Why Do We Give Parks a Pass on Customer Service?

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RatherGoodBear said:
For every person who likes the good wings or the nice teeth, there's a person who says they stopped going to that restaurant because the service was lousy, or the dentist was rude to his patients.

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The thing that's different with restaurants, and dentists is that there are so many places to get food. If you want pizza, you can go to so many places to get it. If you want wings, if you don't like KFC, go to Buffalo Wild Wings. If not there, go to Hooters, or how about Popeye's, or Boston Market might have them. There are so many choices, and so many restaurants around.

I will say for a carnival. Carnivals can also be a monopoly if they have this one ride in the area that no other carnival has. Whether you really like the carnival or not, you put up with it because they have this one ride you really like, and no other carnival in the surrounding area has that ride.

You put up with this stuff because you really like the rides. That's what I think to myself also. I like the rides, and don't worry about the people bugging me. I go for the rides, and not the people.

^^^Great example supporting the hypothesis. I bet if you were given that kind of crap from a car dealer, you'd never go back there again. *** Edited 6/27/2008 1:56:30 PM UTC by Ensign Smith***

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eightdotthree said:
That will show them!

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LOL. It's not so much showing them as it is not wanting to run into those people again. If they have that kind of attitude toward me for not wanting 2 cold slices of pizza after not eating all day, then I will simply find another place to eat, there are plenty around Kings Island. This LaRosa's didn't have a place to sit down and eat, the other 2 do, so it's all good.
I've worked in CS for 8 years. I do not like giving my money to a place where the CS is unacceptable.
I have to say that every time I've been to the Stunt Crew Grill, I get exceptional service with a smile, and hot fresh food. That is the way it should be.

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RatherGoodBear said:
For every person who likes the good wings or the nice teeth, there's a person who says they stopped going to that restaurant because the service was lousy, or the dentist was rude to his patients.

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There are a few restaurants that I go to that have lousy service but awesome, cheap food or beer. In fact, in Kansas City there is a famous BBQ place that yells at you the entire visit but is packed every night because its that good.

I guess an important question is how interchangable are a day at the ballpark and a day at the amusement park (or a day at the movies or whatever).

I also suspect that since it's not a place you go regularly (like a restaurant or car shop) by the time the decision comes around next year, people remember the awesome rides (see MF video) and not the crappy customer service. I highly doubt that people who make once a year or once every two years hold a customer service grudge that long.

Yah, but there's a difference between being cheeky and giving bad service. In any case, there are indeed problems in other industries:

http://www.chubbypanda.com/2008/06/belcan-grill-redondo-beach-ca-eating.html

http://mmm-yoso.typepad.com/mmmyoso/2008/06/goldilocks-asia.html

And honestly, I think that Amusement parks can get away with this much easier than an eatery. Eateries go out of business all the time even when the service and food is good.

They can get away with it cause we can't build our own rides like we can cook our own food.

Well, I dunno...I've seen some interesting hillbilly rides on YouTube. ;)

Anyone who even in the worst conditions can't serve the customer with courtesy, respect, speed, and a smile needs to find a job outside the customer service sector.

I wanted to add to my earlier comment. My opinion on customer service comes from the fact that every single job I've had since being a paperboy at age 12 has been in customer service.

That's 31 years of experience. In that time I've worked in great environments and poor environments, had good pay and low pay, was respected by my superiors and treated poorly. I even when to work when all I felt like doing was remaining in bed. I've had jobs I've loved and jobs I've hated.

But not once did I ever take it out on the customer or give them anything less than 100% because THAT is what customer service is all about.

They are the entire reason for your existance! You enjoy eating, having a roof over your head via that paycheck? Comes from one place!

You'd think about ten minutes of drilling this factoid into new employees heads would do the trick. Heck, perhaps remind them every day.

Me too, Moosh. I have worked in CS jobs for 18 years and regularly wonder why some of my coworkers didn't care. It's their job to care.

I am done with retail and CS. Now I am in the Newspaper business. I never interact with customers anymore, but the people I do see on a daily basis get to see my best, most pleasant attitude.

That's smart...because even if one doesn't interact with customers directly one's job can still be customer service related. I recently moved from the Advertising Sales Department at the magazine I work for, where I was responsible for selling ad space, to being the Production Director. Although I don't sell anything now I still work with our advertisers when it comes to their ads, where they're placed in the magazine, making sure they print clearly, letting them know if they send an ad that isn't to spec, or has a typo, etc. I still view it as a job in which I offer customer service.

Yep. I agree again, Moosh! You are representing your employer, and it is very smart to be kind and helpful. I am a Driver and Staff Writer for now. If I am nice and helpful to those who I come into contact with, they will view it as the Newspaper is being nice and helpful to them.

So why can't some employees treat customers well? Employees should be able to take pride in their work, and the business that they work for should support that pride.

One word keeps coming to mind. Integrity.

It's like that old joke. Sincerity really works, if you do a good enough job faking it.

If you haven't heard, supposedly we're going to run out of video bandwidth by 2010, because of stupid videos like this.

I don't have a problem with the message the guy is trying to convey towards the end, it's the rest of it that is completely unnecessary. I really don't give a crap if you like MF or not, and it doesn't impress me that you can be that profane about it at the same time.

So why do we give parks a pass on Customer Service? Because people are too lazy to spend the five-minutes filling out a form complaining about what is wrong, or even stopping into Customer Relations (which is usually conveniently on your way out) at all giving CR no chance to fix the problem.

In this case, they'd rather leave the park and post a badly shot video on YouTube which never clarifies what problems the guys were having. Where were they having customer service issues? At the restaurants, the games, the stores, Soak City, their Cedar Point lodging, at the rides, or all of the above? We'll probably never know.

So stop by Customer Relations. You may feel inconvenienced, but, you have at least tried to make a difference. If there's a problem with an employee (or employees), hopefully the park cares enough to send a supervisor out to visit them.

Mamoosh said:
That's smart...because even if one doesn't interact with customers directly one's job can still be customer service related.

Agreed! I was working doing production/driving for a meat company Our production area was also part of one of the stores. I would be walking through to get to the office or grab a drink and I'd do my best to be polite or help a customer if need be.

Example: A customer would be looking at all the beers in the case (we must've carried about 30+ types & brands), and I'd make a quick sugestion based on what they had already.

That and the fact i'd be interacting with all the other delivery drivers I crossed paths with along my route (from the produce guy to the nice lady from UPS).

Heck, when I worked CP in the '05 season, I was the only one on the garbage crew to recieve a CS award. *** Edited 6/28/2008 2:24:57 PM UTC by Hopman***

How's this for customer service:

1.) Our mechanics put a water pump on a guests car (at no charge) so that he could drive home!

2.) I allowed a guest whose car had broken down to sleep on the couch in my family room for the night!

The GM Of A Small Amusement Park

Okay, now we see the good examples of CS coming out. It's not just one person. CS is a team effort. Had a guest one day who was feeling extremly ill. (one too many laps on TTD, plus a 90+ day). unfortunily, she colapsed. Had an empty trash bag in my hand, so I started fanning her until the medical staff arrived.

This example resulted in a state-wide award. :)

Paula

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Intamin Fan said:
I really don't give a crap if you like MF or not, and it doesn't impress me that you can be that profane about it at the same time.

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This would be more pertinent if, you know...he was sending the video directly to you or something. I don't think coaster geeks on an internet message board was really the audience in mind at the time.