Good customer service at an AMC movie theater
Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
I am fond of stories about good customer service. We got it at the West Olive Theater in Creve Coeur on New Year’s Eve, when my wife and I went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The theater is owned by AMC Theatres.
The story is brief. We bought the tickets online, retrieved them without incident and watched the movie.
But about 20 minutes before the end, the film stopped dead, the screen went blank and the lights came up. The crowd in the theater started mumbling and looking around, naturally. Within 90 seconds, the lights dimmed and the movie commenced without missing a beat. We loved the movie.
And as we left the theater, two employees flanked the doors, handing out vouchers for a free ticket to everyone who was there. They apologized to each person for the inconvenience. They went beyond what they needed to do to make up for what was obviously a minor glitch. Bravo. It’ll certainly make me pay more attention to the movie theater. So easy for them to do, such a big impression it leaves.
Businesses: Their place in community conversation?
Jeff Herr
As we’ve worked on expanding the community offerings on my news company’s web site, we’ve been faced with debating how businesses can be involved. The situation arose in the early beta stage of our MySTLtoday.com site, when a string of coupons from an advertiser in our bridal marketplace showed up in the midst of readers’ comments.
Raising concerns about that prompted an e-mail discussion with Jeff Herr, director of interactive media for Lee Enterprises (our parent company). Jeff makes great points in his e-mail, excerpted here with his permission: Read more
Dealing with comments: Yelp’s best practices
After my last post referencing Yelp and its reader-comment policies, I got an e-mail from Yelp’s director of communications, Stephanie Ichinose (eetch-EE-no-say). We had a great conversation about what it takes to manage user comments — and deal with retailers/business owners who may be upset with what readers post about them.
Yelp, which launched in 2005, is a reader-generated social networking site inviting reader reviews of businesses in a bunch of cities around the country. They have a St. Louis site, but it’s not actively moderated right now. Here’s a few of the highlights of the conversation: Read more
Why don’t more retailers send coupons by text message?
Maybe I’m late to the party here, but I just learned that Borders will now send its coupons to your cell phone by text message. Used my first one last weekend buying a couple of books for my son. It was fantastic. Just got my second text coupon this morning.
I am on the Borders’ e-mail list. I dutifully receive my weekly batch of propaganda and coupons…and leave them at home when I’m out and about. I never have my bookstore coupons with me when I need them.
Why don’t all retailers offer this option? I (almost) always have my cell phone with me.
Uno Chicago Grill — an example of good customer service
I’m a big fan of customer service stories — good or bad. I’m remiss, sometimes, in not recognizing good examples. Last weekend, I had one at the Uno Chicago Grill in Chesterfield. Long story short, I snagged my jeans on an exposed nail in the booth where I was sitting.
I tore a small hole in the back left leg of my pants. When I pointed out the nail, and the hole, to the waiter, he apologized immediately and agreed that the nail could be dangerous. He sent the store manager, Mike Reckert, to my table. He also apologized immediately and, likewise, said he’d have the nail repaired as soon as we left.
He asked whether I’d have my jeans repaired or replaced; I didn’t know at the time. He gave me his card and said to send him the bill, that it would be taken care of.
Truth is, I can afford to have the pants fixed. I likely won’t even bother because he did all the right things. It really is amazing how easy it is to make a customer happy.
Kurt's Tweets- Why is this not a national story? Maybe I missed it. Appalling. Disabled woman was tortured and held as a sex slave http://ow.ly/2CiAq
- Bravo. RT @pwthornton: "Banning unsigned online comments undermines the media’s role as a forum for debate.” http://bit.ly/bmZsOn
- I would like to just take the two steps forward and skip the one step back. How about that? Would that be OK?
- Still seeking talented journalists to run #Patch sites in two south St. Louis County communities. Know anyone? http://ow.ly/2Axnv
- Waiting for a listings collector to give her more #Patch marketing cards. The work never stops.