Chad Blodgett

My wife and I attended a movie at the local Cinemark recently. While the movie was entertaining, the delivery of it was terrible. There were 3-4 black lines running down the middle of the screen. I waited about 2 minutes to see if they would get fixed, and when it was apparent they weren’t going away, I got up and find a manager. The lines didn’t bother my wife, or anyone else it seemed, but to me it was like I was in a dollar theater sitting behind a pole or something.

“Excuse me, are you a manager?” I said to the 20 something year old manager with large earrings.
“uh… Yeah.” he said.
“Great, our movie just started in theater 4 and there are some very distracting lines running down the middle of the screen. Can you get that fixed?
“Let me go up there and take a look”, he said as he walked away.

I thought that would take care of it, but it didn’t. The entire movie had big lines down the middle. I was pretty upset, and told Julie that this might be the last time I came to this theater. After the movie I went to find the manager just to give him some customer feedback on my experience.

I couldn’t find the original manager, but instead I found an older (40’s) manager and explained the experience I had. This manager must have had training on customer service because he started stroking me and helping me feel good. He explained that some employees, when loading the film, can get it scratched easily. He apologized for the distractions and asked…

“How many people were in your party sir?”
“Just my wife and I”, I said.
“Please let me make it up to you” he said as he reached into this pocket and pulled out 2 rain check movie tickets.

I told him that this wasn’t necessary (when in reality it probably was, since I had already mentioned to Julie that we would probably be looking for other theaters in the future), but he insisted.

Now, I love that theater and will give them another chance. If, in this second chance, I have a good experience, then they may win my loyalty.

I don’t remember have such great service in the past. Where I am genuinely called “sir” and treated like a valuable person. It felt good and should be what all businesses practice to “win” their customers. I’m sure it was more like this back-in-the-day when there weren’t as many big box stores and chains - and where local residents were the real owners of the businesses.

A few things I learned
1. Providing feedback is worth something: Free tickets!
2. Most people say nothing: People are either satisfied with poor quality, or don’t think it is worth their time to complain. Was I the only one that saw the lines? Do they just believe that their voice won’t be heard when patronizing the “big” store chains?
3. Good customer service can take me from upset and grumpy, to happy and stoked!
4. My wife avoids confrontation: she went to the ladies room when I went looking for the manager