Customer Service Handled the Right Way

I was recently at the movies seeing 300. The movie was much better than I expected it to be, but that is not the point of my story. During a scene that appeared to be one of the last in the movie, the screen went black, lights came on and background music filled the theater. Everyone sat for a moment and as nothing happened, people began to leave.

I decided to give it a few minutes and during that time came up with my plan of action:

1. If the movie did not resume, I would speak with the manager and request a refund for our tickets since we were not shown the entire movie.

2. If the movie did resume, I would still speak with the manager, but ask for tickets for a future show since we had to sit and wait for the screen.

Management came into the theater and told us they were working on getting the movie back up; the film had twisted in the projector. We ended up waiting somewhere around fifteen minutes, but we got to see the end of the film; there was actually about fifteen minutes left in the film, which was more than expected.

I was now considering my option 2 above, but before the movie had ended, a staff person came around and personally gave each patron a coupon for free admission in the future. I didn't even have to ask ,they handled it exactly as I had hoped. The fact that they came around and gave out the coupons before being asked was great customer service. The group I was with was all very happy to come back another time and visit the same theater.

Just an example of good customer service. It is often better to go that extra mile before being asked, rather than after.