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.

Mea culpa. cuppa

I would have let them stay for 30-40 minutes,15 minutes before the party was due and the 15-20 minutes the party kids faff about with shoes and coats and birthday presents

What a petty and grabby way to run a business. You've got a cheek complaining about theverything review.
A bit of goodwill to customers goes a long way.

I don't think the worker was wrong to charge and she wasn't to know that the woman was a regular customer. The customer was aware that she only had 15 minutes and had the option to not go in. I do think it would have been nice to offer her a half price charge, as a goodwill gesture, but perhaps it didn't occur to your staff member at that time.

However, I think you as a business owner are to blame for the way that you advertise that you're closing early. Not everyone checks Facebook or would see a note at the venue beforehand. You should update your website as well as Facebook and make it clear that people should check these before attending on a Saturday as you sometimes close early.

I would also respond to the customer's complaint, apologise for the lack of notice about the early closing time, and offer her a free session to try and retain her custom.

"And as for letting him play for free, FGS you're running a business. If you start doing that, every chancer is going to turn up at 3.10pm when they know you shut at 3.30pm demanding the same."

Yeah... no. She is running a business, so the smart thing to do would be to apologise and offer the next visit for free. It's only 4 quid, and instead of everyone seeing the review and thinking "oh, that's terrible" and her telling her friends, you get a bunch of people thinking "oh, at least they apologised".

Good will vs bad will. Crap reviews and poor word of mouth will kill a small business very quickly.

What sirchenjin said, plus nothing in the op suggests the mother expected a freebie, just that she (reasonably in my and other pps opinions) wasn't happy to pay full price for partial service.

The soft play places I took my daughter/her friends/nieces and nephews to (honestly like probably many other pps I've spent a fortune in these places) had different prices for different lengths of stay.

Families are really struggling at the moment, the economy isn't great, unless the owner of the business is VERY well off they can't afford to be treating customers like this. Even without a review facility, you say it's a small town, businesses like this are reliant on GOOD word of mouth.

Part of the service you provide is good customer service. Being petty and tight is a good way to get a bad reputation.

KidLorneRoll: The fact that an unreasonable customer is able use a review site to back her into a corner doesn't make her wrong. She advertised the early closing time, she offered the use of the facilities for the time they were available so the kid could play. She wasnt prepared to drop the price but that is fair enough, given that they don't sell in increments of half an hour or fifteen minutes. She is being reasonable.

Yanbu. That's standard rules at soft around here. I've never heard or anywhere - soft play, farms, swimming pools - that offer a discount for entering close to closing time.

I've been in the situation before when we've turned up at soft play etc only to find we can't go in. You have to make another plan quickly and get on with that. Mine coped fine with this (2 and 4). Children need to be able to cope with a change of plan occasionally. I wouldn't have gone in for 15 mins even for reduced price - I'd never get them away!

If you were a regular then you would know that sometimes the centre shuts early on a Saturday afternoon so should check with FB or make a quick call, especially if you have a young child who will get upset.

Initially I thought you should let them play for free but then what if another child turned up, do you let them play for free too? At what point do you stop letting free children in? 10 minutes until close? 5minutes? Also, for the future, at what point do you stop charging before closing and start letting children play for free?

I think the right thing was done and maybe in future have a last entry time, say 45 mins before closing.

They're not being petty or tight though are they? The person on the till probably didn't have the authority to make the decision for a free session or override the till to reduce the price. They were just doing their job, there is nothing stingy about it

sorry not read thread but seems so cruel to me to ask for full price, I would have let in for free.

Regular or not, I should add, but to a mother and son who had just been dissapointed regardless of whose fault it was.

Obviously she didn't advertise the early closing time well enough. Randomly closing is part of the problem, if you change your opening times last minute you are going to annoy people - the private hires should be at set times each week. Charging full price for 15 minutes is pretty mean under the circumstances.

It's all besides the point anyway. The fact is this customer has posted the review, and people are going to see it, and this will influence their opinions about the place. If people see that the owner has apologised and it's all been settled, that will create a good impression on customers.

