Question about SG Complaints

[goalman43]

Hey guys. This board is great. While I am not, nor have I ever been a WDW CM (not even another theme park employee), I have worked in retail pharmacy for the last 12 years, and know a thing or two about stupid patients. You guys really do have to put up with a ton of BS from people, and I am so sorry for what SG's do to you guys.

In working in retail you always run into that one unpleasable person, that no matter what you do, they will always rant and rave, critiscize, lie, and be just plain evil. They also inevitably cry "I'm need your manager" or "I'm filing a complaint." My question is this. What consequences do you guys get when this happens? especially when the situation is not one you caused, and even tried to alleviate. I know that for me in the pharmacy, short of me physically assaulting someone, my supervisor usually does their best to please the person, but does not come down on me for it. They know how ridiculous people are sometimes, and realize that we are not the cause of these incidents. How about for you guys? Does Disney give you the benefit of the doubt, and realize that most guests are out of their mind when they turn you in or complain? I truly hope these SG's are not given priority over you.

[BirdMom]

Does Disney give you the benefit of the doubt, and realize that most guests are out of their mind when they turn you in or complain? I truly hope these SG's are not given priority over you.

As a Lead, I had one case when a SG flagged me down and denegrated a CM for her "attitude." I told him I would speak to her and that made him happy and he walked away. As he was walking away, I had a group of three guests come up to me and ask if the SG had just complained about a specific CM and I told them yes. The women then proceeded to tell me what had really transpired (which involved the SG and some serious infractions of safety regulations), including the fact that the CM had been gracious and patient throughout the entire incident. I thanked the guests for standing up for my CM and went on my own way. It's just one of those things where you know that oftentimes the SG is flat out lying. However, there is a smaller percentage of times when the guest is right and our cast screwed up. I think one has to use discretion at all times, keep a straight face and not give away too much while trying to unravel the truth of the situation. Considering that in the past I had SG's go to City Hall and flat out lie about how I'd treated them, I would take every complaint with a grain of salt. Hopefully, most Leads can take care of these situations before it escalates to the point where a Manager has to get involved because Managers don't know their cast nearly as well as the Leads do.

[Switchbeam 9]

When a guest is livid, it's a good idea to get someone to talk with them ASAP. As posted by Birdmom, it prevents these things from becoming documented events. Corporations like Disney are paper tigers. What's on paper is the only thing that matters.

The good thing about rails is that there are other CMs to fill out witness statements or to head off a complaint by calling the manager with witnesses and explanation of the situation. Thus, typically what gets folks canned in rails are the actual safety and/or clearance violations, not guest complaints.

[bpgstudios]

Even as a regular CM (not lead/coordinator or manager) I've gotten complaints about other CMs... I've heard a couple of guest relations CMs explain it like this:

Most people tend to complain just to get someone to listen to them. Most of the time if you were to ask them what they wanted done about it (not in a rude or snarky tone ;) ) they would have no answer or one that is beyond reasonable. In my experiences, a situation where a guest complains to a CM/coordinator/lead usually does not escalate past the "I'll let them know" line unless it is the third or fourth complaint about a specific CM doing the same thing. If a guest complains to a manager, its been my experience that they will pull you aside and ask for your story if the complaint seems to be authentic. I've had a few guests say they were going to city hall with my name (both for good and bad reasons), never heard anything about it. The only complaints that are looked into no matter what are safety concerns.

Also, whata lot of people may complain about is something we were told to do-- be strict on safety rules. I know when working Wishes PAC I've occasionally been told not to sugar-coat verbal warnings (Basically permission to shout at guests if necessary... we also have permission to tackle guests :twisted: ) when it comes to major safety hazzards (like running into the fallout zone for Wishes or standing up on a carrousel horse), CMs can throw courtesy out the window. I'd imagine any complaint at city hall or to a manager would get discarded if they mentioned how they were yelled at for running into a fireworks fallout zone.

