Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Customers that make it worthwhile

This is topic Customers that make it worthwhile in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=5;t=002045

Posted by Ramin Hashemi (Member # 2694) on 05-16-2008, 01:28 PM:

ok, we have a popular topic on ranting on difficult customers. I thought it would be nice to talk about some of the customers that make the job worthwhile. I will start with one of my favorites:

Opening weekend of one of the early Pixar movies. Our usher station is past the concession stand, prior to theatre entrance. I was ushering so I can watch the entire floor operation. A little boy of about 5-6 yrs old walks up to me, holding on to a kiddie combo tray (which looks obviously too big on him), looks up at me and says "I have been waiting for this movie my whole life". I guess you had to be there.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 05-16-2008, 09:14 PM:

A guy was talking to his kid as I was walking to thread then freaked out pointing out that I was (obviously) going into a projection booth. It was obvious that he was excited to show his son ANYTHING related to movies and so I quickly popped my head in the auditorium and said "You can have a look inside here; it's no big deal."

As I show them the room, the dad constantly is telling about how his son is such a big movie buff for his age and how this is a treat for him. It was amusing that the dad appeared 50 times more excited than his son. He thanked me after I was done and went into his movie and again after I walked by them after the movie had gotten out (apparently the crappiness of Speed Racer hadn't gotten to them).

edit:
Also a time when I exit-greeted a swarm of parents/kids leaving some kid's movie. As I'm telling everyone to have a nice day, this one kid walks under our rope stanchions and makes a bee-line straight for me then latches onto my leg hugging me. While it was weird (since that only happened with kids I actually knew from helping with church or something before that) it was also endearing.

Posted by Shane Cooper (Member # 2510) on 05-16-2008, 10:16 PM:

Thank you for opening this thread since I think 99% of our customers are in this category.

MY favorite is the customer that had to leave for a medical emergency with a family member. She was so grateful for our help that she returned the next week to not only see a movie, but brought cookies for my entire staff.

Posted by Chad M Calpito (Member # 3736) on 05-16-2008, 11:39 PM:

One time, while working at Grossmont Center 10, there was a Birthday Party and I happened to be working a booth shift during that time. Well, after going into auditorium #5 with a few other staff members doing the honors of leading a Happy B-Day song, a parent and his daughter followed me into the booth prior to starting the movie so I could show them the system. After I checked my threading several times, I allowed the b-day girl push the start button. The daughter, who was around 10 yrs old was very excited and smiled and was very thankful. That made my whole day and also, the parent was grateful as well.

This happened when Pacific Theatres was here in town before Reading Cinemas took over in early 2007 when Pacific Theatres allowed B-Day tours of the booth.

Posted by Patrick Dunn (Member # 3333) on 05-16-2008, 11:54 PM:

We have these two old ladies that come in together, and they are very nice, my favorite customers.

And I also like the well behaved kids that I don't have to yell at. I always enjoy the kids that you can tell are very excited about their movie, or if it's their first movie.

Posted by Christopher Crouch (Member # 3784) on 05-17-2008, 03:31 AM:

For the past ten years or so, I've had this one particular elderly couple that seems to pop up at whatever theatre I happen to be working at (odd, as during this period, I've worked for three different companies, at seven different theatres, in areas that aren't exactly "down the street" from eachother). I've never been sure if they were making a concious effort to see me or if they just frequent a lot of theatres, but they've been a pleasent staple for the past decade. While I don't ever recall doing anything unusually special for them, they always approach me like I'm some old friend or someone who's helped them out in the past. I can be having the worst day and they somehow turn it around through their friendly nature. Nothing more than a warm greeting and "thanks for everything you do", but that simple gesture is a welcome break from what far too many customers come to me with.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 05-17-2008, 08:07 PM:

As for the service end of things I wold have to say my favorite customers are up in Idaho and Montana, a few in Wyoming and Nevada. They are all great people and more like friends than customers. Then we have the other side of the customer thing that one has to "play along with" and its more than depressing to say the least. Really cheapskate theater owners that don't maintain equipment properly and have a "wait till it breaks" policy are the dumps for me.

Mark

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-17-2008, 08:52 PM:

I think my favorite is when former employees come back to visit and come to the movie, bringing their friends, spouse and/or kids with them and talking about how they used to work here and how much fun it was. Lots of good memories.

Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 05-18-2008, 10:57 AM:

Like mark was saying when I was a service tech there were some customers that were an absolute joy to visit. Not only would they offer me free soda, or popcorn (which is a big deal after a long long drive, you would be shocked how many theatres would let me pay for a soft drink when I was on a service call [Roll Eyes]

) but they woud be genuinely interested in learning about what I was doing, they would ask intelligent, good questions, and ask me what they can do to run a better booth and then implement my suggestions. When they called they were always willing to give me whatever information I asked for over the phone, they would do whatever I asked them to do to troubleshoot over the phone, and they would not DEMAND that I come out right away. They would show up on time for appointments and never complain that I wanted to come on too early. They treated me with respect, so I always went out of my way to go the extra mile for them, and drop whatever I was working on to respond to thier calls maybe a little quicker than some other locations. Those are the customers I truly miss. Unfortunately they were more the exception than the rule.