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.

Honestly, if you're going to have private parties with venue exclusivity, you need to make it a part of your opening hours, rather than relying on parents remembering to check the FB (but not website) before dropping by. Some days I have no intention of going to soft play and so don't check the opening tims ... but all it takes is a sudden downpour during a trip to the park and I'm heading to the nearest indoor play centre for the kids to burn off their energy instead of taking them home to destroy my front room! I shouldn't have to wrestle reluctant children into the buggy then stand around in the rain trying to get my smartphone to scroll through various FB posts to check the opening times of the play centres before I set off to one, just because they might be closed and are in different directions from the park!

My friend runs a local playcentre and they have two options - you can hold a party in the centre - with a private party room but public play - at any time, on any day, during the opening hours (provided there isn't already a booking) or you can have a party with total venue exculsivity, but they can only be booked for Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday after 5:30pm (and obviously you have to pay a higher premium)

Her Opening Hours are:

Mon/Wed/Friday - 8am- 8pm
Tues/Thurs/Saturday 8- 5pm
Sunday/Bank Holiday: 11 - 5 pm

Some weeks she may not have any bookings on "party days" or it will be coming up to a holiday so she wil use empty party slots to put on ticketed themed events - so they'll have a Halloween disco/Xmas Party/Easter egg hunt/Teddy bear's picnic/Superhero night etc - which are open to the public on a first come, first served basis up to the venue's max. capacity. This means she can get extra revenue without having to close the centre early and all her customers are happy because they know that the opning hours won't change unless there's exceptional circumstances - and even then my friend tries to ensure they're published well in advance so nobody ends up disappointed. For example they have maintenence days a few times a year where they close the whole centre to do deep cleaning/equipment maintenance/painting/auditing etc that isn't covered in their usual cleaning/maintenence schedule, but she has notices up for nearly 2 weeks beforehand and it's clearly highlighted on all social media/website and as yet there's never been any upset children turned away.

The soft play by me has a separate area for party food and the rest is opened.

What I would do is have an area in which is the party area while the rest of the area is open.

No parties are booked you could do theme afternoons.

Private party after closing

Even the op has said this particular customer while regular wasn't a weekend regular and therefore that's partly why she didn't and couldn't be expected to know about as hoc early weekend closing.

Plus as several of us have said what about new customers?

A new customer looks up the times on the companies official website WHICH IS NOT UPDATED sees the opening times 'we're open till 6pm on saturdays'.

Customer drives half hour to venue, small child excited (or worse more than one), arrives at venue,

it's pouring rain and mother just wants to get her and child out of rain as soon as possible, so doesn't stop to peruse one not very noticeable A4 sheet (among others promoting parties?)

child undresses in preparation to play and ONLY THEN does the staff member say they're closing in 15 minutes - hours earlier than stated on website.

Child is disappointed and not unexpectedly as toddlers tend to - has a tantrum.

Staff member offers no apology, a barely acceptable explanation, and is inflexible with regard to a possible solution/helping new customer.

Result? At BEST customer thinks place unprofessional and unfriendly and doesn't return again, at worst she tells everyone she knows, posts a negative review and loses the place a LOT of money.

I agree with the pp that said THIS customer left a review - how many others have had the same experience and either simply not come back (return custom a huge factor in building a new business)? Or told family and friends (who told their family and friends who told their family and friends...) or posted on social media but not anywhere the company would necessarily see/be able to respond to.

I'm baffled that anyone thinks the op has a leg to stand on when she doesn't bother to update the website and doesn't put the sign up in time for even one tide of weekenders to see it.

It's just rude .

I've found the review. The OP has not even bothered to reply to the review ob fb which looks terrible. It's definitely the same review, the details are exactly as described in the OP and the date and time fits too.

Well, quite simply, as the supporters of the OP have said, she can do as she likes with her business and treat customers how she likes, ignore their feedback, ignore their desire for regular and transparent hours......but she will bear the consequences.
It's hard enough to survive as a small business anyway, but when you have little regard for your customers or how to generate the goodwill which results in repeatscustom, with those repeat customers also bringing their friends and saying positive things innthenpositioin community, but instead focus on your own rights as a business to do whatever suits your convenience and making that clear to your customers........the business is unlikely to thrive op and grow or even be around for long.
The days of customers putting up with shit service are gone. And this was shit service and could easily have been avoided as a situation, or even if it occurred as it did, managed to deliver a more positive outcome. Hey ho!

This is a review I found on our local play centre:

*I came here today at 3:15pm. The advertised time for closing is 6pm. What I didn't known is sometimes you close at 3:30pm for a private hire party.
I arrived with my Son at 3:15pm. As you can imagine he was very excited to go to soft play. He took his coat off excitedly only to be told the place was closing in 15mins. Being only 3 years old, obviously he didn't understand.

I asked if he could play for 15mins. The worker said if he wanted to play for 15mins he would have to pay full price (£4.50). I didn't expect him to go for free but a reduce so price certainly. On principle I wasn't paying £4.50 for 15 mins.

So I had to take my Son out, he started screaming crying as we left and cries for a solid 40 mins as he just didn't understand why he couldn't go in.
Would it really have hurt to let him on for 15minutes at a reduced fee? 15mins?

