Ethics

We are uncertain how to respond to a complaint made by the teacher who led a school group to our science centre. The teacher had booked a tour and a workshop session in of one of our galleries containing working machinery.

We charge for this service. One of our demonstrators was going to supervise the students who were to be allowed to operate some of the machinery in properly controlled conditions. Unfortunately, the day before the visit the demonstrator was taken ill and there was no-one to replace him.

But there was another member of staff who, while unable to act as a demonstrator, was able to conduct a guided tour of the gallery. The tour is advertised in our information sheet for teachers as the main component of a school visit.

The demonstration is advertised as a brief feature of it. The school group appeared to get a lot out of the visit, despite not having a demonstrator available. But the teacher has now written asking for the school to be refunded the cost of the visit.

The school also wants to be compensated for the much greater expense of hiring the bus for the visit. We are prepared to refund the cost of the visit but are reluctant to meet the bus hire costs. What is your view?


Even the best museums will receive complaints about the services they offer. Dealing with and acting on complaints, fair and unfair, is an area in which your museum should have clearly formulated, written policy.

You should also develop procedures for learning from complaints to improve customer care. In this case, for example, if the demonstrator called in sick the day before the visit why was there not a procedure for contacting leaders of groups that had booked in?

You should look into setting one up as soon as possible. Informing customers of changes to the services available and apologising should be a minimum courtesy.

These matters can normally be resolved with a sincere apology and complimentary tickets for a repeat visit, the cost of which may be offset against revenue gained on that visit from shop and cafe sales.

It is important that you tell the school that you will address the issue of warning teachers in future if demonstrations will not be available.

If you cannot meet the school half way on its demands for compensation you may wish to consider consulting your normal source of legal advice. It may be necessary to establish whether in law you failed to provide a service as advertised and whether you are liable for the bus hire.

If you are not liable but decide to pay for the bus hire you need to consider whether you are able to uphold this precedent. It is important that you act consistently. Other schools whose visits are similarly affected will have a justifiable claim to be compensated.

Alternatively, you may prefer to weigh up the costs of holding out against the cost of settling the school's demand immediately. If you pursue the legal option and win, your costs will be staff time, legal fees and a bad relationship with that school and other schools who learn about this negative experience. If you pursue the legal option and lose you will have to add the cost of the bus hire as well.

Whatever the position regarding your liability, this situation has the potential to impact negatively on your museum's marketing strategy.

A satisfied customer tells five people about their experience, a dissatisfied customer tells 12. Teachers in different schools within a local area will inevitably discuss their experiences.

Bad word of mouth can be devastating for attractions that rely on visits from school groups. Without such groups, attractions would often be empty on school days.