The last hurrah!

As my final weeks at Queens sadly come to an end, I am going to reflect back on a challenging experience that sticks out to me, from the past eight months completing my work experience at the Lyric Theatre Belfast. I have been working on the Front of House team at the Lyric Theatre, performing a variety of different tasks and being involved in a variety of different events. From working on the café and bar, especially during the busier periods such as Christmas, to hosting the shows making sure everything runs nice and smoothly and making sure no one is scrolling through Tik Tok, whilst Juliet calls for her Romeo, to simply making the staff members their early morning flat white. I have really been able to immerse my self in it all and it has been wonderful as ever.

Wins all round

The past eight months have been a really exciting time in the Lyric. This year the Lyric won two awards at the UK Theatre Awards 2022, a key annual event in UK Theatre’s calendar. They also won, ‘Theatre of the year’ at the prestigious Stage Awards 2023, whilst still putting on the hugely successful performances of Romeo and Juliet, The Snow Queen and hosting amazing events for the young and upcoming talents of Belfast. However, all this excitement and achievements, does not mean customer service has got any easier, if anything it has got harder!

The customer is not always right, but they are always the customer!

-Shep hyken

Ahh, the infamous Karens strike again…

We’ve all heard of the saying, ‘The customer is always right’, or if you are in the Gen-Z category, a difficult customer is also referred to as a ‘Karen’. If you’ve worked in any customer serving role, you will understand that it is inevitable you will come across a few awkward people, it would not be real customer service if you did not! I will be using Gibbs reflective model to reflect on my challenging experience, how it made me feel and how I overcame it.

Description

I was working the bar during the crazy busy Christmas period, where there was both a show on in the Naughton studio and on the Main stage. We were understaffed with a couple of staff members being off due to sickness, therefore it was myself and another person on the bar doing nearly two sold out shows with a man down. The queue for the bar stretched the whole way back to the long hall and as we were understaffed, it was slightly chaotic. Customers were waiting longer than usual for drinks and due to the noise from the buzz of the theatre, it was hard to get people’s attention and figure out who was next. I already knew that someone, somewhere at some point would have some sort of comment to say, but I had not prepared for just how bad. This customer came and ordered a few drinks and as I began to prepare their drinks I was stopped by them shouting at me that they wanted their drinks in proper glasses. I knew from this point onwards this was not going to be an easy breezy transaction. As I began to explain that since it was 10/15 minutes before the show was about to begin, I am obliged to give them their drinks in a reusable cup for safety reasons (as previously discussed in my first blog post). Much to my surprise this did not go down well, as I began to receive abuse about how unprofessional and stupid I was, why we think we can call ourselves an established theatre and why I think it is acceptable for me to make them wait for their drinks, put it in a reusable cup and expect them to pay!

Feelings

Not only had I not met expectations of the customer, but I was even more confused by how to answer their obtuse questions. I have worked in customer service for over 5 years so I have dealt with my fair share of difficult customers. Nonetheless, I still feel just as anxious and taken aback as I was when I was 17 with my first customer service job in Argento Jewellery, to now being 22. Despite still having that heart sinking feeling when someone is obnoxiously rude to me, I have learned how to handle these situations much better. For this situation for example, I was able to separate the customer’s frustrations from taking it as a personal attack on me and found that by focusing solely on the issue I was able to deescalate the situation.

83% of consumers cite good customer service as the most important factor—outside of price and product—when deciding what to buy

by Khoros staff | May 25, 2021 

Evaluation

I felt as though I handled myself well, as I listened to the customer and sympathised towards their frustration, saying how I would feel similar. I assured them that they could have their drinks in glasses for the interval to try and come with a solution to their problem. I made their drinks quickly and efficiently despite feeling shaken up as I was determined to handle myself in a kind, mature and professional manner, whilst still going by the rules as I am instructed to do.

Analysis

I understand why this customer was annoyed during this situation despite it being out of my control. I can fully see why waiting in a long queue can be extremely frustrating, tedious and sometimes anxiety inducing, especially when you had an idea in your head of how you wanted your night to go and it unfortunately does not go to plan. I have learned through experience that more often than not, when someone is overreacting or behaving aggressively, there is usually something going on behind closed doors, which I always tried to keep in mind during situations like this.

Action Plan

I would ensure that it was more obvious that there were two queues instead of just one, so that it would have saved time from having to shout over to customers and organise them into a line. This would have made the bar service a lot more streamlined, which hopefully would have resulted in fewer customers being frustrated. I have continued to learn a lot about myself and others given the challenges we are presented with as an individual and as a team.

Conclusion

This highlighted to me the importance of team work and how much you need a team to support you. It also showed me my capability of taking what people say with a pinch of salt and staying focused on the problem without letting my emotions take over to ensure I give the best customer service possible. I am very fortunate that I was able to do my work experience in a place I am familiar with, that works alongside the nature of my degree and where I am surrounded by like minded people which presents me with many doors for further opportunity.

Bibliography

Beale, Crispin. 2022. ‘The Importance of Customer Service’, Researchworld.com <https://researchworld.com/articles/the-importance-of-customer-service> [accessed 9 December 2022]

Belfast, Love. 2023. ‘LIAM NEESON SENDS CONGRATULATIONS to LYRIC THEATRE on WINNING THEATRE of the YEAR at the STAGE AWARDS 2023’, LoveBelfast<https://lovebelfast.co.uk/liam-neeson-sends-congratulations-to-lyric-theatre-on-winning-theatre-of-the-year-at-the-stage-awards-2023/> [accessed 17 April 2023]

Calvert, Gemma Anne, Abhishek Pathak, Lim Elison Ai Ching, Geraldine Trufil, and Eamon Philip Fulcher. 2019. ‘Providing Excellent Consumer Service Is Therapeutic: Insights from an Implicit Association Neuromarketing Study’, Behavioral Sciences, 9.10: 109 <https://doi.org/10.3390/bs9100109>

Ospina Avendano, D. 2020. ‘What Is the Boud Reflection Model? Theory by Boud et Al, 1985’, Toolshero <https://www.toolshero.com/personal-development/boud-reflection-model/>

Sapru, Romilla. 2020. ‘How to Deal with Difficult Customers: 5 Tips’, Www.thinkowl.com <https://www.thinkowl.com/blog/how-to-deal-with-difficult-customers> [accessed 17 April 2023]‌