The concept of "customer service" in a strip club

Dugan, I've read your post 3 or 4 times, and honestly I can't figure out what point you're making.

Yeah, I get that you think strippers are immune from being expected to provide "customer service". You're reasoning? Hell, I can't figure it out. You say there are bad apples, nobody's perfect, and apparently something about the fact that they take off their clothes and climb on guys makes them immune from criticism from their employer about how they act ? And guys shouldn't complain because they're seeking mileage?

And apparently, employers shouldn't expect strippers to perform a certain way because that "regulation" will ruin the "good stuff"???

Dude, I just can't make any sense of it.

Employers tell their workers all the time how to behave and interact with customers. Part of the job. They provide training in how to deal with customers. Standard practice. And if the employees don't perform then bad things can happen, like getting fired or a bunch of other stuff.

But strippers are immune? Hey, there's bad apples, don't complain, just live with it?

Dude, you'll have to make a little bit more sense than that if you want anyone to take you seriously.

Does the same exemption apply to club management? Poor customer sevice from dancers is one thing, but my CS complaints have been directed at management.

Guys, get used to it. Things are about to get much, much worse as the full effects of the economic boom kick in.

The toxic brew of increased demand from all the newly minted PLs making $350k a year and the rapidly dwindling supply of young women willing to "take off their clothes for a living and climb all over guys in one-on-one dances" will create a seller's market where high prices and poor customer service are the norm.

Oh, and "source p4p from these clubs" Forgitiaboutit!

I think motor's distinction is a valid one. We're always going to get a certain degree of bad customer service from dancers. Management trying to control strippers would be like herding cats, plus if they are independent contractors the clubs can't legally control them or at least should not. However, we have every right to expect good, quality services from management. I rarely go to a club with very poor management more than once.

Rick im going to custom er server deez nuts up n yo grill

Lol! I think for once jerkoffson nailed it exactly. RickyBoy making zero sense, probably just trolling jerkoffson since he knows this is one of his hit button issues.

Whoooop !!

Much as I hate to say it, given that the DuganDude can sometimes be a bit of an asshat, but the Rick dude is making total sense.

His point, as I understand it, is that we have two groups of people that are kind of crazy on average.

Take customers -- we range from fairly normal dudes who just dig lookin' at naked chick to...well, to Juice. So we know the mean craziness level of that distribution is "fucking crazy-ass wack job whose eyes are all Helter Skelter". I contend that the median isn't quite so extreme, but it still somewhere around "slobbering sex fiend".

Now dancers. Some are pretty normal and functional. Like trixxi, who seems like a nice, goofy chick. But there are extremes there too. Some sad, some just as nuts as ol' #sausage.fingers. So again the mean and median are on the crazy side of life.

How can management find ways to enforce rules on these crazy populations while also looking away when girls arrange to meet you PLs OTC?

Be careful what you wish for my brothers and enjoy the wackiness while it lasts.

@Zip-Fairly normal? With the range of crazy we got, we are far from normal. From Dr. Who to Dr. Strange to Dr. Feelgood, we're crazy. From DC to Marvel, from AC/DC to the Ronettes, we're crazy. From 2 AMERS to strip club poems, we're crazy.

Strippers should be interested in good customer service. As independent contractors, they are running their own businesses and their success depends on attracting and keeping customers.

@jerikson I think what he is trying to say is if we expect any sort of traditional sense of "customer service" then we should throw that notion out the window because no matter how hard you try you can't have P4P, have a girl be dedicated to all the willing patrons of the club equally and still give you an amazing show in the VIP. If you want special attention from a girl, either YOU get it and get the other patrons in a rant because she's not being fair to everyone else, or you be on the opposite side of the fence. If you don't like the treatment your getting, pull yourself up by the boostrap, and walk on to the next stage (unless actions are superseded by extreme injustice done towards you, then you take it to the manager or court).

I've had my best times in clubs that are like the Wild West, where strippers are left to do their thing with as much latitude as possible. I've also had some lousy times there, even during the same visit. I don't mind dealing with the extremes. Anybody who wants consistent, standardized customer service for one and all can probably find that down the street at a McClub or a Hooters or something.

Steve, at what point does your nonstop joking about this economic boom bullshit get really really old and not funny? For me it was weeks ago. Try something new huh?

Steve229 has what you might call a pea-brain.

I agree with rickdugan.

I couldn't careless about customer service in a strip club. Unless I'm getting completely cheated out of my money, I don't see what customer service issues I could have.

Strip clubs are a lot different from most places people spend their money. Complaining a lot about customer service issues is pointless IMO.

