William S
October 24, 2017 13:43
I had a bad experience at Power Life Yoga. My negative experience had to do with an instructor, Stefan, who was not friendly or professional. While I was preparing for a class, he came in the exercise area and stated that I had come too early for the class. He also stated that it was not allowed to have jogging jacket or iPhone present in the room. This was unexpected as for many past classes I had always come early to warm up, and I've always placed my warm up jacket and iPhone out of the way in the corner of the room. No one had ever said anything about not being able to bring in warm up jacket or iPhone. For the class that I was in the process of preparing for, I had even asked a different check in instructor where to place shoes so as to not damage the wood floor. The instructor at check-in said nothing about not being able to bring in iPhone or jacket. In relating these facts to Stefan, his curt response was that 'we have signs up all over the place, above the urinal and on the door'. I explained to Stefan that my focus is always on the workout - that I hadn't noticed the signs. In the exchange, there was no welcoming introduction from Stefan - no handshake, no words such as 'nice to see you', or 'glad to have you in the studio', no friendly small talk that would show appreciation of the customer. All of a sudden there was just this person in the room who I had never met before informing me of how I was in violation of Power Life Yoga policies. The whole experience made Stefan come off in an unfriendly way. As a result of this attitude, I've asked for and received a full refund of fees I've paid to Power Life Yoga. My time is too valuable to be around rude people. I'm a member of a couple of other yoga studios in town that have cordial staff members. Going forward, it would be nice for Power Life Yoga Staff to be trained on how to treat a paying customer. Some recommendations: 1) Be nice and show appreciation of the customer. The instructor in question didn't have one positive thing to say to me, only negative. Related to his comments about coming early for a class, I've actually called Power Life Yoga to ask them if there is a problem with this if not interfering with a previous class. Their response was that there is no problem. So if this is the case, one has to ask why the instructor brought up the topic with me in the first place. 2) Have all instructors on the same page when it comes to what can and cannot be brought into the yoga room. When I ask a check in instructor where to place shoes and nothing is said to me about not being able to bring in iPhone and runners jacket , and then another instructor later comes in and tells me how I'm in violation of policy, this is contradictory and not a professional and satisfactory way of dealing with a customer. 3) When valid issues are raised related to poor customer service, to follow up in a positive way with the customer to let him or her know how these issues will be rectified.