'Are you having a good day so far?' - an AT CS essay

General discussion regarding the UK's No.1 Theme Park. Talk about anything and everything Alton Towers here.
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Mikey
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Being that a lot of us visit Alton Towers regularly, I think I’m safe in assuming that at some point all of us have bought something from a retail outlet inside the park. In assuming this, it is also safe to assume you have been asked the following question:

‘Are you enjoying your day so far?’

Most people are polite so will answer, more than likely, with:

‘Yes.’

And then you go about on your merry way. However, you then ride air and decide you quite like the on-ride photo and you decide to buy it.

‘Are you enjoying your day so far?’

‘Yes.’

Actually at this point I’m quite thirsty, so I’ll just grab a drink while I’m here and then go on Nemesis.

‘Are you enjoying your day so far?’

‘Yes.’

And so on and so forth.

This question, to me, is one of the few small reasons why Alton Towers are not leading the way in its customer services. On a busy day, where queues are inevitable, you will have to queue, which means you will probably overhear what happens at the till with those in front of you.

They will of course be asked if they are enjoying their day so far. And so will the people after them, and the ones after them. Then it will be your turn to be asked, as will the people behind you.

By hearing this question being asked by staff all day, to everyone, really has an impact on the fact that they are trained to say it. Do we really need to be asked by half a dozen different people if we are enjoying our day so far? Because we’re asked so often we know they’re told to ask it, and because we know they’re told, we know they don’t care.

Don’t get me wrong, some staff are enthusiastic enough to make you believe they do care, but when they’re not even looking at you when they ask, you have to raise some questions of your own.

Ok, so I understand that guest interaction makes for better customer service which then leads to a better day out, but why just the one question, which makes it blaringly obvious that they’re trained to ask?

A simple fix of this would be give them more than one question. If the people in front of you are asked if they’re having a nice day so far, wouldn’t it be a better all round experience when reaching the staff member yourself to be asked:

Have you guys been on many rides today?
What’s your favourite ride been today?
Have you been on Thirteen yet?

Or how about some variable ones:

Are you coping with this horrible/hot weather today?
Did you enjoy your ride on Air/Nemesis/etc?

It’s variety, and you’re far less likely to be asked the same question numerous times. And because you’re not being asked the same thing, it masks the fact that staff are trained to interact with customers. If they’re wearing a Nemesis hoodie, ask them about Nemesis, if they’re wearing an Iron Maiden shirt, ask them about it. It doesn’t take much to mix things up and add a little difference.

I also wonder, are they prepared with a response should the guest respond with ‘No.’?

It may be a small thing to consider, but if I’ve noticed it’s safe to say that others have noticed as well. Who wants to leave a shop irked at the fact that they’ve had to answer the same question ten times already that day?

Of course being acknowledged is better than being ignored. I’ve eaten in the pizza pasta buffet in Katanga Canyon on pretty much every visit since it opened, and I’ve been very happy with the service so far, however on Sunday I may have been deterred from returning.

We always go early for lunch to beat the rush, so we wandered in and waited to be seated as normal. Ahead of us, on the left, were two staff members wiping the windows, and a further group of three or four were stood by the till talking.

One of the staff members looked at us and continued wiping the windows. After a minute or so of uninterested wiping she waved her cloth and said ‘sit where you want.’ Which we did.

As we sat down the two window wipers joined the group by the till and talked/laughed for five or ten minutes before a loan member of staff, obviously excluded from the fun, asked us in passing, ‘Have you been served?’.

So we got our plates and ate. Nice food.

The restaurant quickly filled up, with most guests sat at tables waiting to be served. While we ate, and others waited, the group of staff members by the till gained a couple more and whatever they were discussing was clearly too important to consider serving guests.

One table by us, who had also seen the crowd of staff, went over and asked to be served. She returned to her table, but nobody came. Five minutes passed, still no service, until the guest returned to the crowd of staff by the till and someone was persuaded enough to decide to serve them.

I’ve never seen it before, ever. It was really quite shocking and we definitely weren’t the only ones to notice. There is also a quick fix to this situation: train your staff to do their job. Maybe I’m nitpicking or being overly critical, but what I saw is not something I’ve come to expect from Alton Towers, and I’m certain the table who had to practically beg staff to serve them felt the same.

I hate to say it, but I had better service in Burger King on Monday, even if the guy who served us said Please too often. At least he was polite.