Pointless complaining? Jerikson has corned the market on that, lol

Dougster, the next time you think jerikson is right, just think about it a little while longer. Whatever the right answer is, that can't be it.

Ginger is a stripper working at Tits R Us, a local strip club that offers lap dances.

Carl enters the club and sees about 10 girls and 12 customers in the club. Nobody on stage. Ginger and her two friends are chatting off in the corner, apparently oblivious to the waiting customers. Loqueesha is off in another corner texting. Carl sits, waiting for someone to get on stage, and two hot strippers come out of the dressing room. They had been in there for the last hour or more BS'ing. Chantal has been in the VIP for two hours, locked down with some old guy who think she's in love with him.

Carl sees Ginger, who he thinks is the hottest of all the strippers, and decides he wants a lap dance from her. He brought $300 he's willing to spend if the girl is good to him. But Ginger and all the other dancers are unavailable, for whatever reason. Carl even asks the waitress to tell Ginger he's waiting, but nothing happens. Carl waits for about an hour, then decides to bail.

Now, how many customer service errors were made here? And if you were Carl, how pissed would you be? Apparently most TUSCL'ers wouldn't care, and would say "it is what it is, don't complain".

Why is it not appropriate for management to talk to these girls about their poor performance? Why wouldn't they even consider a ban on cellphone use during your shift, like it was before cellphones were invented and the world of strip clubs survived? Why wouldn't they consider a time limit for strippers in the dressing room? Why would it be wrong for the manager to say "Um, look you fucking bitches, there are 12 paying customers sitting on their asses with money to spend, but you're too fucking busy with your bullshit to care. Why not go over and at least say hello and ask if they want a dance or something?"

Apparently in the minds of TUSCL'ers, that will cause the world of strip clubs to collapse. Un fucking believeable.

Jerkoffson-

Because if it were that easy to get strip club managers engaged in the proper way to run a business it would have been done by now and there wouldn't be tons of threads still complaining about it here and elsewhere. Dumbass.

@Jerkoff40: You drastically over-estimate the power that most managers have. As I would hope you know, the dancers aren't employees of the club, but rather pay a fee to be allowed to ply their skills in them.

Now in my experiences, most clubs will insist on stage routines as part of the deal; most will enforce certain standards of conduct for legal reasons (in some cases wink wink); many will require dancers to let them know when they will be working; and a fair % use reduced stage fees as a means of enticing dancers to work during slower times, but few club owners/managers are going to try to micromanage how a dancer uses her time in the club, for a variety of reasons.

So sorry to say it, but it's gonna' be up to you to source your own fun in a club. It is simply a function of how the dancer-management (and I use the term "management" loosely) relationship is structured in most clubs. The second that a manager tells a dancer that she has to abandon the old whale who pays her a ton to go out and say hi to the whiny bitch who just wants his 2 LDs, you can bet that all hell will break loose and, not too long after, she she will be seen at the club down the street. Most dancers won't tolerate other micromanagement efforts for very long either.

@motorhead: Yes, I most definitely differentiate between dancers and management in the whole "customer service" discussion. Indeed, if I even know a manager exists, it is because he or the club has done something to insert him into my customer experience, which is invariably a bad thing. Now truth be told it has been a dog's age since any manager gave me grief in a strip club. I spend good money at the bar on most nights, tip well and look like a customer that you want to have in the club, which keeps my bartenders happy and I also believe keeps managers off my back. But in theory I could see customer service problems from club management and staff and my tolerance level for it would be low.

I don't know, RickyBoy. I think you are just showing your lack of real world strip club experience here.

Depending on managements effort's, some clubs you see the girls really make a point of being polite and friendly. In other clubs, where management just doesn't give a fuck not such thing. Firing a girl here and there to show that they mean business has a big effect on this, as does whom they hire in the first place.

LOL Dougster. Maybe my real world experience is indeed lacking, but in my limited experience, there is a wide gulf between a club that pushes a minimum expectation of pleasantness on the floor and one that would micromanage a girl's time and efforts in the ways that Jerkoff40 feels is appropriate.

LOL Dougster. Maybe my real world experience is indeed lacking, but in my limited experience, there is a wide gulf between a club that pushes a minimum expectation of pleasantness on the floor and one that would micromanage a girl's time and efforts in the ways that Jerkoff40 feels is appropriate.

Dugan sez: "You drastically over-estimate the power that most managers have. As I would hope you know, the dancers aren't employees of the club, but rather pay a fee to be allowed to ply their skills in them.