I have been a regular customer of this place for over a year now. We sometimes go three days a week. But I will never return again.*

Negative reviews are unavoidable op, but you need to reply and apologise/explain/resolve. Customers need to see that you take feedback seriously.

I was recently looking at facebook pages for events companies and discounted the ones that had no replies on negative reviews.

It's basic customer service. You wouldn't ignore a customer with a complaint face to face where no one is watching, so why ignore a complaint that all your potential customers can see?

Well if that is the actual review it's not actually bad just factual , appalling service .

If that's the actual review.

A the op has misled us on the facts

B I agree factual not 'bad' and honestly pretty restrained compared to what I'd have put!

C APPALLING if no response whatsoever extremely poor business practice. That would put me off as a customer too.

If that's the review OP then you don't have a leg to stand on - your customer service is rubbish.

If it were closing in 15 minutes I would have let her son stay and play for free. It was obv he was gonna get upset as he had been stuck in the car for half an hour to play for 15 mins. Out of my like for children I would have let them in free of charge. My local play centres do this all the time and its really annoying.

Yep, that review would definitely put me off. Partly because of the greediness, partly the bad service, but mostly because I could turn up and find it closed outside of opening hours.

The review is measured and factual. You should learn from it, OP.

Agree if that was the review I would be put off too. Especially with no response from the management

We went to a farm/play area recently.. when we arrived the owner said they were closing in 15 mins rather than an hour and 15 mins like it said on the website. I was temporarily annoyed (didn't show it though) and said the website said differently, so she said "well you can stay the full time as we always lock up late and sorry we'll update the website" No extra effort on their part but it meant they didn't get a bad review.
You should have just let him play for free for 15 mins and kept a happy customer.

Nothing from op in 2 days plus not since the mn comment re reported.

This is a review I found on our local play centre:

Factual. Fair. Unemotional. That review is sot on about what happened! O

Well if it was my business and I really wanted to close for ad hoc parties:

1 - I would never close without giving a minimum of one week's notice and
2 - I would publish it on my website (not only on facebook which lots of people still don't use)
3 I would have big well designed signs made around the place on permanent display warning that sometimes we close at xpm and to always check our website for our opening times before coming

Even with all this I would have offered the woman who turned up to come in for a maximum of 30 mins for her son to play and I would have offered it for free as long as she was aware that a lot of possibly older children would be arriving for a party soon. That would have probably been enough time for the toddler to have a bit of a play but also to make sure he left before the main arrival and party got going properly.

Most parties after all have 10-15 mins at the beginning when the children are arriving. It would have been fine to have one toddler in there for 10-15 minutes I think.

Alternatively I would have refused entry but would have offered a free voucher for another session to be used say in the next month

That way you would have hopefully kept a regular customer or at least made sure she was likely to come again. The customer may not always be right but what harm would it have done to offer something to be helpful on this occasion .

The soft plays I go to have parties on at the same time - its just crazy busy.

Most parties after all have 10-15 mins at the beginning when the children are arriving. It would have been fine to have one toddler in there for 10-15 minutes I think.

TBH I'm wondering what people actually get as part of a private party package, if they're expecting to close at 3:30 and for the party to start pretty much straight away, which is why the child couldn't play.

My friend (that I mentioned in my post above) closes her play centre 30 minutes before any party with venue exclusivity starts. This not only allows the families still in the play centre at closing time a bit of a grace period to get their stuff together and get out before the party starts but also gives the staff time to do a quick once over of the venue, set up any party bits, move any tables/chairs in the parent's seating area as needed and gives the party booker time to get in and speak with the party co-ordinator abou the party-day logistics eg timings on food, where to set up the area for presents to be corralled securely, who is in charge of the cake, where to put party bags so no one can get to them early, in an empty venue, before their guests arrive.

If the OP's customer came to my friend's centre then since any party wouldn't have been starting until 30 minutes after the closing time, it would have allowed the worker to be flexible enough to let the kid play for 20/30 minutes and still not affect the actual party. The customer would have been happy that her kid got to play after all and the party wouldn't have had a mini gatecrasher as they would have been on their way out before the time that the booking officially started.

I think the mother should have read the sign outside and not gone in but hold her son it was closed. But As a gesture of goodwill I would contact the mother and offer her a free session / free coffee, but back up your worker and state that you posted adequate notice to the public about the closing time and hope she comes back

How is 3 days, one a4 sheet, a post on Facebook (which not everyone uses and possibly just a normal 'stat' swamped by other stats), NOTHING on the company website (so that would have stated closing at 6pm!) adequate notice?

It's not adequate at all - and it's an incredibly amateurish way to run a business in such a competitive market.

Next time op, lock the main door so no one can come in and put a sign up saying that there is a private party.

Put some signs up saying that you close for private functions, and please ask staff/see facebook/website etc for dates, or even have dates underneath!

It is your right to close for private parties, you don't have to allow anyone entrance to your facility when you have something happening. Especially of people are prepared to pay for exclusive use.

What a faff for other customers though - who can be arsed to check websites and FB before they visit every time to see if the soft play is open or closed? I certainly can't - I just go to a soft play which is open consistently at set hours.