When a customer complains, managers usually give in and give them what they want just to keep them happy.

Sometimes, however, a manager will stand up to the customer and put them in their place, and it is wonderful to see.

That is what happened in this story when the manager snapped back at a customer who was complaining about kids being at a national park.

Sometimes I just adore my manager. She has a spine in the must unexpected times.

For reference, I’m located inside a national park.

Ok, that makes sense.

While I don’t work for NPS(hotel operation is contracted out), since we’re owned by the federal government, we can’t discriminate. NPS is mostly hands off, management wise.

They do facility inspection to make sure we aren’t dumping bleach in the river, but that’s about it. Take their tithe and leave us alone.

They take conservation seriously.

Unless there is discrimination(or wildlife abuse/lack of conservation ideals), then they come down and smite us like a wrathful hand of god.

For instance, NPS almost terminated a 10 year contract because a server told a woman she couldn’t breastfeed in public a few years ago. So, public access and not being discriminatory is a big thing for us.

They are there to help serve the guests of the national parks.

So, I was having a conversation with my manager. We were having a conversation about how all of us need to strive to be better about guest interactions-we’re all a bit burnt out and sometimes not providing a good guest experience out of apathy.

I was relating my own personal example-a woman was leaving our pool, and I tossed out an obligatory ‘did you enjoy your swim?’ or something similar.

Why wouldn’t they let kids at the park?

And the guest cornered me, and practically hissed, “I would be having a much better time if you didn’t allow children here.”

And that’s where I messed up. I just kind of shrugged and said something along the lines of, ‘well, ma’am, this isn’t a country club. Anybody can book here, including families.’

This type of person can’t be taken seriously.

And she glared, then stormed off. I shrugged, and she promptly became the butt of that day’s jokes.

I also made a note in her reservation, ‘no discounts because of hating children.’ Since I’m a jerk. Also, I’m the front desk supervisor, and theoretically one of my performance metrics is how much discounting happens, so I try to keep it under control.

No surprise here.

And then my manager said that she left a horrid review in our internal feedback. So, my manager called this woman back.

The woman very quickly said, ‘well unless you’re calling to tell me you’re going to give me a full refund since I had to deal with children, we don’t have anything to talk about.’

Wow, that’s a perfect comment.

“Well, Ms. Child-Hater, then I hope the rest of your day is as pleasant as you are.”

And then she hung up and went about her day.

It is always surprising when management stands up to customers.

You always expect management to roll over because of bad feedback or especially vociferous complaints. She’s kind of a pushover internally, but she’s phenomenal about standing up to guests.

And I love her for it. (Although I will say-as somebody with a reputation for being a pushover, she gets what she wants over upper management’s suggestions a lot).

It is always nice to see when a manager stands up to the customers and puts them in their place.

Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about this amazing story.

This would be the way to handle it.

What was this guest even thinking?

Yup, this is exactly right.

Don’t let them feel important.

Some guests don’t deserve a good experience.

Who would have thought there would be children at a national park?

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.