4 Ways to Demonstrate Great Customer Care

What does customer care mean to you?

To us, customer care is so much more than customer service.

Customer care means going the extra mile to show kindness or support beyond what the customer would expect, both while they’re in your facility as well as long after they’ve walked out your door. When you do this, you create a special connection with your guest, making them more inclined to support YOU when you need it as well.

The most successful business owners prioritize doing the “little things”. After all, it’s the little things that make the biggest impact!

4 Ways to Demonstrate Great Customer Care

Here are four ways you can demonstrate great customer care.

1. Offer To-Go Kits

If you ever find yourself in a sticky situation where your facility can’t open due to maintenance or for another reason, consider creating to-go kits for your guests!

You can offer onsite pickup or even go the extra mile—literally—and offer delivery if you can. For example, a Pottery Studio can pack up ceramic products and paints for families to create their projects at home. Then, once they finish painting their piece, customers can drop their items off at the facility to be glazed and fired.

This is also a creative way to make your facility a part of “at-home” parties! Your FEC can still be a part of a birthday party or special event being hosted outside of your walls by offering activity or craft bags!

Consider putting together large goodie bags that customers can purchase in bulk, filled with several crafts or activities, as well as some party decorations like balloons and party hats. This is a great way to earn extra revenue.

These kits are also perfect for rainy days or winter breaks when your customers are looking for something fun to do indoors. Advertise your kits year-round in your online storefront and display them at the front desk so guests know they’re available as soon as they walk in.

Not only can these activity bags provide extra revenue for your facility, they can also serve as a referral tool. Customers can use these kits as gifts! Not only will the recipient of the gift be occupied for hours with the activities inside, but they will also know they came from your facility and will want to visit to see what else they can enjoy!

2. Show Grace for Unexpected Party Cancellations

Life can be unpredictable. The best days are sometimes spoiled by sickness or unexpected circumstances. Kids get sick. Tragedies occur. Parties are requested to be canceled or changed. It happens. How you—as a business owner—respond, however, will demonstrate how you care for and feel about your customers.

Keep in mind that you do need to have standard policies and procedures that should be followed.

You can’t give a full refund back to every guest that calls to cancel because they’ve changed their mind, however, it’s a smart business practice to make decisions on such cancellations on a case-by-case basis. When out-of-the-ordinary situations arise, show grace and offer your guests one (or both!) of the following to show how much they mean to you and your business:

• Reschedule their party: Show empathy to your customer and then ask, “When is a better time to celebrate this birthday or occasion?” Help them reschedule and do so with no strings attached—that means no rescheduling fee! The goal is to keep the party at your facility to receive the revenue you already expected from the initial party booking. No need to squeeze further money from them. Be accommodating, sincere, and express how excited you are to celebrate on their new party date!
  
  
• Offer Goodie Bags: If your customer chooses to cancel or if they just want something positive to come out of having to postpone their event, extend the option for them to purchase those activity/goodie bags we mentioned!
  
  Suggest the standard goodie bags to your customer for any invited guests they may want to purchase for, but let the guest of honor pick items from the add-ons on your site or within your online store. Package them up for your customer to pick up and distribute them to their guests in lieu of the party OR, if they’ve taken you up on the offer to reschedule free of charge, you can hold onto them until the new party date, making one less thing to worry about on party day.

3. Follow Up with Your Guests

Sometimes the best customer care is given after your guests leave your facility. Follow up with your party bookers after their event, especially ones that you know live close by and have the potential to become a regular customer should they have a great guest experience each time they visit. When you give them a call, ask them:

• Did you have fun?
• How was your experience?
• What feedback do you have?

Talk about how important it is for you to hear what your guests loved about their party/play day, as well as what areas can be improved.

4. Invest in Your Guests and Your Community

As a local business, it’s important to show your community that your customers aren’t just a card swipe or twenty-dollar bill to you. To be a successful business long-term, you need to work to establish a personal connection with your guests and show you care for them as people.

Review your customer database and reach out to your most frequent and loyal customers. Ask them if you can contribute to an extracurricular activity they participate in, such as buying the jerseys for their child’s little league team or buying a couple dozen boxes of girl scout cookies.

A donation may not feel like much to you, but to them, it will mean so much and you’re sure to get new customers walking into your FEC through word-of-mouth about how generous and supportive you are! You can also give back to the community by sponsoring a local fair, 5K or event that takes place in your city or neighborhood. Find a way to make an impact and invest in the very people that visit your facility and help your business grow.

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