dealing with problems on the spot
I figured out just the other day that there are at least two different kinds of “hey I need help!” issues that could come up to a staff member at con. One is a convention safety issue — someone is causing me grief or there’s a situation that’s unsafe. The other is what’s known as a service recovery event, otherwise known as “feedback”.
Usually the “feedback” is some form of “hey you guys, it’s BROKEN here”. The pattern for dealing with that is:
* apologize
* don’t try to justify why it’s broken or insist it really isn’t broken
* provide the customer with a remedy, with as much flexibility as you can
Good service recoveries can generate more good will than if everything had gone smoothly in the first place.
But if you’re dealing with a safety issue, it’s different. First of all the first step is not “apologize”. It may be to enforce a rule or to get help or even give sympathy. So the very first step is to filter the significance of the upset person in front of you: is this a safety issue or a customer service problem? Very different paths to follow depending on what you choose.