Of NHL and why the customer is rarely right

Went down to the O2 this weekend, with Tambo and Chelle, to see the Ducks and Kings kick off the new NHL season as part of NHL Premiere. It was a nice weekend for myself and the other half, quite relaxing after a hellish September which has left us completely drained.

The weekend did see the disappearance of something I quite liked keeping going - Saturdays home game against Edinburgh was the first I had missed since the Phoenix returned to the ice. I don't think any of the Match Night Crew was still holding a 100% record (possibly Carl) - even people like Neil Morris, Andy C and Dave The Scorer had missed games. But such is the way of things, as the games were announced long before the EIHL schedule was set. I had tried to minimise the impact by only getting tickets for the Saturday and booking early trains back for an anticipated Sunday home game but c'est la vie.

Like I said, I needed the break. I've become increasingly frustrated with all things Phoenix over the past few weeks - trying to grab moments to do stuff, not having time to do the things that need to be done, things not being delivered as promised, failing to deliver things I had promised to other people. Juggling 95 chainsaws at once and most of all, getting increasingly short-tempered with a section of Phoenix fandom.

There seems to be a subset within the Faithful who think they have some kind of divine right to pass judgement on what we do and then sit back and fold their arms. I've been in a Customer Service job - and I'm being absolutely honest, came out of it despising humanity in general. The single biggest mistake that people in this kind of job make is trying to please everybody. We're human, so when someone criticises, we take that to heart, and try to do better.

The trick to surviving is to realise a) when you are doing the best you can under the circumstances and b) that you will never, ever please all of the people all of the time.

I found it especially instructive when we were taking flak about the match night music. I realised that quite a bit of the criticism came from people who don't go to every game. How you can someone say, with a straight face, that something is wrong when they aren't there to see it? It explains why - in a number of cases - we got asked to play music that has already been on the playlist for a year and a bit!

We got astonishingly hypocritical postings - one of my favourites was about the opening sequence, which Richard had sweated blood over. A posting criticised the use of the Aardvarx, saying we could have drafted in the ENL or juniors. Without ever mentioning the fact that the poster is connected with the juniors - no conflict of interest there, then!

I can't say it enough. The Phoenix is not the Storm. The much vaunted Storm opening sequence that ours gets compared to cost a five figure sum and didn't have any hockey in it whatsoever. Ours cost buttons, was sweated over and updated like you wouldn't believe and got slammed by people who haven't the slightest Scooby Doo what is involved.

As a crew, we worried and fretted and then thought - you know what? Sod it. A bit of perspective makes a difference. One person doesn't like our music. Tough, because I can see 400 people clapping to it. The team like it. And I realised that no matter what I did to rev up the crowd, no matter what Richard did to get people going, the people moaning would simply sit on their hands anyway.

So to heck with them and work with the people who want to make a difference. You can lead a horse to water.

I'd be inhuman not to admit that I did feel a slight bit of vindication when I saw how the NHL presented things, and many of the tracks and techniques that they do are things that we do on a smaller scale.

There is a danger in taking customer feedback too seriously - especially as it is easier to sit behind a keyboard or a telephone and moan. The office gets it particularly bad, I know for a fact that when the rink has suffered yet another delay, Mags and co have been subjected to abusive phone calls. That isn't on.

Trying to please everybody all the time is a zero sum game. Because eventually you will end up with one customer, all the rest having left. And that one customer will never be happy, so they will dictate even more.

What you do is simply the best job you can. And if people hate it so much - why are they turning up every week to experience it?

I hate the argument "if you think you can do better, do it!". My clients can't do what I do - that is why they pay me. But they do have the right to pass judgement on my work.

But if putting on a match is "just" playing some music and reading out some words, walk a mile in my headset, or that of Richard. If filming a hockey game is so easy to do, we'll add you to the list of people who can cover for absences.