WDW is eliminating “do not disturb” signs from their resorts and people are losing their minds...

I wouldn't have used the same strategy today. Back then I was young and naive. That said, the two were bullies and, as is typically the case with bullies, they completely cowered when I confronted them. By the time my conversation with them ended both he and his wife apologized for their behavior. Is that the norm? Of course not and I know I stepped over a line no matter how wrong they were.

I had another situation where a guest was complaining that she booked a room with queen beds and only got double beds. (Her real complaint was that she just didn't like the room...but she used the beds hoping to have the upper hand.) I got out a hotel amenities purchasing book and showed her what the dimensions of a queen bed were. Then, I escorted her up to her room, tape measure in hand, and measured the bed. Lo and behold it measured as a queen bed. Her argument quickly changed to being upset that the room was dirty. It wasn't that either though I admit that it was an old Breakers Room and at that time most of the rooms weren't worth what we charged for them.

That guest would later write a letter to Dick Kinzel saying I was a poor excuse for a hotel manager and that they should send me to Disney training school. (I was hired from Disney.) I kept a copy of that comment card and still have it today. The guest was right, I wasn't a good hotel manager. For what it is worth...they weren't good guests.

Many times when something like the above situation happened I would make every effort to get the guest into a room they would find acceptable. Well, I'd do that if they were genuine and pleasant. It was very rare that I would go out of my way to satisfy a nasty guest...even if I had the ability to do so. The squeak wheel doesn't always get the grease.

Obviously, I knew that I would not be able to refrain in those situations so getting out of that industry was the right move. Now I'm in local government where I need to kiss a$$ even more than I did in the private sector and, if I had the same temperament now as I did back then I would not survive . The good news is that I matured.

Back to the original post. I'm happy to say that I never walked in on a guest at an inappropriate moment. The Do Not Disturb signs were honored unless we suspected there was some type of emergency.

I've worked at the customer service desk at Walmart for years. I have at least one new story about an irate customer every day.

There's no training on how to handle an irate customer, and every manager will just tell you to deal with it, but over the years, I've figured out that diffusing the situation creates a much better outcome. It's not us against them. I'll try to reason with the customer and tell them that we are on there side and we are going to try to figure out how we can best handle the problem. If the situation is unusual, I let them know that. I try to get them to calm down without telling them to "calm down."

The dishonest customers are a different story though. Then it is us against them, and I am right, so I have no problem not satisfying them in those cases.

Oh the stories I could tell...

LostKause said:

There's no training on how to handle an irate customer, and every manager will just tell you to deal with it...

Yeah, there's a reason these people are Walmart managers.

I was gonna say, I’ve been thru plenty of training on how to handle rude customers. And never has it been for a manager to tell an underling to just deal with it...

I was customer service my whole life, including two college summers at Cedar Point, and I am the king of the turn around. There’s no reason to take things personally, and my associates who acted like it would come directly out of their paychecks were the biggest failures. My favorite thing was when the customer thought they had won the fight when in the end our policy or rules still prevailed. It’s tricky, but as Travis suggests, once you know how it’s like magic.

I think telling someone where to go and have them look forward to the trip as if we are doing them a favor comes much more naturally for some of us than others even with training. Best Buy kept wanting to promote me when I worked there during college but the next step would have involved tons of time spent behind the customer service desk and my time working at Hill's and Marshall's had already taught me that's where the unhappy people go and I just wasn't up for that anymore.

I hear ya, Paisley. I guess it was my life’s calling. Ya know, being personable and all. :) One of the things it taught me was a deep appreciation for those that are in that line of work and I always keep that in the back of my mind whenever I have an issue or a complaint anywhere. Now my husband? You do not want to be the one at the counter and look up to see him coming. I just smh and roll my eyes.

Mine, for years, was phone work. And trust me, no one ever called to say their bill was looking good and everything was fine, thank you. A little trick, and this really works, is to put a smile on your face as you talk. Somehow it shines through the line and makes things easier.
We had a public office for walk-ins and I worked that a lot. For us, a saving grace was that most customers calmed down on a face to face and wouldn’t usually dare to say the things they had over the phone earlier that day.

Gosh, I’m having an awesome New Years Eve...

One of the things I hate most about Walmart are the so called "greeters" that want to shake you down and inspect your bag upon exiting the store. I know most stores have loss prevention but Walmart is in your face about it, more or less accusing many honest customers of stealing from them without cause. Walmart sucks and is a horrible shopping experience.

My Costco usually has a line to get out of the place. I don’t mind it.
I do mind Walmart, and won’t shop there, but for other reasons. The only way I would ever darken their door would be to visit Travis and drag him outta there for a trip to Camden.