But the one thing that did bother me, and this time not in the park but in the hotel, was something during our evening meal in Flambos. We sat down and ordered our drinks, a coke for her and a point of lager for me. We went to get our food and by the time we sat down her coke cup was waiting for her, but my beer wasn’t. Fair enough, it’ll probably be here in a minute.

I finished my starter, but my beer didn’t come. Where had the staff member gone? So I went to get my main course and sat down and finished. No drink yet. Twenty five minutes have gone, so I finally catch his eye from across the room and make the ‘drink’ hand gesture. He wanders off to get it.

Another five minutes pass, I finish my main course and the waiter comes over.

‘They’re just changing the barrel.’ And he leaves.

At this point I’m gagging for a drink, so finish half of my girlfriends coke. As I get up and return with my pudding my pint is put down on the table.

Should it really take thirty minutes to get a drink, even if they’re changing the barrel?

How should this have been dealt with? Ok I understand it was busy, the waiter had a lot to do, but would it have set him back at all to come over and either let me know what was happening or offer me an alternative.

I like other beer as well, so I’d have gone with the alternative, therefore cutting my wait for a beer down from half an hour to five minutes.

If I’m alone in my thoughts here then fair enough. I’m a regular visitor to the park, and I’ve never had issues like this before. Perhaps even calling them issues is too harsh, but it’s the little things that can make the difference and this is something that companies like Disney are aware of. Yes it’s peak season now so they’ve had to increase staff numbers to cope with demand, but that isn’t a good enough excuse for sub-par customer service.

I’ve been to a number of other British parks this year, and while Alton Towers is head and shoulders above Flamingoland (I’ve never seen so many staff members on their phone – even though I did spot one or two at Alton Towers) they’re even behind the likes of Chessington, who I feel offered better service to me recently than Alton Towers did this past weekend.

It’s the little things that can make a big difference. It’s a cliché, but it’s only a cliché because it’s true.

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Dormiens-Dave

I felt the service at Flambo's was slow this weekend, however they did seem to have a lot of new staff. Maybe just some training issues.

As for the nice day question i quite like it though i agree they could mix it up a bit.

And as for Pizza Pasta i would have gone to guest services and complained. The staff are certainly trained better than that!
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Scott
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Towers staff are advised to be polite, up front and interact with customers, this is why you will see alot of staff asking people if they are having a good day, or on certain rides you will hear announcements from the staff wishing guests to enjoy the rest of the day, RMT for example, 'thankyou for riding the runaway mine train, please exit to the left and enjoy the rest of your day'.

Its better to be polite than to be miserable.
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Craig

There has been a tendancy to become very scripted when it comes to customer service across many industries over the years. I work in call centres, and that has been the issue there too. Even over the phone, where you're not privy to the call centre staff member's other conversation through the day, their questions in an attempt to get you chatting often come over as forced and un-natural. The key here is not to make conversation but to build up a rapport with each customer. Suit the conversation to the guest's age - a business shouldn't be afraid to let an employee's personality come out in conversation with a guest.

There was a time where I work that as part of call monitoring there was a minimum count of how many times you called the customer by their name during a conversation (!). I'm guessing this is a similar thing to what Towers expect from their staff, check they're saying "are you enjoying you day?" as part of a transaction. With my work now, the whole culture is moving towards building rapport and having a good chat with a customer and not sticking to scripts. Something I think Alton should be working towards too.

If people look back at members of staff they remember, it's always because they're being individual and not conforming to "scripted" questions and conversation. You're hardly going to remember the umpteenth member of staff who asked you "How's your day going?" as contributing to making your day special?

Cracking examples were seen on a recent mini meet to Lightwater Valley. One of the hosts in the queueline for Raptor Attack had us chatting about coasters and allsorts, and the guy in the fudge shop was absolute comedy gold. He suited his conversation to our group, and the result was two members of staff who stuck in all our minds as providing brilliant customer service. No script, no forced questions just plan simple banter.
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EvilMonkey
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I've definitely noticed this and not just at the towers but across all Merlin parks this season (even Thorpe staff were asking it!)

Personally I quite like it and I find that when you answer that then leads on to another line of questioning (have you tried this, what did you think of that, what has been your favourite ride, etc). It'd probably pretty boring for the staff to ask it each time as well so next time give them more than just a "yes" maybe you'll make their day as well!

As for the bad service in Flambos, can't say I've ever encountered anything like that but hopefully it was just a one off (although obviously that is no excuse)
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Exactly the same thing happened at Chessington! All the staff there were brilliant and friendly, but they just could not stop asking the same question.

Our waiter at the buffet restaurant was extremely over-friendly. My Dad started talking about John Wardley for some reason (I had to keep correcting his innacuracies) and he must have got bored enough to leave us alone.

