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.

Sorry, I think YABU here too. Wouldn't have hurt to let the kid in for 15 mins for free. Think how happy the mum would have been with that, then rather than writing a bad review she'd have been telling all her friends/potential new customers how amazing you are for doing it.

In would respond to the review with an apology and a free session

IMO you deserved a bad review.
£4 for 15 minutes is an appalling way to treat a frequent customer.
You also need to review the way you do your customer notifications. Not everyone does FB, or even if they did, would check before FB before they went on a day and time you were usually open.
3days notice on the door is inadequate and should be at least a week, preferably longer.
If you want to retrieve this situation you should apologise, refund her money and give her a free pass for another session. But as you don't appear to think you did anything wrong here, you probably won't agree with that.

Deary me. The customer is not always right you know pp's. There was a sign up. Should have perhaps charged her £2 until time to go.

I think you were mean in the circumstances and should have let the child play for free for 15 minutes.
I would contact her on the review site and apologise for the way it was handled, and offer her child a free session.

I can see where this one is going:

OP: AIBU?
Replies: Yes
OP: I'm not being unreasonable because...

You don't know she's a regular. Easy enough to write that on a review and you've no way of proving her right or wrong.
I assume you've had notices up round the place that if she was a regular then she'd have seen them too.

And a 3yo is perfectly old enough to understand in a sad way that a place is closed. I remember turning up with dd1 (travel on 2 buses and 20 minute walk-I didn't drive) to find it had closed last week. Yes we had tears. Yes she understood-she would have made a very good DM sad face peeping through the windows (you could see it was all still there).

And with ds giving him 15 minutes would have been worse than not letting him at all. It would have postponed the tantrum by 15 minutes that's all, and probably increased it as he'd have just started getting excited.

And I'll also add that the worker probably didn't have authority to let her in for free.

You wanted to charge full price for 15 minutes?

Is this a modern day Scrooge tale??

She goes 3x a week. Just let her in. You've lost a customer. Not a smart move.

At first I was going to say YANBU because she turned up 15 mins before closing time and the staff member didn't know she was a regular customer. But then when I read again and saw that you close early only occasionally I think YAB a bit unreasonable. You can't assume that everyone sees every post on facebook and by the time you have driven half an hour to get there an A4 page on the door is too little too late. I think you'd be better having standard opening hours, then there is no room for misunderstanding.

Even if it was her first time. It would have been good business (and good karma) to have just let the child play for 15 minutes. Was that really going to be such a burden on you and your business? Wouldn't it be better to be known as the soft play place that occasionally just lets people in for free, rather than the mean place that wanted to charge full price for 15 minutes to some poor mom who just didn't have the time to double check your website regarding your unreliable opening hours.

Poor customer service and an unwillingness to just help others out was one of my biggest issues with the UK and the time I spent there with small children.

In contrast, my 14 year old dd went to Disneyland yesterday. (I had to drive past on an errand and she has an annual pass.) Unfortunately she had mis-read the block out dates on the website and her pass wasn't actually good for that day and an employee was being quite mean to her and she called me in tears. I called customer service and complained/asked for their pity (dd was there with a disabled friend who was very agitated by the whole thing) and they very sweetly made an exception and let her in for free.

Also, it will say a lot about your business by the way you handle this and other bad reviews. As pp suggested, a nice bright and breezy response to her review "we're really sorry about the situation, please come back for a free session and a free coffee" will say much more about your business than her bad review.

I am guessing that the mom would have used that 15 minutes to get on her phone and find another activity for her kids.....

I'd be annoyed too. If I'd driven somewhere which advertises on its website that it's open to 6pm then it wouldn't occur to me to check each time before I use it that it is indeed open to that time. You really didn't need to charge them £4 for 15 minutes - that's ridiculous.

I'd be rethinking your early closing policy for parties - every other soft play party I've attended over the many years of raising children has either been at a soft play which remained open or has been outwith normal opening hours, with the food being served in either a separate room or at a table in the cafe area.

Rather than losing a long term, regular customer couldn't you PM her and offer a discount or free session?

Although...if she really IS a regular like she claims to be, then she'd know you sometimes close early, so she'd know she should check before setting out.

Hmm, I don't know what I think actually!

