

For every woman like the one who complained, there'll be 10 parents who walked up to the door after telling their kids that they were going to soft play, saw the sign, walked away, and never bothered going back to THAT soft play again incase it ended up shutting early.. but just did it quietly

The ones who complain are actually doing the OP a favour, if I was her I'ld be worried about how many are thinking the same but not letting them know!

TinselTwins: I haven't said otherwise. The question is about whether it was unreasonable, though, not whether it was commercially smart.

ChocolateWombat: It wasn't unreasonable for her to ask for a reduced rate. But nor was it unreasonable for the worker to refuse. The minimum price is £4. The owner does not want to reduce this price for people who walk in 15 minutes before closing time because she will then have to do so for people who walk in 30 mins before closing time or 45. That is up to her.

Re. the details being available on the website, I agree this would be better but it would not necessarily solve the problem since most people wouldn't think to check the website. Someone is bound to turn up expecting to play no matter where the OP puts the information. As much as it is a shame that the child was upset, it isn't the OP's fault. She isn't obliged to be open to the public and had put up a notice, which the woman either didn't see or ignored.

If travelling a long way I would always phone ahead to see if the business was open. How long does it take to phone and check? If I was worried my 3 year old would be upset should the soft play be closed, I would want to ensure I avoided this. That's my responsibility, not the business owner's.

Customer service usually costs little, but can pay big dividends.

A few months ago, I took DS one Saturday afternoon to a party at soft play (which I had never been to before). Couldn't find his group anywhere, so asked the staff, and was told that the party was actually on Sunday, not Saturday. Oops! That will teach me to read a little more closely. So I got my wallet out prepared to pay for a session so that he could have a play, because it was my own silly fault that he was so excited. Staff member waved away my wallet, and said that he could just get on and have a play, no charge. I returned the next day, dutifully bought my drink and cake whilst he was at his party, and have now booked his birthday party there for a few weeks time. So the company didn't get the $10 it would have got from me paying for the Saturday session (that I wouldn't have been at otherwise), but end up with a $250 booking for a party that I wasn't going to have there, except for the fact that their customer service was so good.

Losing a regular customer who pays 10 each time they come in, over 4 for 15 minutes play session is just false economy. Train your staff better (but you'll probably need to train yourself first!).

But the two things are totally interconnected. Whn you post as the owner of a business you are asking about your behaviour as a business owner.

And even if this wasn't a business, my response would be the same. Imagine you were going to a party that you had been told started at 3.30 and ended at 5.30..... But after driving 30 mins with the excited child, friend told you the party time had been changed last minute , and the info put on a social media site you aren't even a member of, and brought forward and was finishing in 10 mins, you'd have a right to be a bit irritated. And it wouldn't be surprising or unreasonable if you mentioned this annoyance to some mutual friends really, would it.

So the Ops question about reasonableness can only be seen in the context of herself as a business person....and even if just looked at without business, the lack of reasonable notice or clear enough info that everyone would know about,mouldy make her unreasonable about someone else feeling disgruntled and voicing it.

ChocolateWombat: Huh? Your friend knew you were coming and didn't tell you the time of the party was changing? That comparison would only work if the OP had booked, which she hadn't. A business has no obligation whatsoever to maintain regular opening hours. We have lots of shops and eateries locally that put up a sign saying the owner is at lunch or on holiday or the place is closed for refurbishment or has been privately hired. I don't expect a letter through my door notifying me just in case I decide to go. It is a normal part of the operation of many small businesses and as a customer I can choose to go there or to a bigger chain that keeps to more regular hours but may be more expensive or busy or whatever else. This is a transactional relationship, not a friendship.

Yep, this could have definitely been handled better. The review may have been unfairly harsh, but sadly customers can write anything in a review so businesses have to be more careful than ever to deliver good customer service.

Facebook is not a reliable way of informing customers of early closing. You cannot rely on this. I would just run parties during normal opening hours, like many other soft play areas. Or have parties after the soft play closes for the day.

I'm the instance, you could have saved a lot of bother by offering the lady free entry next time she comes. This would have been a nice gesture which would have pleased a regular customer and avoided a negative review.

'She isn't obliged to open to the public' - no she isn't, but if she doesn't, then she can't expect favourable reviews. Pretty simple connection between the two really.

It is hard for small businesses - they have to meet the high expectations of customers, which absent always easy to deliver. However, it is a competitive world and paying customers can reasonably expect to know when businesses will be open and closed and to receive quality customer service and a positive response if things don't go quite right.

If small businesses don't grasp the standards they need to deliver,min terms of product, customer care and response to customer feedback, they cannot expect to survive, but will go the way of most small businesses that set up. They will fail. People expect a lot for their money and their loyalty and quite simply, firms must deliver. Things like the problems of closing early are so basic and so easily avoided - it boggles the mind that any business could think this was okay and try to justify it and see a customers annoyance as unreasonable.

A business has no obligation whatsoever to maintain regular opening hours. We have lots of shops and eateries locally that put up a sign saying the owner is at lunch or on holiday or the place is closed for refurbishment or has been privately hired.

But how many times would you show up to use that business, find it closed, and give up and find another store that did keep regular business hours and provided better customer service?

There are very few situations where customers don't have a choice but to use one particular business. If "Bob's Coffee" closes regularly for private functions and when he wants a day off, then he can't really complain that his customers stop supporting a local business and start going to Starbucks who are always open during their business hours.

ChocolateWombat: Again, her vulnerability to reviews as a small business owner may mean she has to conciliate the woman, but it doesn't mean she was being unreasonable. My advice to her is similar to yours, but I don't agree that the woman had good reason to post negative reviews. She was being precious.

I don't know how much more the OP can reasonably be expected to do

I do.

Bother to put it on the website????

Advertise the early closing more than three days in advance? Early enough for the weekend crew to have a chance to see the sign?

MidniteScribbler: Same here as my previous post. You are not wrong. It just isn't relevant to who was being unreasonable.

Oh well Trifle, I'm off to bed.
Countless people on this thread have said that there was cause for complaint, that variable opening hours posted on a social media site that not everyone uses, or on the door, is inadequate, plus the response to the issue could have been different. Loads of people have pointed out that bad feedback travels so much further and faster than good feedback.

However, you clearly wouldn't mind driving 30 minutes and finding that the business you expected to be open was closed or closing. Great, But most people expect more and will tell their friends when they feel a business let's them down.

slenderisthenight: She could have out it on the website, but that is negligible in terms of the likelihood of the woman seeing it - she didn't see a sign right in front of her nose so I doubt she is the type to check websites before leaving home.

And she drove 30 mins to get there. Even if the sign had been up for another couple of days she may mr have seen it. The OP can't reasonably be expected to turn down a chance to deliver party hire to a paying customer just because 3 days notice of a closure of a couple of hours will leave some people not notified in advance.

As a regular the woman in question should have known to check ahead, especially if she was travelling half an hour to get there!

This has happened to me at our local soft play. Sign on door telling me closed due to private party, disappointed yes, did I go back, yes.

The problem you have with offering a discounted admission for 15 minutes of play is that on days when there are no private parties you might have people turning up expecting the same. Must the OP accommodate every demand?

ChocolateWombat: Okay, no worries. But no, I wouldn't be upset. I wouldn't be delighted but I can see that that is my problem, not that of the business.