There’s always two sides to a story. The customers is always right. And the customer sometimes gets it wrong.
In the tourism community, we’re all here to serve. We base our entire career on making other people happy. It’s drilled in to the core of every good hospitality worker that the customer is always right.
That’s not always the case.
In my career, I’ve seen instances where customers have been outright mean to people who work in all aspects of hospitality and tourism. Some conflicts have even resulted in verbal abuse – and even gone to physical abuse.
It’s true that mistakes happen, and a guest who has received bad service has every right to raise an issue. However, it’s important that the guest take care in how the issue is raised and aim not to resort to personal attacks on the server or volunteer.
I’ve been called every name in the book in my years in hospitality. It’s exhausting, but you learn after a time to shake it off and press forward.
As a manager, my role was most often to be a problem solver. If a guest had a problem, my team and I would work together to remedy that problem. But when a guest would abuse one of my employees, I sometimes had to step out of problem-solving mode and into protective mode toward my tourism family.
I remember one front desk clerk for whom I could not intervene fast enough. One morning a guest came to the front desk and asked if anyone had reported finding a Rolex watch.
She did everything she had been taught to do. She checked lost and found. She contacted housekeeping, maintenance and other staff members. No watch was found.
The guest grew angry and accused every one of stealing the watch. Even the desk clerk who did not work the night before was subject to his rant. When he began to yell and scream — calling her a liar and a cheat — I was called into the situation.
My employee, having endured his barrage for 30 minutes, broke down and started crying, saying over and over again, “I didn’t take the watch.”
At this point, the guest’s wife finally joined the man in the lobby to check out. Come to find out, the watch was in her purse. She had seen it on the nightstand the night before and didn’t want to forget it, so she put it in her purse.
The couple left with no acknowledgement of the misunderstanding or apology of the public attack, and my employee was obviously shaken.
It took weeks for her to recover. Before the incident, she was bubbly, outgoing and positive. She enjoyed meeting new people and showing off her city.
Afterward we had to move her to another position where she dealt a little less with people. When her confidence was restored, she went back to the front desk to reticently deal with people.
The actions of one angry guest deeply affected her and shaped the way she approached people in the future.
If you’re a customer and the service provider doesn’t get it right, please have patience with them. Take a deep breath and remember that the person you’re dealing with is a human being.
If you’re in hospitality and tourism, fight through the one negative customer who ruins it for the rest and focus on the ones for whom it is truly a pleasure to serve.
Michael Owens is president/CEO of the Tourism Leadership Council, the largest non-profit trade organization that supports and represents the tourism industry. Contact Owens at michael@tourismleadershipcouncil.com or by calling 912-232-1223.