Monday, September 2, 2013

How to keep calm when dealing with a difficult guest

Anyone who has worked in the service industry knows that sometimes customers can be difficult and at Disney it is no exception. One of the most important things to know is that when a guest is upset or yelling at you, it is not personal. The guest is frustrated at the situation, not particularly at you. Sometimes just letting the person vent is really all the guest really needs, other times you may need to provide some type of recovery for the guest.

Sometimes there are guests who just leave you feeling frazzled once they leave. Yesterday was really the first time for me that a guest left me feeling that way. To make a long story short, she confused me (and I think was a little confused herself) which led me to selling her the wrong ticket type. Then as I was feeling frazzled I made another mistake while trying to correct the initial error. In the end I was able to fix the error and the guest walked away satisfied. However I felt particularly hard on myself for making such a silly mistake in the first place.

It would have been really easy for me to blame the guest for me selling the wrong ticket type, or ignore the mistake I had made, but that is poor service. First regardless of fault, the guest had the wrong ticket and it needed to be fixed for them, end of story. Second ignoring the mistake actually cost the guest additional money they were owed, which would be unethical. And would have made the guest more upset when they discovered it later on.

What is nice is that there is almost nothing you can do that cannot be fixed. If you make a mistake and you are unsure of how to fix the situation reach out to other Cast Members or a Leader to assist you. Yesterday I had a really great fellow Cast Member who helped me through the situation and how to resolve the error I made.

So in summary if you have a difficult guest situation remember to keep calm, listen to what the guest is really upset about, and if you can't solve the problem yourself reach out to someone who can help you!

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