Sometimes you take a small hit to keep people coming back. She'll make the 4 quid back on a coffee and a juice anyway.

OP - you're being very quiet

KidLorneRoll: There will always be people who don't get the message. Pubs round where I live close for private functions all the time; it may not be expected but it's their prerogative. I agree with you that a goodwill gesture is probably what she needs to do, but that is to protect her business and not because she was being unreasonable at all. She wasn't.

In these days of Yelp, Tripadvisor, Facebook, etc, etc, goodwill is more important than ever. Your business would have lost nothing by letting the child play for 15 minutes, but you may lose a good few visitors from the poor review.

Reply to her review, apologize, offer her a free play session and refreshments, and state that you will review procedures at the centre.

She is running a business, so the smart thing to do would be to apologise and offer the next visit for free. It's only 4 quid, and instead of everyone seeing the review and thinking "oh, that's terrible" and her telling her friends, you get a bunch of people thinking "oh, at least they apologised".

^^ I agree.

We had a cafe for children open up in town near us, and the owner was on FB always talking about customers in a nasty way, people taking the piss and all sorts, it left a really nasty taste in the mouth and needless to say she had to close soon after.

The bottom line is - it would have simply been a kind thing to do, and I would have responded " so sorry this happened to you, in these circumstances if I had been there we would have let you have a quick play, please see a free play session for you and your son. I might also take this opportunity to remind everyone we do close early for parties and try and make it clear when this is happening, do check our pages before you set off.

Xmasbaby1 I've never heard or anywhere - soft play, farms, swimming pools - that offer a discount for entering close to closing time

When the customers decide to turn up at the last minute, it's up them obviously. To be fair, around here, at least a couple of farms offer a discounted rate for people arriving for the last hour, but that's beside the point.

In this case, the business decided to close randomly early, and expected the customer to pay full price. Is it reasonable to charge the same amount for a full day and for 15m in this case? I don't think so.

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.

The fuck? The woman wasn't charged and then informed of the change and told 'tough luck, we're keeping your money though', or forced to buy the reduced time at full price. I assume the woman doesn't have a part ownership of the business, so no, the OP doesn't owe a free service to anyone.

Some people, Jesus Christ...

And as someone who has worked in a job without authority to make exceptions and without constant contact with the owner of the business, I can completely understand why the worker WHO WAS NOT THE OP would refuse to make reduced-price offers. At my old job, some of the workers would give customers extras if they asked, against the rules, and one even gave away a product for free when the customer claimed they'd lost their wallet. The result? Any time those customers got the standard amount they paid for, it was suddenly terrible service and unfair and could lead to a complaint/bad review, and people magically started expecting freebies...

In this case, the business decided to close randomly early, and expected the customer to pay full price.

The customer was offered a service and retained the right to not make use of that offer of service. How fucking difficult is that to understand? Are you the woman this happened to?

Given there's no regularity to the early closing how could even a regular customer predict this?

Service businesses need to remember that customer SERVICE is what they're selling, if you fail or are seen to fail at that, the business won't last. Have seen it happen, businesses open, take the attitude customers are entitled or should be VERY grateful for the service (in addition to having PAID for it) - bust within a year.

I would have been annoyed too.

Randomly closing a soft play centre to the public in the middle of the day at the weekend is a pain in the hole to everyone but those attending the party. If I turned up with my kids they would be disappointed and likely I would stop using that soft play.

If you want to do private parties I would suggest doing them 9am - 10am or 5pm-6pm.

I think the staff member should have let the wee one I to play for 15 mins free of charge. Realistically what would you have been losing by letting him in for free for 15 minutes? What you have lost is a customer, possibly some potential customers in her friends and family.

I would respond to the review apologising, state that some staff training would be carried out, you are reviewing your private party policy and offering a couple of free passes.

It would never occur to me to check out reviews of a soft play before going though, I mean who has the time or the inclination?

As a poster above said, it's common for pubs to close for the night for a private party, it's not a big deal

YWNBU she was trying her ĺuck. The signage was more than adequate. I wouldn't have let her in.