LAST NEW YEAR’S EVE, A PARTY OF
FOUR CAME TO SEE THE FINAL, NOON
PERFORMANCE OF “NUTCRACKER” AT THE KIMMEL CENTER, PHILADELPHIA. But the mother wrote down 2. When the family arrived, there were just eight minutes left of the show.
The usher informed them of the situation and they were devastated. So the usher went to the box office and asked what could be done? In Kimmel’s Merriam Theater, the 2 p.m. matinee of Mamma Mia! was about to start. The usher walked them to the box office and got them in; they were so happy to be able to do something on this New Year’s Eve that they planned. They sent a lovely note about how wonderful the staff at Kimmel Center was.
Just two years ago, that would never have happened.
“That’s a GRaCE moment,” said Linda Forlini, VP, Ticket Philadelphia, who has helmed implementation and training of that customer service program throughout the venue and arts organizations in town. The main lesson taught is that it might not be your fault, but if the customer came to you, it is your responsibility to fix it.
Forlini rolled out the new customer serv¬ice training just prior to that eventful family outing and she is constantly pleased to see the results. Because of that program, Forlini, who swears she’s never won anything despite 32 leadership years in the business and considers herself the Susan Lucci of ticketing because of it, is one of the 2018 Venues Today Ticketing Stars, to be honored at INTIX in Baltimore in January.
Forlini and her team of nine trainers can now say that everyone at Kimmel Center, Philadelphia Orchestra and Pennsylvania Opera is “speaking the same language and understanding the right answer all the time. If you follow the keys, you can’t go wrong,” Forlini said.
GRaCE, which stands for Guest Relations and Campus Experience, includes the Kimmel Center’s Keys to Excellence: Safety first for all patrons, customer care, style (“we want to be a professional”), and efficiency. “The last key is encore, what you do to go above and beyond what we expect from you,” Forlini said.
So far, they have trained over 600 people, including all the front¬facing staff, and the program continues once a month with all new employees and once a year with a refresher course for everyone. It involves eight hours of training in two four¬hour sessions. They retooled it for everybody not touching the cus¬tomer directly, like back office staff, so they would understand that even in finance, if you’re talking to a vendor, that’s your cus¬tomer, she said.
“It doesn’t cost a lot to be nice. You just have to remind people, be nice,” Forlini said. “We say there are three things you have to do
– give customers a warm welcome, fulfill guest’s needs and have a pleasant end to your conversation. You say hello, scan their ticket, show them to their seat, then say enjoy the per¬formance. When they leave, say thank you for being here.”
Customers are expecting a lot more from venues today, Forlini said. “If I have $100 to spend and I choose the Kimmel Center to go to, I’m expecting the world from you. I expect the performance to be good, you to be nice, parking to be good…whatever happens to me going to your venue, I’m expecting the best. We have to deliver every day because that $100 could easily go to the Walnut Theater three blocks away.”
While it’s hard to put a Return On Investment on satisfaction, Ticket Philadelphia is noticing an increase in customers saying someone did something above and beyond, Forlini said. They are banking on customers remembering and telling their friends about the good service and customer care at Kimmel.
GRaCE includes a rewards program for staff members, but it’s more about the change in culture and that requires manage¬ment to focus on employees. “If you have happy and healthy employees in a healthy work environment, they will emit happiness and be pleasant on the phone, in person, in chats. They will be supportive if you’re sup¬porting them,” Forlini has found. To that end, management, including the president, all took this class.
“We talk about GRaCE every day; it’s a continual learning experience for all of us,” she added. They are always looking for that “encore moment.”
For the staff, it’s about understanding you don’t take it personally. An unhappy customer is probably the result of five things that hap¬pened to that customer that day. “Just smile and fix the problem; do whatever you can to make the customer happy,” Forlini advises staff.
“And we’ve stopped blaming people,” Forlini said. There is no more finger pointing to the person who must have done that. “If the person came to you, you need to fix it,” she added.
The biggest challenge for a program like GRaCE is scheduling time. All the trainers have other jobs; all the trainees have other places to be. “We’re so busy all the time, to say I need your new staff member for eight hours is hard,” she admitted. But managers are willing, partially because they are also seeing fewer and fewer problems are escalat¬ed now.
People need tools to respond in a positive way, Forlini said. The staff is given options and empowered to make decisions. “We’ve stopped agreeing with people if they don’t like some¬thing, stopped the negative, and started a dia¬log.”
“For the most part, people are good. They just are,” Forlini believes, probably because that’s how she lives.
A 32¬year veteran of ticketing and a mem-ber of INTIX for 28, Forlini continues to inspire her peers and coworkers.
“Two words, service and generosity, describe Linda,” said Maureen Andersen, pres¬ident and CEO of INTIX. “Linda is the num¬ber one individual donor to INTIX. In addi¬tion, in her personal life that translates over as well. Linda makes a 20-pound Thanksgiving turkey for her staff in her little apartment in Philly and drives it across the street to her employees. Then she goes home and makes five more turkeys for her family and her neigh¬bors. Then she gives nine more turkeys, full meals, to her church.”
“And if I need something at INTIX, she’s the first one to say yes. If a member calls and needs something, the answer is yes. It’s not in her spirit to even entertain that when asked you do not give,” Andersen said.
“Understanding the user experience and wanting it to be the best it can be is not some¬thing new,” Forlini concluded. “Rolling out a program like this is, I think, new.” The first time she experienced it was at the New York Philharmonic in 2013. “Rolling it out to a large campus (five theaters and 9,000 seats to fill each night) like we have done is unique.”
But maybe not for long. “We’ll take GRaCE on the road if anyone’s interested and we’ll tailor it to your venue,” she said, shortly after saying Ticket Philadelphia is her last job. Well, maybe not.
Experience helps in implementing GRaCE. For instance, it’s important there are no repercussions if an employee finds a solu-tion to a problem different from the one you’d choose. You weren’t there, you don’t know the customer’s tone, she noted. But, next time, here are some other tools you might try.
“It’s all about caring,” Forlini concluded. “Treat them like family.”