[Princess Susi]

We had a situation that I felt WAS a safety issue. As guests (not CMs) we went to see Turtle Talk about a year ago. The line was very long and when we were finally let in, the CMs filled the theatre seats, put the kidlets down in front, great so far, then they started to fill the back wall with SRO AND they were putting people on the aisle steps leading out of the rows, not completely closing them off but down to a single file area in which to walk through. We immediately informed the CM that they were beaking the fire code law by allowing people to sit in the aisleways and crowd people into the back in multiple rows along the back wall so that there was literally NO room to move. We got out of there. God forbid a fire should break out or someone had a medical emergency. I feel the CMs were trying to pack the theatre as full as they could because the line was so long and stayed that way. We told them they needed to allow fewer people in the theatre (capacity only!). They just smiled and shrugged and said they had to get the people through. We did go to Guest Relations because we felt it WAS a safety factor and the man there agreed. He said they had not expected it to be such a popular attraction and they were going to make the theatre bigger eventually. Whatever. Whether true of not, the fact was, was that the CMs should NOT have allowed seating in the aisles and packed the back to the gills so no one could move.
We had one other incident that trip and it was on the Land ride and my husband and I were put into a row on one of the boats. There was room for another two people, but we are 6 ft tall, and each of us weighs about 200 lbs, we are not "small". I could not believe the CM would load the couple that he did. They both must have been at least 250 to 300 lbs each. Talk about a MORE than uncomfortable ride. It had to be bad for all 4 of us. THAT was NOT a fun ride! A bad judgement call on his part. Overall, I have to say that CMs are awesome and great! We NEVER raise our voices or scream at or berate a CM. We will talk to them aboout how we feel and if we feel it needs to be brought to the attention of the leads or guest relations, we go. And that is rarely! In fact, in all our years at DL and WDW, I believe that is the only time we have brought a concern to Guest Relations. I know we have have gone to give names of great CMs and give kudos to those who deserve it! We never even told the guest relations the CMs names at Turtle Talk, just that they should know not to pack the theatre beyond legal capacity. To us, it was more of a misinformed CM not knowing what was legal capacity. They were all very polite and we just felt it warranted a look-see. Whether that happened or not, I don't know and I have no idea if Guest Relations ever looked at how they were filling that theatre. I would hope that they actually looked at what was being done and stopped the overfilling of the theatre there. I did not want the CMs to "get in trouble", I just wanted them to know that it was not safe. I don't feel like we were SGs for reporting the safety issue, we would HAVE been if we had thrown a conniption fit and screamed right there, which we DID NOT do. THAT is something we would NEVER do unless someone was actually dying and they were doing nothing about it! That would not happen, now would it? :) Unless it was a particulary stupid, stupid guest! :twisted: ;)
Susi

[BRWombat]

... I told him I would speak to her and that made him happy and he walked away. ...

Most irate guests/customers can be satisfied IF two things happen: (1) They feel like you heard and understood their complaint and (2) they are told there will be consequences, even the "I'll speak to her" like BirdMom said.

Of course, that gives a lot of flexibility. In my job I get the occasional complaint about how rude some police officer was (usually coming from really rude, obnoxious defendants! Hmm... wonder why that is?). I have absolutely no say about how officers do their job, but I've often used the "I'll talk with him/her" line. And I'm being completely honest -- the next time I see the officer, I'll say, "Someone said you were rude to them." The officer usually says, "Okay," and that's the end of it. :)

[svickersart]

I'm not a Disney CM but I have dealt with the public all my life and I have handled more complaints than I can count. In many cases an apoligy and telling a customer you will talk to the employee is all thats needed. They feel they were wronged and they want to vent and they will embelish what really happened and leave things out, you just have to read what they are saying, get the employees side of things and in most cases its over at that point. I pikced up a term from AAA for talking with an employee about complaints, we call it "coaching" keeps thing neutral.

Of course you also get a few that want something for free, the "I should be compensated for my trouble" people, these are th ones you really have to watch out for.
Steve

[AlpineDL]

It seems like everyone has pretty much the same good advice, feelings, and experiences regardless of park, position or industry. Also, seconding the love for the nice folks who stick around after incidents to support the truth involving SG's.

[goalman43]

its encouraging to read that SG's do not ruin people's career's with Disney. It is always important to beleive and trust your employees, and to get their( and other's) side of the story, which is apparent what happens. Thanks for the input guys.

[BirdMom]

its encouraging to read that SG's do not ruin people's career's with Disney. It is always important to beleive and trust your employees, and to get their( and other's) side of the story, which is apparent what happens. Thanks for the input guys.

It is indeed important to get both sides of the story, but I think that management realizes that if there are continual complaints about a certain CM, there might just be a problem. There's nothing like walking out onto your onstage location to take care of some little thing, only to find one of your CM's being rude and argumentive with a guest without knowing that you were walking up behind them. Again, the leads should know their CM's well enough that they are aware of who their problem children are and who is getting a bogus complaint. And even the best of your cast isn't perfect. I've seen a handful of obnoxious guests who make even the most exemplary CM's loose their cool at least once every five years or so :p: