Recreation centres are incredibly important for the communities they are located in, providing a safe and positive environment for youth to hang out and be active. A rec centre should be a haven for your community; a place where they can come and have a good time, work up a sweat, and meet others.

Customer service plays a big role at your rec centre and it can mean the difference between a vibrant one that serves as a hub in the community and one that may be forgotten about. Here are some tips on ways to improve customer service at your community center.

1. Be There For Your Customers

Whenever your customers are in need, make sure someone is there for them. Your workers should be equipped with everything they might require to help your members. Ensure you create a culture that no phone call or email gets left behind; this can create a large feeling of disconnection for the customer, when their inquiries aren’t responded to.

The small details here matter. Make sure Google, Yelp and any other local online listings have correct location and contact information. Whenever you change your hours, announce it on all social media platforms and send a request for change to the appropriate websites. Communicating holiday hours and closures on social media is another great idea. In the end, keeping communication with your community members high is a great idea.

2. Offer Special Services

Special services can range quite a bit for recreation centres. Anyone with disabilities should be able to access your facilities safely and conveniently. Special services can also apply to heavy users of your facilities that give them VIP cards that may translate to discounts at the snack bar or free class or drop-in per week, for example. While you don’t want to discourage drop-in users or those who attend classes sporadically, it’s important to show support for your long-term, active clientele.

3. Offer Knowledge-based Service

Knowledge first service is a great way to add credibility to your content programming. Ensure experts in their field are teaching all of your classes. It may be difficult for that to happen at first but slowly accumulating them over time is a necessary step in making your programs more credible. This will help ensure that people will keep coming back for more and more classes. Here are some more tips to keep your gym members motivated.

4. Focus on Community

Community building is the key to having good customer service. A community will stand behind you through good times and bad but building a community isn’t always easy. You have to make sure all interactions with customers are personalized. 

Hosting events can be another great way to build that community. Events allow for your staff to bond with your customers in a way that isn’t always possible during a normal day at the rec centre. Social media outreach is another great way to build that sense of community; allowing your staff to more actively interact with local visitors, while also showing people how active and supportive your organization is within your community.

5. Train and Restructure 

Regular training sessions with your recreation centre staff are key to having great customer service. Hold a monthly to train all staff on things they need to be aware of. Some of the key points they need to master are empathy, patience, consistency, adaptability, clear communication, and work ethic. The last one is an important one; many customers will get frustrated if they don’t get a sense of urgency from the employee.

Make sure they’re motivated and quick to make things happen. With your top talent, it might be good for their department to attend parks and recreation conferences. In some cases, especially when your organization is growing, you might need additional help. Here are some tips for interviewing for parks and recreation jobs.