My closest Walmart got crazy with the exit inspections last year and I started driving to one farther away to avoid it except for late night milk runs until they stopped. I get really irritated when I spend $200 and I have to prove to someone 20 feet away from the line I just went through that I did pay for the $10 bag of dog food. I like to have my receipts put away and my purse closed before I leave the building. An aside I was just talking to a friend who was at Walmart today when the pregnant cashier's water broke and there were actually people yelling and whining because they had to go to a different register and asking to speak to a manager. I don't know what they thought the manager was going to do for them, halt her labor? I'm so glad I got out of retail it wasn't my calling.

People suck.

Lord Gonchar said:

wahoo skipper said:

...eventually sending a couple of my folks to tears. They told me what was said to them.

I called the guest up and before he could open his mouth I told him that I was not going to tolerate any of the language he used on my people and that if he wasn't careful I'd be arriving at his door with a bell cart and I'd be happy to help him pack up and leave.

LOL! Definitely not cut out for the hospitality industry. I tell my wife all the time that there's no way I could do what she does. Her thing is always that it's not personal. Doesn't matter who is standing there - the guest would have acted the same way.

The thing though, is that it's not up to you and the staff to take that kind of treatment, it's up to you and the staff to diffuse it. Your story is a perfect example - staff getting upset and crying and calling the guest with threats is the opposite of diffusing, it's throwing fuel on the fire.

(and you know that, I'm just posting a follow-up thought)

I think most people don't appreciate what goes into hospitality - especially hotels - as far as how many hats you have to wear and master.

That's one of the benefits of Airbnb. At least as far as the service and lodging providers are concerned. The guest rates and reviews the host, and the host rates and reviews the guests at the end of the stay. So the guest knows that they can't take their demands too far, and must be reasonable. If they continue to be a nightmare guest, they risk having their account de-activated, or they'll find it hard to book rooms. As a host, you know that if you can't handle a problematic or untrustworthy guest, you have the power to decline them when they request to stay with you.

This is a problem with the hotel industry. Automatic booking, and it is difficult to have a system in place to screen guests. Employees are stuck with whoever signs up. It's a pure master/servant relationship.

Trackmaster said:

It's a pure master/servant relationship.

That's an interesting way to see the business.

If you're ridiculous enough a guest, the large chains have systems in place and they know who you are...as long as management does their job and follows-up.

Thinking of "Sven" in the Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas movie. Love this scene (NSFW):

Christopher Meloni does no wrong.

Lord Gonchar said:

Trackmaster said:

It's a pure master/servant relationship.

That's an interesting way to see the business.

If you're ridiculous enough a guest, the large chains have systems in place and they know who you are...as long as management does their job and follows-up.

But those are pretty extreme examples. If you get your face on a "Do Not Serve" list for a national hotel franchise, you're probably doing something wrong and you know it. I like the idea of customers being incentivized to go out of their way to be nice and accommodating in exchange for more flexibility in booking, and the ability to get into potentially better priced and more advantageous reservations. Lifetime franchise bans might weed out the worst 0.1%, but it doesn't differentiate between the 0.2%-99.9% guest.

Trackmaster said:

...you're probably doing something wrong and you know it.

Well, if you not doing something wrong and/or don't know it, you're not really a problem customer.

Feels a little like you see customers as problems...or potential problems waiting to happen.

Lord Gonchar said:

Trackmaster said:

...you're probably doing something wrong and you know it.

Well, if you not doing something wrong and/or don't know it, you're not really a problem customer.

Feels a little like you see customers as problems...or potential problems waiting to happen.

I just think that an important tenant to the free market and a civilized democracy is that all people, no matter what their class and rank is, are treated well, or are properly compensated for receiving harsher treatment. If they have a low tolerance for harsh treatment, they should be allowed to forgo the harsher treatments, but possibly accept lower profits. If they have a higher tolerance for harsher treatment, they should be allowed to reap the financial rewards of this.

Similarly, people should be given the ability to experience less of an impact on their checkbook if they live their life in a virtuous, kind, and polite matter. And those who have poor, harsh outlooks on life should be given financial incentives to get their life in order. It might even benefit them, and make them happier and more fulfilled people.

People can open a business where virtuous, kind and polite customers (however that is determined) are charged less and people with poor, harsh outlooks on life (however that is determined) are charged more. Though ultimately that strikes me as a view more aligned with an employee than an owner.

Generally speaking, the business world does work as you state with respect to tolerance for harsher treatment. Managers typically have to ultimately deal with the worst customers (and generally speaking managers have demonstrated an ability to do that and get paid more). Those who do not deal well with harsher treatment typically move on to another job (maybe off the front lines if its a larger organization or more often to a different job) or they remain in that position (and do not deal with the worst of the worst -- being able to hand those off to their manager) with lower pay.

This just in: If you're staying Club Level and are willing to pay $100 extra per night, you can have your DND sign back.