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.

matching have a few days with my toddler and you will be looking on soft play as a heavenly sanctuary not the seventh circle of hell.

Yeah a full page ad in the Times should do it.

Or I know, how about a professional announcement on the company website (if they must fuck about with opening hours).

Better than expecting every customer to have a Facebook account or to have passed the door within the last 3 days, close enough to have spotted the sign...

I am now wondering if this is a place near me, as it also shuts for private parties and people are unsure whether it is open or not - and you do see complaints on the FB group that people have been and found it closed!

A sign on the door is not enough IMO - it's too late by the time you are there. A set time for private parties would be better.

Very unprofessional, as was not apologising for the confusion and allowing the child a free 15 minute play to make up for the inconvenience

I agree. But it seems neither op nor staff member care about this at all.

My 2 year old would be happier with 15 mins than 0 mins!

Mine wouldn't. It takes fifteen minutes to leave soft play at the best of times.

I'm really surprised by the consensus on this thread. Round here all the soft plays offer exclusive use for parties (at extra cost obvs) at particular times of day, typically 4-6pm all week and 10-12pm at the weekends. If you go more than about twice a year you know when the times are that you might be turned away. No last entry either, and we've paid "all day" prices for under an hour in similar circumstances - though probably 45 mins not 15.

What you should do in response to a difficult review is of course different from what your standard procedure should be, even though it's really annoying to grease the squeaky wheel.

I'd respond along the lines of "I'm very sorry that you and your child were disappointed not to be able to play today. As stated on our website, we do offer private hire (certain times only) and it is important for us to keep those parties private by turning away other customers at those times. We would advise all our customers to check our website/Facebook or call ahead if you are planning to visit us, to avoid disappointment. In this exceptional case we'd be delighted to offer you half-price entry and free coffee when you next visit - please ask for OP."

WorraLiberty: We don't know she has a full company website. And even then, many customers will not look at it. The notice on FB and sign on the door have as reasonable a chance of reaching most people as anything else.

Yanbu, plenty of soft play
places close for private functions particularly on a Saturday. I know and use at least five of them. You just have to ring up before hand. If she's a regular user she would know that you close Sometimes surely, her fault for not checking

MrsHathaway: Perfect.

OP, I agree that firstly your member of staff probably wouldn't have felt authorised for let her in for free.

Secondly, you'd set a precedent.

Thirdly, a disappointed three year old, whilst not great company is not the end of the world.

Funnily enough just seen a bad review of local business on my local FB page the owner has come on immediately - apologized un reservedly said she understands word of mouth and has offered free service.

I think your policy is rubbish to be honest...I go to soft play..3 days notice is not enough... Your opening times should be clear ... If she had come at 6 o'clock it would of been different ... Parents word of mouth does count for a lot in child activities.

Hmmm. I think given she says she's a regular, yanbu. She has FB enough to be able to review you, and if her claim is correct she would have seen the signs at the centre saying it would be closed early.

There are two play centres similar distance but opposite directions from us. One is massive and never seems to say no upon entry - I counted 12 birthday parties one Saturday and, because it was raining, there were plenty of extra children too. It was horrific.

In contrast, the other is smaller and once they get to a certain number of children, they have a 1 out, 1 in policy and they stick to it.
We were lucky and already in when it started tipping it down with rain. Naturally they got busy and I did witness them turning people away at the door. It was my first visit and would not have occurred to me that this could happen based on experience at the other centre, so I would not have phoned ahead. I always do if planning on going there now.

They also run parties 'after hours' for exclusive use and other times by arrangement. I guess they know when their quiet times are.

Surely you have encountered this before?

Closing ad hoc within normal opening hours seems like a recipe for disaster. You're lucky to have any customers if that is how you treat them.

You must see a lot of disappointed children and have an extremely hard heart not to care.

Trifleorbust You're clutching at straws a little bit. More people will look at facebook than an official website? No. Not everyone has facebook for a start, whereas everybody with access to facebook has access to a website.

Half price entry!

