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.

Maybe the OP could have leaflets at the exotic to advertise the week a heads opening hours, if she gets a lot of repeat customers.

She could also use the leaflet to do offers (10% discounts or what the daily specials are or what not).

Exit not exotic!!

Yes, it would be reasonable not to put one paying party holder be fore all the other customers who will turn up,mexpecting the place to be open.

The business has to take the long view, not think about one afternoon and the amount of revenue brought in then. Yes they earn £150 from the party and lose £60 from customers who turn up and go away. But they also lose £60 X 6 because those customers don't come the next 6 times they might have come,due to o unreliable opening...plus the business also loses other money in the future because friends all so don't go there.

Successful businesses build their loyal customer base through relaiblity, service, a great product. They don't blow out their loyal customers for a quick cash in event, but take the long view. They keep thinking about what customers want and like and keep working hard to deliver it and avoid the things they don't like. This is a classic example of a small business owner just doing what they fancy, without thought for the customer. Their future is so closely tied up with the customer, that delivering what the customer wants and needs is the way to success. Businesses ignore it at their peril.

I would not have been impressed either. I think you should have apologised, offered her the 15 mins for free and thought about how excited a 3 year old child might be feeling and how devastated and confused they'd feel at being so close yet so far from the highlight of their day. Poor mother must have been stressed out dealing with that one. Whilst technically you acted correctly as per your guidelines I don't think you showed any empathy or good business judgement. I'd reply to her comment, apologise and offer her a free session. Just my opinion but from the comments on this thread I am not alone in thinking this was wrong.

Poor customer service. I would get in touch and apologize for her poor experience, and offer a free session.

I think you are worrying unnecessarily about one negative review op. Most businesses have a mixed bag of reviews and negative ones aren't a disaster. Let it go. Make sure you pop a cheery reminder regularly on your FB and prominently on your Web page and on a poster on-site to remind people that you occasionally close early for parties and anyone travelling for a visit should phone to check if planning to arrive after 3pm to avoid disappointment. I doubt you'll lose much custom.

The woman may well have checked ahead. On the website. Where, i suspect, most people would look if they wanted to check.

But OP doesn't update her website ... only bloody face book.

This happened to me but the playcentre only put the fact it was closing on fb not any notice on the door and I arrived with my 3 children plus their 2 friends and their Mums.

Only a small tantrum from my 3 year old and I let everyone come to my place and wreak it instead which cheered all the kids up but I was still angry with the softplay place for not giving proper notice.

I think it would have made good business sense to offer the Mum a free session in the future or at least let the child play for 15 mins for free.

And please don't make FB your online main presence. It's really amateur looking, and weirdly, there are lots of us who don't use FB.

You can't be expected to let people in for free because it's only for 15 minutes as this sets a precedent. However closing for private functions within your normal hours is not good practice. You need to review this, customers like consistency. If you want to offer private parties you need to decide these must be at for example 3.30 every Saturday and that becomes your standard opening hours. Signs up and Facebook posts are not enough to stop people getting fed up with erratic opening hours and eventually going elsewhere. The only exception for this is over periods like Christmas/Easter etc when people expect deviations from standard hours and will be looking for changes. I'd post a response to the review offering her son a free play session, you then come out looking good.

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?

So what? If it's £4 to get in the door, is it such a big deal to say £3 for the last 45 minutes, £2 for the last 30, then £1 for the last 15? Better to have the extra bodies in the door paying a discounted rate, than for them not to come in at all. And if they like it and feel they have had good service, then they're more likely to come back again.

You can't be expected to let people in for free because it's only for 15 minutes as this sets a precedent

… OR…… a great marketing tool.. like the one near me that does the last hour before closing for £1

Tinsel twins- probably because they were previously dead for the last hour
The precedent I'm referring to also includes the precedent that the front of house staff decide these things and actually they probably wouldn't want to as this puts them under pressure in other situations (where it is then expected that they should make judgement calls on pricing /admittance for other 'special' cases) Had the 3 year old been allowed in for free the customer would still have been annoyed and the child would have still have been upset when he was dragged out just minutes later, in fact this would have been been even worse. The whole situation shouldn't and wouldn't have come about if clear and consistent opening hours were in place.

probably because they were previously dead for the last hour

Yes, which is why incentives for people to use them are a great idea. When I was growing up, there was a big water park near me. It was about $25 for the day (a lot of money back then!). They would be packed on school holidays and weekends, but almost empty on weekdays. They put on a deal where you could go after school until closing for $5. As a result, they were absolutely packed every afternoon. Business that they wouldn't have if they had insisted on full price. That's just good business sense.

I don't get the message from MNHQ. My trolldar is not pinging, am I wrong??

Mine isn't either, so am confused by the mnhq message.

My local pool shuts all the time for various parties and bookings.

They have an updates section on their website where they post information on closures which I always check at the start of the week to plan my visits.

Everyone who goes to the pool is in the habit of doing this so it works well.

I don't think the OP is U for closing early.

Soft plays are dead for the last hour when they have unreliable hours, it's a vicious circle. Staff closes early because it's too quiet, customer who see that advise their friends and plan to go somewhere else, so it's more quiet..

OP, if you are still here, why don't you close early for parties only a few days a week? Say Mondays, Wednesdays, Saturdays or whenever - depending on the amount of parties that get booked. If you don't have a party that day, you can then put a note on FB, your door and everywhere appropriate to let people know you are exceptionally open (due to cancellation or similar). A note on your website would be the best (you can even link to a twitter account, so you only have to update twitter but people see in when they check your website).

I visited our local softplay with my 2 DC a couple of months ago. Turned up at 2.30pm (normally closes at 6) but was told that due to one of the staff members being off sick for a month following an operation, they would be closing at 3pm on the days she normally works due to staff shortage for the next month. Updates had been put on Facebook and their website but I hadn't thought to look, I had just assumed that they would be open till 6 as normal. They allowed my kids to play for 30 mins giving me a half price entry and free coffee.
To be honest if I had been this other mum and told I would have to pay full price for 15 mins I would have been pretty pissed off to. As she is a regular customer surely she could have been honoured 15 mins free play or at least token entry fee and free drink or a voucher for a free session at a later date. The employee who served her could surely have used common sense and asked a member of management re above? If it was a normal working day, eg not bank holiday/school holidays/Xmas period etc, most parents will assume business as usual and not think to check FB/website to see if opening times are different.
Another softplay nearby do a mixture of standard parties which occur during normal opening hours to Joe public with separate room for birthday tea, and close at 4pm every Saturday and Sunday for private party hire, not just on ad hoc basis. They charge more for the private parties as host and guest have exclusive use of facilities. Not sure if this would be an option OP? That way people would know it is closed from X time every weekend so would avoid future confusion

I'm assuming all the posters on here complaining about these (awfully horrid) soft play places closing early for parties on a Saturday aren't the hordes of MNetters who seem to regularly frequent such places on a regular basis for errrr parties (on a Saturday from 4-6pm).

I'm on FB lots but would never think of checking there to see if open If normally is

Offer her a free session costing your business £4 but prob making you lots more money via drinks and return visits

YANBU all the soft plays near me close for parties. If you are a regular you know this and check before you go. Especially at the weekend

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

Which suggests the current signage is as inadequate as it sounds. If even regulars don't know about the stupid ad-hoc opening times, what hope have the majority got?

Seriously, if you're a regular you know the score. Harsh as it is sometimes you just have to suck the mop instead of bloody whinging about it.

Seriously, if you're a regular you know the score.

Unless the business is run by an unprofessional person who has an out-of-date website, a Facebook page, and an A4 piece of paper...