The Last Word

The first few seconds of a conversation and the last are the most important.

I have found that the last word and who has the next action step is also critical.

In the case of Waterpark injuries and incidents it is necessary to leave the other party with one clear message,

'Here is my name and number, contact me if you have any questions'.

It is important to make it clear who has the next communication responsibility, because in the chaos of an incident the guest is worried, confused, looking to assign blame and concerned about who is going to pay for any medical expenses. One guest told me that the only reason they went to an attorney is that the park was supposed to get back to him regarding liability, which they didn't', so he thought that the park was going to deny he ever had an incident.

(Please note, this doesn't prevent all lawsuits but can reduce the amount of lawsuits).

If you are not clear with this the other part will assume that the ball is in your court.

The same last word is true with Sales. I have an example about this .

Waterparks and recreational centers across the country are currently getting a lot of inquiries about groups for the summer, but due to occupancy facilities limit groups to weekdays and limit size because of capacity.

A few years ago I received a phone call from a guest who told me that they had spoken with our sales person who books food events ' a couple of weeks ago' . They spoke with me because they declined the food part but was 'just calling to confirm their reservation'. I was not aware of the group and they also were too large a group for us to accommodate for a weekend date. We were at our limit on birthdays and occupancy was high so i couldn't allow them to come and tried to find an alternate date which they did not want to do.

They felt like the sales person had lied to them and had taken down all the details so it was a miscommunication on our part and I should have known about their reservation. As you can imagine the conversation ended badly with a promise to tell everyone how unprofessional we were.

When I followed up with the salesperson she told me that the group had contacted her 4 weeks ago and not two and the last word was that the group leader was undecided about food and would 'get back to us'. The sales person did not follow up because she was getting more and more inquiries to answer.

The point of the story is that the guest believed that she had a solid reservation and the salesperson thought she had just provided a quote to a group that never got back to her.

I know this could have been resolved if the last word had clearly told the group that a reservation couldn't be made last minute or until an agreement was signed or until a deposit was accepted.

Of course, if the next action step is yours , then keep your promise and 'walk your talk'.