PARK 9, GA
First contact: Female.
API: Stated question.
Staff: Uh, we do. Uh, there’s a 250-pound weight limit.
API: Okay. Uh, he is right around that, but I’m not sure exactly what he is.
Staff: Gotcha. Well um, it’s kind of our off-season right now, so some of the courses are under construction. Um, so can you hold on for me one, just one moment?
API: Sure, of course. Thank you.
Staff: Okay, awesome. Um, so the courses are under construction right now. We’re just having to do some maintenance, uh, but we do have X course available if you guys would be interested in coming for that. But our main course, our treetop obstacle course is, uh, it’s just not available at the moment.
API: OK. Well maybe we can try the X course?
Staff: Yes. And uh, in terms of would he be able to do it or not, the weight limit is 250 but it’s just a pretty physical activity. And it’s not like the equipment is going to break. But for your safety and the safety of the staff, that’s why we have the weight limit.
API: Right. Oddly enough he’s a pretty physically fit guy, but yes, he is definitely on the heavier side. So what do you recommend, that we just weigh him at home before we go? Do you guys weigh people there, or how does that work? Just so we know…
Staff: We don’t. If he’s in pretty good shape and, you know, it just requires a lot of bending and pulling and pushing. That sort of thing. So if he’s in pretty good shape and he can do five pushups and five pull-ups and it’s no problem, then he’ll be fine!
API: OK. Well, I guess we’ll take it from here. Thanks so much. I appreciate it.
Staff: Sure thing!
Rating: 7
Comment: Good patience, and good to know that the weight limit is more of a practical matter than one of exceeding a safety limit—if that’s actually true.
Park 10, VA
First contact: Female.
API: Stated question.
Staff: OK, um, right yeah, absolutely. So we have um, a weight limit, but we don’t have any way of measuring that or anything. We just like to say for our heavier-set people, um, that at the end of each course he’s clipped into a mechanism that essentially lowers you down to the ground, and for those individuals who are a little bit bigger it propels you faster to the ground if that makes sense.
API: Oh. Hmmm, OK. I guess that makes sense.
Staff: Right. Like our weight limit is right around 265 pounds. But I can definitely say from experience in working here that we’ve had individuals who have claimed to have been a lot larger than that. We just like to keep that as kind of like our set weight, that way we don’t have like multiple people at that maximum weight on the same element at the same time, if that makes sense.
API: Um, OK. I think it does, yeah. And I mean he’s physically fit enough even though he’s a pretty big guy. I just wanted to be sure he could do it, but I just didn’t know if you had any very strict restrictions, but it doesn’t seem like you do. And he’s right under 265.
Staff: Perfect! And yeah, like we’ve definitely had people of that size like I said. He’ll be fine.
API: OK. Thanks for the info.
1 Comment
This is an interesting article covering customer service, and potentially a useful assessment of customer service styles and responses. However, it is always easy to be enthusiastic for a guest if they can go on the tour be it because they are under the weight limit or size limit. It is much more difficult to enforce a size or weight rule in a way that is upbeat and enthusiastic. Guests who call for reservations typically want to go, and telling them they can not go is hard for the guest to hear and for the customer service staff to relay. This would have been much more useful if API had consistently adjusted the fictitious guests’ weight to just always be right over or right around the weight limit or waist size limit. That way each customer service agent would be dealing with the same issue, how do you politely let the guest know that they may not be able to go on the tour. That is a customer service challenge. Telling a guest they can go is pretty easy. the way in which this was written many of the customer service agents had the easy job of saying “sure you can go!” – admittedly some did it more enthusiastically than others, but the point of the article seems missed if only some agents are confronted with a guest who is in fact “on the heavier side” according to each courses definition of that statement.