Hi friends,
Some of you may have seen the Playbill article earlier this year about poor audience behaviors having escalated to theater staff abuse, before it was taken down. The article sparked a great conversation between myself, our FOH manager, and company leadership. I have since been tasked with creating a patron escalation plan, documenting what kind of behaviors we won't tolerate, and how we will address them. In beginning my search for similar documentation, all I can seem to find is de-escalation strategies, which are great, but what do you do when the patrons won't de-escalate, or if they are consistently escalating and harassing your staff?
I'm curious if any of you have something like this in place, or even if you're willing to share your experiences in high-stress patron interactions that you wish you could have had a plan like this to back you up. While I know it's an unattractive idea for leadership to turn paying customers away now more than ever, I value my staff and am looking forward to creating an environment where they feel safe and supported.
We track patron behavior via CSI and have a general alert type with an associated icon for constituent headers for those few who abuse our staff, facility or other guests. The account icon alerts staff to potential issues when dealing with that person in the future. And if and when a pattern of bad behavior develops, or if the initial issue is serious enough, we send a cease and desist letter. And will happily refund any tickets, memberships or donations.