The customer is always right does not in fact mean the customer is always right. The other day I was quite wrong in cussing out a lowly ride operator at Hershey Park. I did not have a calm and measured response for waiting in a long line and being turned away. The issue isn’t who is right and who is wrong, and at this point I am more confused about the rules than I was before.
I received a response to my email on the incident and instead of a simple we’re sorry this happened or we will deal with the issue internally or some other vague customer support boilerplate I received a response that turned the blame back on me, and asked me to rat out the employee that allowed my family to enjoy their day.
Again maybe I am the one that is confused as their response says, but I looked in the app at all the ride information and nowhere does it say one adult per child. It clearly states that people of a certain height must be accompanied by a supervising companion. Which begs the obvious question of what if Peter Dinklage wanted to ride?
We all know that height means children and Mr. Dinklage or any other little person would be able to ride with no issue. That is because we have a shared amusement park experience. In the same vein supervising companion has meant one thing over my forty years of going to amusement parks as a child and an adult, and now I am being told it means something completely different. That is the issue.
A response that turns a park’s communication issue into a customer’s confusion issue is the worst response possible. I don’t think I’m the one confused here. Even if all I received was dismissive corporate boilerplate it would have been a better response, because the customer isn’t always right but they shouldn’t be treated like they’re some crazy person that is breaking a sacred rule or be made part of a companies internal review.
It has been my experience with businesses in the past when small issues start to show up they can quickly become larger issues as the real issue is with leadership, and this type of customer blaming, deflection, and denial reflects poorly on that leadership.
David Huzzard Writes 