Bullshit. As usual.

Having been a manager for many years, I can assure you that what you are saying is clearly the thoughts of a clueless idiot. It's not micromanaging. It's managing, as done by every front line supervisor on the planet. If you don't believe me, just read Trixxi's latest article about fines some clubs impose for all sorts of infractions.

Dugan, don't be an idiot. Clearly you have other motives for constantly taking the strippers' position, so go ahead and be a pussy. But the lack of basic insight held by a "seasoned veteran" is mind boggline.

Jerkoffson: " But the lack of basic insight held by a "seasoned veteran" is mind boggline. "

Well said! Well said!

Now the thought of you as anyone's manager is pretty scary, but we'll leave you with your slam dunk of the RickyBoy for the moment.

My mind is certainly bogglined by this.

I wonder what the penalty for bringing Ebola to the club is...I bet it is a pretty penny.

#ebola.strippers

But this is all academic. The coming economic boom will result in such a tight stripper market that managers will have no leverage. Don't believe me? Read any of the Steve-dudes posts.

@jerikson40: "Steve, at what point does your nonstop joking about this economic boom bullshit get really really old and not funny?"

@Dougster: "Steve229 has what you might call a pea-brain."

I looked up the word "irony" in an online dictionary, and there was a link to this thread.

I went to my favorite club yesterday, and management is implementing new customer service-oriented policies.

I knew my favorite girl would be working, and I looked forward to her joining me right away like she usually does. However, she was too busy going around the room doing one or two dances each for every guy who got in his request before me.

Another fave came around who I hadn't seen in weeks. We were chatting when a manager came up and told her that since she wasn't dancing for me, she had to go ask some of the other customers if they wanted a dance. Before she got up, I asked her for her new phone number. She said she didn't remember it, and club policy now forbids strippers from carrying their cell phones on the floor.

I asked a waitress if a hot new girl I'd been hoping to meet was working. She told me that she had been sent home after getting into an argument with a manager. He felt she had been in the VIP for too long with a big spender, depriving other customers of their chance with her.

Meanwhile, a steady stream of girls whom I've always declined in the past came by to ask if I wanted a dance. They must have known I wasn't interested, yet it was like they felt compelled to ask anyway. Strange.

Eventually, I decided that it would be pathetic for me to spend more than an hour or two there. As I headed for the exit, a manager asked me if I had enjoyed my experience with them. I thought about telling him why I hadn't, but figured what's the use. In all the years this had been my favorite club, I never needed to exchange a word with a manager.

I just said, "Have a nice day."

1. Girls mingling around instead of being in the back
2. Girls have to ask guys for dances
3. Girls can't have cell phones
4. Girls can't have whales hog them all night

Jeez, this is exactly what Jerikson wants......strange

Jerikson "Why is it not appropriate for management to talk to these girls about their poor performance? Why wouldn't they even consider a ban on cellphone use during your shift, like it was before cellphones were invented and the world of strip clubs survived? Why wouldn't they consider a time limit for strippers in the dressing room? Why would it be wrong for the manager to say "Um, look you fucking bitches, there are 12 paying customers sitting on their asses with money to spend, but you're too fucking busy with your bullshit to care. Why not go over and at least say hello and ask if they want a dance or something?"

I think it's totally appropriate to tell management regarding grievances. Any manager worth his weight in salt realizes if the customers aren't happy the customer can take their money elsewhere. When customers leave pissed, they won't be back and will badmouth the club, further hurting business in addition to the club losing money from the drinks, house cut on dances ..etc if unhappy patrons go elsewhere. The stripper is not going to quit just because the manager told her to get off her cellphone and ass and sell some dances. If she had any real skills, she wouldn't be stripping. Besides, they're used to being treated like shit.

Anyone that thinks just because the stripper is a contractor and not an employee that management has little control over her, doesn't know anything about business. Then again there probably aren't too many MBA's managing strip clubs.

chandler se: "I went to my favorite club yesterday, and management is implementing new customer service-oriented policies."

HOLY CRAP !!! Are you SERIOUS ??? Wow if that isn't the most AMAZING coincidence that your favorite club implemented the changes we're talking about here !!!! Dude, you should run out and buy a lottery ticket !!!

Now, I'm sure nobody here would make shit like this up in an attempt to discredit someone's argument, right? But in case somebody would, let me highlight how this is certainly a debate tactic that's definitely worthy of adding to our list of childish debate tactics. I call it "Dimiss by Exception".