Deary me. The customer is not always right you know pp's.

Nor are they always wrong the sign was clearly inadequate.

I've never known any soft play places operate this way (closing ad hoc, admitting customers shortly before closing and charging full price) and I've lived in 2 very small towns with small soft play places. They both operated parties within normal opening hours in addition to normal customers.

It's poor practice and you deserved the bad review. If you're not big enough to be able to operate parties within your bread and butter business don't offer them.

Facebook and a small notice on the door is not sufficiently clear, many people don't use Facebook or would naturally assume especially if regular customers that you're open your regular hours. A note on the door is likely to be annoying because by the time a parent gets to the door the expectation of service is already there AND it's likely to be missed by busy/harassed mums/carers.

Neither is 3 days enough time notice.

I wouldn't have taken my 3 year old in to play for fifteen minutes, if I knew they would have cried anyway I would have just left and try to make the offer of the local park a bit more exciting with the promise of sweets or a hot chocolate or something.
That said, for fifteen minutes I would have let them in for free. I know some people are sticklers for the rules, but it is always a pleasant surprise when people are accommodating about things like that. It makes me want to go back.

You should have let him in for 15 minutes for free. It's a piss take asking someone to pay for 15 minutes when they reasonably expected the place to be open for another 2 hours 45 mins. She would have been able to let him have a little play for 10 minutes, then tell him he only had 5 minutes left and then get him out. My kids would have been really disappointed at that age and being able to have a little play instead of being turned away at the door would have made a huge difference to them. If she had turned up at 5.45 and expected a discount then I'd see your point.

A couple of things...firstly it's tight as a ducks arse charging full price for 15 minutes, that's a sure fire way to lose customers and find yourself in trouble.

Secondly, in your defence, it's a ridiculous idea that you can take a child in soft play for 15 minutes. By the time you've found a seat and taken shoes off etc it's time to put the shoes back on and leave.

You need to find a way to inform your customers that you will be closing for private functions, not everybody is on Facebook nor will every customer be following you on Facebook and an A4 bit of paper out front is wholly inadequate imo.

So there you go, I'm clearly getting splinters in my arse from the fence I'm sitting on, you're both at fault.

Whose 3 year old would play for 10-15 mins and then be happy to leave?

I would have let them in to play for the last 15 mins, wanting to pay full price for 15 mins is mean and penny pinching. Plus, you need regular times, randomly closing 2 1/2 hours early with only a little sign on the door and a message on FB is bound to result in disappointed customers.
Looking forward to reading about how you've made amends to your customer though.

Customer is king. No charge for 15 minute play, under circumstances, would have been good customer service. Although if she gave you a bad review on Facebook why didn't she notice your closing times, presumably it's on there. Dealing with the gene public is a skill, in your business it needs to be spot on. Parents and their little darlings, rather you than me.

This must be a reverse. Totally BU.

The mother wasn't told the place would close at the entrance, but once her child was ready to play? (it's not uncommon, many of the places we go to have this set up).

I feel sorry for the child, how is he supposed to understand. Well done to the mother to put an accurate review, it would honestly put me off going to your place.

Notice on Facebook do not count, and the one on the door was obviously not that obvious if the poor woman didn't see it. Depends on your doors, but they are very easy to miss.

Are you even allowed to do that? Charging full price when you decide to close 2 or 3 hours earlier than advertised? It's a disgrace. You are in the wrong business if you have this attitude with paid customers. YOU decide to close early, the least you could do is let someone play for free for 15mn. It wouldn't have cost you anything, and you would have kept a customer. I am sure the mother will, rightly, advise all her friends. You might have lost more than one regular client here.

It's not 15 mn before closing time (the customer choice), but 15 mn before a sudden and earlier than advertised closing time. When I see the amount of soft plays closing around here, I am amazed you are comfortable with your horrible business attitude.

Yes, the soft play places round here all have their parties alongside everyone else - just with food in a party room.

YANBU

If the lady was a regular visitor then she should know that sometimes you close early on a Saturday. Common sense would be to check before hand not just turn up.

The LO would of kicked up a stink at the end of the 15 minutes anyway! Plus there's the hassle of trying to find the child and get them out of the soft play for the parent which would of taken time.