All Disney Cast Members deal with guest complaints. It's just a fact of life, unfortunately. In any business situation, someone is going to be dissatisfied. But Disney sees two opportunities when guests voice dissatisfaction: the chance to make that one guest happy again and the chance to rectify the situation so that no one else goes away dissatisfied. Guest complaints, in other words, are one of the prime ways the CMs can diagnose how well they are performing in guest service, and it helps to spotlight areas of improvement. Of course, having no complaints at all would represent the highest possible level of achievement.

It's a workshop class: an informal lecture-style presentation, then group Q&A and exercises. During the lecture sequence, many interesting facts come up that will be very familiar to those with a service background, but something many Leads are unaware of until this course. For example, it is estimated that less than five percent of customers who are dissatisfied with the product or service ever actually complain. So if an attraction receives five complaints daily, in fact as many as 500 people felt dissatisfied. This makes it imperative that guest complaints be taken seriously and the problem, if it can be fixed, swiftly resolved.

— Listen to what the guest says. Really listening is not just pretending to do so. React appropriately to what they say.

— Some guests are simply having a bad day at Disneyland, and you just happen to be the most convenient target. Let them yell. It costs you nothing to let them yell at you, and the guest often feels better once he's had a chance to vent.

— Apologize. Always. In fact, there was some sort of acronym we learned for what action to take during guest complaints, and "apology" was one of the most important. But be careful how you phrase it. Do not say "I'm sorry that you feel that way" because it sounds patronizing and doesn't address the problem. Instead, say: "I'm sorry that we let you down."

— Arrange to fix the problem, and make sure that the guest knows you will do so. Frequently, the reason a guest decides to complain is so that no one else will have to suffer the poor product/service that they did. If they know you will fix it, they feel they have accomplished something and that their dissatisfaction has not been in vain.

In fact, this last point is crucial. Turning what starts out as a guest complaint into an actual guest compliment is a real art, but it can be done more often than you'd think. A guest who knows he has been heard, really listened to, and whose advise has been taken is a happy guest. Some of my most favorable guest compliments had begun life as a guest complaint.

Body language is crucial. There is no one right answer here. Sometimes a sympathetic smile is called for; at other times you'd want to mirror the guest's sincerity by avoiding what might be seen as a patronizing happy look. In short, you learn to read people.

Above all, be on their side and not against them. This is the crucial non-quantifiable element to a good handling of a guest complaint. Do not phrase it as an us vs. them situation. Avoid the use of negatives (what we cannot do) and instead focus on the positives (what we can offer instead).

People skills help. Strategies include matching your mood to theirs — i.e., down in the dumps and angry — and gradually elevating the mood toward positivity, so that they come with you quite naturally and indeed unconsciously.

Some guests shout. Loudly, even. By acting counter-intuitively, the situation can be defused rather easily: simply lower your own volume. If you are soft, the guest usually softens up his tone again naturally and unconsciously.

Be professional. Some Leads had a business-style suit; you should make an effort to grab the jacket of the suit when heading out to take a guest complaint. It demonstrates to the guest that you consider their opinion important enough to stop working and listen to them; it also shows them that you are, indeed, the manager and can effect the kind of change they want.

The class even veers into the more difficult cases, such as: is the guest always right? Is there no such thing as the guest being wrong?

Well, the answer is: the guest can of course be wrong, but this should never be said or implicitly acknowledged to the guest, or even believed in his presence. The guiding principle is to treat all guests like VIP's, and like I've said before, occasionally this leads some guests to think they are "more VIP" than other guests, a proposition that goes against the idea that ALL guests are VIP's, none more than others. This can cause friction, and handling this kind of complaint is the most tricky. You don't want the guest to think that you're telling him he is wrong. The trick is to maneuver him into the mindset you have, but without arguing or contradicting. Let him "realize" the truth and "win" the argument. This takes practice.

Thus, the final part of this very helpful class is some practice. The instructor or another classmate plays an angry or dissatisfied guest, and you get to play yourself: a hurried and flustered Lead.

I did poorly.

The instructor pointed out that my word choices and phrases could be considerably softened. The phrase "what you need to realize" should never be used. Of course, having done poorly made me all the more aware of the proper way to do it, and this is exactly the way things are supposed to work — make your mistakes in the classroom and not "out there" where it counts for real.

One of our classmates did very well. The instructor-as-incensed-guest eventually broke out laughing and couldn't continue, because the Lead was so genuinely sweet, considerate, soft-spoken, and sympathetic that it became impossible to still be angry at all, let alone with her. THAT was the way to do it. I learned a lot from watching that exchange. Not that I was envious of her. I was not, I was not, I was NOT!

In the years since the class, not only have I not forgotten the lessons, they've actually accumulated and become more firmly lodged in my mind. It's hard for me to witness any sort of customer complaint in any service facility without judging the manager's performance. The cardinal errors seem to be an insincere attitude of just paying "lip service" to the irritated customer so they will go away, and/or an air about them implying that the manager is busy and has better things to do, so hurry up already with the complaint. A lot of managers in the world could benefit from this course.

---

Next up: Advanced Courses at Disney University Part Three: You Create Happiness