There are many types of customers and you may need to respond in a different way to each depending on what type of customer you are interacting with. Click on the table (left) that summarises some of these types of customers, giving examples that specificaaly relate to audio operations. You might want to think about examples across the other areas of the entertainemnt industry.

Customers with special needs are not always people with disabilities. There is a range of customers who have special needs who have different service requirements, including but not exclusive to:

■       patrons with physical disabilities and sensory impairments

■       patrons with intellectual disabilities

■       patrons with particular cultural or language needs

■       elderly patrons

■       school groups

■       theatre groups

■       VIPs

■       first-time patrons

■       pregnant women

■       families with children

■       unaccompanied children.

Every customer with special needs results in implications for entertainment venues and customer service.

ACTIVITY: 

With a partner, choose one of the above types of customers and dicuss what special service requirements you would need to put into place to accomate them. Share your thoughts with the class.

There are many requests that you will be faced with in the entertainment industry. Some of these will be needs including things such as access to toilets; some will be preferences such as sitting in a particular row of a theatre; some will expectations such as respectful communication by staff members.

Activity

Complete the table (left) by indicating whether each of these requests are needs, preferences or expections