I had a similar thing recently, I was let down by new eyebrow threading lady, I complained and expected - as my time had been wasted, getting there to have appointment before mine run so far over I had to leave ....free threading offer. No offer came instead some crap about a production line.

I did not return and I wont. But I still get all the emails for offers as though they are desperate. Its just basic business sense, if people have in good faith wasted time and energy getting to you for your service, just be kind!

I don't think you should of charged. She may not have seen the notice on Facebook and having travelled it would've been a good will gesture to allow 15 minutes free play.

Don't be ridiculous Trifle.

By expecting people to have a Facebook account or to live near enough to have spotted the sign in the last 3 days, she is completely limiting the chances of people knowing about the early closing.

Any professional in their right mind who doesn't stick to their own opening hours, would at least make sure they have a website to put this changeable information on.

if her claim is correct she would have seen the signs at the centre saying it would be closed early.

Because of course, a regular would need to check the opening hours on facebook and would definitely have visited within the last three days

I would also be offering a free session and coffee/ meal or something to get her back. You don't get rid of a regular customer. You need them more than they need you.

It's a harsh fact of life that bad customer service gets much more publicity from the customer than good customer service. Our CS training staff reckon a customer will tell on average 10 people about bad service but will only tell 1 about great service.

You need to suck this one up OP and work out what the feedback is telling you and what you know about your customers and then make some changes to avoid this in future. Firstly you've learned that regular users don't check the facebook page regularly, therefore putting stuff on there isn't enough. Secondly think about how often people come, am guessing you probably have a few who come say 'most saturdays' - in that case you need to have the notices up a week in advance so when they come they can see it's early closing next week. Finally what changes can you make to your charging and entrance policy (if anything). As others have said - can you do last admittance 45 mins before closing for example.

On a more positive note, whilst what our CS trainers said was true, it's also often the case that people who chunter and say they'll never use a business again do come back. Maybe make sure if she does you see her and apologise and eg give her a coffee and snack on the house. At that point she'll hopefully start singing your praises to at least 1 potential customer.

You and your staff had the opportunity to exceed your customer's expectations and turn a negative (only 15mins til early closing) into a win (free play as exceptional circumstances).

this

Additionally, how idiotic that staff in a children's venue would fail to appreciate that a disappointed child could potentially have a meltdown, and further thought it reasonable to seek £4 for 15 mins.

I think you completely deserve your bad review.

Mrs Hathaway- exactly... They have set hours for exclusive use. The OP states "It closes at 6pm weekends but sometimes it closes at 3:30 for private hire parties."

So some Saturdays they close at 6, others at 3.30, depending on whether they have a booking or not. If they just closed at 3.30pm each Saturday to the general public, the OP would have no issue.

I like the suggestion of a mailing list with the opening times by a previous poster. Assuming you don't shut down with just a few days' notice for a private party, you could email repeat customers with two week schedule of opening hours and on Thursday or Friday before a private event, send out a reminder email about your 3.30pm closing.

I don't think yabu.
If she's a regular then why didn't she check the page? She would know you close for private parties parties.
I wouldn't have charged for 15minutes, i just wouldn't have let anyone in.
15 minutes isn't enough time for play, and doesn't then give you enough time to set up.
I would do as others suggest though and put up notices on your website if you have one, when you close for parties.
I'm sure her son was upset that he couldn't play, but things happen.
You could have been closed for any number of reasons.

How lovely 'idiotic staff'. That's nice.
Hardly the staff's fault. It's not up to them ( yet they always get the blame....)

Yanbu. I agree with a pp who said that if you let someone in for 15 mins before closing for free you will soon get people turning up 15, 20, 30 mins before expecting not to pay. I know plenty of soft play places that close for private parties so I would ring up before going or risk being disappointed. I would have just explained to my child that the place was about to close and maybe bought a £1 bit of crap from the toy machines that all soft play places have to soften the blow and found something else fun to do. No way was a kid who balled for an hour going to accept 15 mins in the play centre anyway. The child clearly has behavioural/discipline issues that are nothing to do with when a soft play is or isn't open.