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.
Hi Codashti,
We keep CSI's and add Urgent Notes as necessary. Additionally, I had my team find examples of issues and brainstorm other instances that I compiled and worked with other departments to have specific steps to deal with situations. It had answers to questions and how/who to escalate the issue to as needed (including specific security officers). This really helped our staff feel more comfortable working with patrons as it gave them a clear way to handle situations as well as when to remove themselves from it. I hope this helps!