If it’s one thing Melbourne does well, it’s events. Moving masses of people in and out of venues, on and off public transport in a relatively smooth fashion. From my perspective the one thing that consistently lets events down seems to be the inability to predict certain events and make contingencies for them.
Too often business operates on the customer service mantra of ‘what can I get away with’ vs ‘how much more can I do’.
At the #Australian Open tennis yesterday, the line-up to the box office contained people requiring all different needs, being serviced mostly by people who seem to be in training. This placed a lot of stress on the supervisor and made for very grumpy customers. Simply requests, ones you could have predicted were mostly insurmountable for the sales staff.
In the 40 minute wait at the box office I witnessed people wanting to buy or upgrade tickets, people who haven forgotten tickets, or in our case having tickets reprinted because the scanner didn’t’ read them. I’m sure all of these scenarios have happened before!
So while the scalpers were happy to service the line in a far more swift fashion, the supervisor shifted from one crisis to the next.
My solution? Planning and specialisation. A window each for sales, returns, upgrades, forgotten tickets etc.. Staff become experts in an area and the pressure is off. And then I don’t have to miss 20 minutes of the tennis!
Where are the areas of your business where you could do better for your customers? Is there something that you customers consistently complain about? How can you be a business that goes the extra mile to surprise and delight