Eventually something inside you snaps and it becomes ultra-annoying, but until then I find it quite funny. Unless the staff are not friendly and just say half-heartedly, then it is immediately pathetic. However, I have not come across many staff members that act like that at Chessington or Alton Towers, as far as I can remember.
Blaze

I'd rather them ask the same question than just ignore me, I don't see how them asking it is bad customer service. Obviously after a while it does seem repetative and scripted, but it's better than, say, Blackpool where they don't even bother aknowledging your presence.

And to be fair, whenever I go they do ask questions like the ones you suggest, infact, they almost all asked whether we had been on Thirteen and what we thought of it :D
Craig

It's certainly not bad customer service as such, but it's something that could be improved upon that's all. Like I said, it's a bit too samey, and would be nice to have a bit of variety, it'd be noticed far more by guests if that were the case.
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danny13
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I find the Skyride staff ask different questions and seem to actually be interested unlike some other staff!
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Vik
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I echo Blazes, sentiment that I would rather them ask the same question than just ignore me. All to often in this country we come up against uninterested people in public facing customer service roles who seem to regard you as an occupational hazard rather than a valued customer.

At least the majority of staff do put some effort in to asking the questions and sound as if they mean it and are interested in you the customer. It may come across as a bit robotic at times but at least they make the effort to make some eye contact, as the questions and smile. It helps install a sense of ease with the customer, no doubt some of whom may be a bit irritated for whatever reason. I mean how could you have a rant at someone who has just been polite to you. :D
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Anthony

The rep point I gave was almost entirely for the last sentence.
.Will

I'm sorry Mikey to sound a bit harsh, but seriously you can't have a go at a staff member for asking you a question, ok they may not give you there full attention all of the time, but seriously! Personally if I get asked by a member of the staff I enjoy a good convosation with them, what you have to remember is that they have been there all day and have had to deal with some irritable chav, or someone who can't tell their Nemesis form that "flying thing where you are lying down and go one million miles an hour", anyway I think it’s nice that the Alton Towers staff have the decency to ask me if I have had a nice day, because to be honest even after the fifty second time I have been asked I think its brilliant that they do! It's not their job they don't have to, I am just thankful that they do!

:wink:
Crofty

It is their job though, thats the point that is being made. The same as guests are all referred to as 'Guys.' Its what they are told to say.
I must admit that its a nice touch when your waiting for something, the sky ride for example or the lift in CATCF, somewhere where you have to wait, its a nice little ice breaker to a quick conversation. I'm not sure its required all over though, when buying something it's obvious that the staff don't have time to be really interested so its pointless pretending to be, general manors will be fine in that situation.
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Khalichanan
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That's really interesting, because most usually have a conversation with me. In fact I was chatting away to a ride op on Th13teen the other day. The ones on Air always strike a conversation, even those in the queue lines. I appreciate that it's mostly blokes and I'm a girl but that's hardly a reason as to why they would be chatty to me then completely scripted to others.

I dunno, just my personal experience with people working there, they always seem genuinely talkative and chatty.
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Joelio

Yeah, the AT staff are genuinely very nice to me and my friends (maybe its because i'm so darling ;)) anyway we were having dinner and a staff member was asking us some seemingly innocent questions which was very pleasant, just a shame i'm not a talkative person. I hope she wasn't offended. By this I mean...

"Hey, have you been on lots of rides today?" ... "Yes *smiley face*"
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DannyJ
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A guy on the nemesis team in 09 was great. Shout comand to single riders by pointing to there seat and shouting "sit". Then on the way out he was saying come back if your not to scared , so em and my friends went on again and he just said " you like this ride dont you" :P. Also what made me laugh was he kept jumping out to the single riders scareing them. What a great ride host.
Big Dave

I know its what they are suppose to say (heck I get told to say loads of stuff working where I do), but its so much better if they can think outside of what they have been told to say. Show a genuine interest in the customer and make conversation based on what the customer is saying and not just what you have been told to say.

I also think they way in which it is said makes all the difference too. I dont want some chav coming up to me saying "have you had a nice day" in some sort of mumbly voice whilst smelling of cheapo aftershave and white lightening. At the same time I dont want to be greeted by an uber camp host that is so in your face that you feel uncomfortable.

The hosts need to act professional and follow guidelines as best as they can, but they also need to show that they can make conversation themselves and act normally.

Think its only fair to point out that actually alot of the staff do this very well. Its only a few I feel dont do as well as others.
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