Picture the scene June 2010, I’m about to enter Hollywood Studios theme park on a glorious Florida morning and I’m going through the bag check area with my daughter who’s 19 and after the guys finished checking our camera bags and the like he looks us both in the eye and says “thank you so much for your patience and just have yourselves a magical day won’t you?”. Wow did I feel good? Even the security guy wants me to have a magical day and I’ve not even got in the park yet !!
However, fast forward to July this year and my daughter and some friends and family are visiting Blackpool and they want to go up the Tower, so I pay for the tickets (approx £60 bags worth) and then just before we pass through into the aquarium – for all those who’ve done the “Tower experience” the aquarium is the first thing you see as you come into the main building – a security guy asks to see my tickets and after a quick flick through, passes them back to me and says? ……………………….. well what do you think he said? ………………… he didn’t wish us a magical day, he said “there you go mate, on your way”.
Now maybe to wish us a magical day is a big ask in Blackpool, maybe it’s a bit schmaltzy, maybe it’s a bit treacly, a bit sugary for the NW coast of England – but “there you go mate, on your way” please tell me what’s that all about? Talk about dontgiveamonkeys.com, how unimpressed was I?
Disney of course do it brilliantly and hey guess what? they’re incredibly successful – the Academy is bringing them back in September, so if you want to find out how they do it? and why they are so good at what they do? check out the details on this website.
I’m not in the habit of knocking Blackpool, it’s my hometown and I feel a lot of affection for it and the “mate issue” is not something that is confined to Blackpool, far from it – its everywhere.
Mate, pal, duck, luv, buddy, chum - I’ve had them all as I’m sure we all have, we must be the friendliest country in the world – we’re all so ……. matey? Except its not really friendly is it? it’s not meant to be friendly, its at best an acknowledgement and not much more than that.
Now my name was printed clearly on the top of the tickets, so why not just refer to me by name? but I’m not your mate, never have, been never will be – simple as. Do Sir if you have too, not a great fan of Sir even, but it least it gives me the nod that my presence and more importantly my cash is welcome here, but not mate, never mate.
So everywhere I go on my travels I’m mates with people – I must have more friends than Facebook, alright mate? at bars, thanks mate at cafes and restaurants and what can I get you mate? at a plethora of retail outlets.
Anyway, later in my trip up the Tower, I’m in the lift with my party and other guests and the lift operator asks “anyone bothered about hearing anything about the history of the Tower?” nobody answered quick enough so he said “didn’t think so – good”
Its an icon of British Victorian engineering for goodness sake, it’s a Grade 1 listed building, it can be seen from a 30 mile radius, the circus ring can be lowered into a pool of water and holds 42,000 gallons at a depth of up to 4 ft 6 inches, is one of only 4 in the world that can do this. The Ballroom is just beautiful, designed by Frank Matcham and is reputed to be the largest ballroom in the world behind one of the Palaces of Culture in Moscow.
I could go on – but what a shame that the opportunity was not grasped to enthuse, excite, engage the visitors in that lift about what a truly unique building Blackpool Tower was and still is. What a waste of an opportunity to inform, tell a story, make us feel that we were on a journey of discovery, but no, it wasn’t to be.
The Tower has new owners now and I wish them well with their investment and for the future of the Tower and the Winter Gardens which they have recently bought with the support of the town council – clearly there is a lot of work to do.
As for my mates at the Tower and all over the UK – either get a job you like, or ask- no demand of your boss, owner, line manager, HRD, CEO whoever? To show some interest in what you do and get yourself some World Class Customer Service training and development, (also available on the web site) so that the rest of us don’t have to suffer your indifference a day longer than we need to.
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