Here's how it works: Someone proposes something, and in order to discredit that person, you find (or even make up) a SINGLE instance where that proposal might not work, either because it was implemented incorrectly, or it wasn't appropriate for that location or those involved, etc., etc. Once you have ONE instance, you can discredit the entire proposal, even thought the proposal might work find in the other 99 instances.

So, chandler, congratulations for either being the luckiest guy on the planet, or for adding to our debate tactics list !!!

@Chandler: Interesting. So this is the new policy at Follies now (unless you have a new favorite club)? Good luck to them. If they are micromanaging the girls to that degree, I now know one club where a future minimum wage class action lawsuit is going to be a slam dunk. Or at least it will be for those girls who stick around to tolerate that treatment, especially after their regulars depart for clubs that are better suited for them.

I suppose that a tourist trap club with a continuous supply of guys and few regulars might be able to get away with operating like that, at least until they are sued for minimum wage or by some girl who is molested by a customer who a manager insisted that she dance for, but I doubt that most clubs could.

Take a chill pill jerikson dude. I think the Chandler dude was agreeing with you. The manager at his club probably reads TUSCL and said "hmmm...these are GOOD ideas" to himself.

Quick, chandler...does you fave club have a banner reading "don't worry! no #ebola.strippers here!" hanging by the door?

See how highly attuned my near autistic brain is at detecting sarcasm!

So, Dugan, you're convinced that if a strip club "micromanages" the girls with a few simple rules which are, based on every business on the planet, reasonable, then worlds will collide right?

So, if they say there's a club policy that the dressing room is for dressing only and not for the girls to sit around and BS because it's a safety concern that some dancers will be in the way and blah blah blah whatever reason you want to give, then that's grounds for a lawsuit? Are you freaking insane? A club policy limiting use of the dressing room is a reason for the dancers to not "tolerate that treatment"?

And a club policy that limits dancers sitting on their asses in the customer areas texting is intolerable for dancers? Even though most companies on the planet limit cellphone usage during business hours?

And tell me, why do you think customers molesting dancers is a big problem?? Have you seen a lot of that occurring? And furthermore, what the fuck difference does it make if management requests dancers to make reasonable rounds to greet customers and ask for a dance?? Molesting dancers is molesting dancers irrelevant of whether management requested they visit customers.

Geezus dude, you're too fucking much.

"Now, I'm sure nobody here would make shit like this up in an attempt to discredit someone's argument, right?"

Be sure you tell that to "Ginger" and "Carl" down at the "Tits R Us", OK?

Parents owe their kids just by having them but, other than that, people only owe you something as part of a mutually agreed upon exchange. Often, such as, say, with wait staff, the basics of what's agreed to is set by well-established custom. With a waitress, stripper, what have you, if you often, rather than rarely, don't get what you think it "customary service", that proves it's not customary. These customs vary by locale. A smile may be customary in Ohio, but not in Manhattan.

The only really tricky area with this is the common practice by strippers of lying about what extras you will get for your money. Obviously, mutual agreement is impossible once lying comes into the picture. But (if they think about it at all) these strippers think it's justified because you are asking for something illegal (generally), so 2 wrongs make a right in their minds.

@J40-Tell Carl I'm sorry for hogging up that one gal.

Fibonacci sez: "A smile may be customary in Ohio, but not in Manhattan."

Umm....I don't...umm....

Again, you guys make me somewhat speechless.

Nobody owes you anything, except as part of a mutual agreement??

For some reason you guys don't comprehend the world of customer service in businesses. People who work in the customer service industry are generally OBLIGATED, by their employers, to provide you with a certain pre-defined level of service. That is HUGE. You're aware of that, correct?

Let's say you walk into a McDonalds tomorrow, and there's nobody at the counter. You see a couple of servers sitting on their butts texting. A few more are in the back BS'ing. The cooks are talking to each other but not cooking burgers. Nobody around to serve you.

Yes, those employees DO owe you something. They are OBLIGATED, by their employer, to do stuff for you, and to do it fast and efficiently. Their corporation spends zillions of $$ in training and time management studies to make sure that customers get a certain level of customer service. That is just one example of how most customer service businesses place a lot of time and money into making sure their employees provide a certain level of customer service. Yes, they do owe you something. Just ask their bosses.

And to expand that outside of commercial interactions, people in more advanced cultures have self-imposed obligations for their interactions with others. We often decide we should be polite. And honest. And we'll drive on our side of the road. And on and on....

I never agreed with you that we'll drive on the right side of the road. Be we feel obligated to do that. Hopefully.

Geez...how can it be that I'm arguing for customer service with a bunch of customers? Un fucking believable