Service Recovery by a hotel along Orchard Road - Part 2

Following up from Part 1 of the earlier post, what are the possible areas in the particular service recovery that could have been managed better?

First and foremost. Spell Check! The spelling and grammatical errors were glaring, especially since it came from the hotel's General Manager. Representing senior management, this is certainly unexpected.

Secondly, the GM did not apologize for not having replied at the promised date and this was despite having being given almost more than a working week's time frame to conduct the necessary investigation and recovery.

Thirdly, explaining the unfortunate incident as being part of a normal occurrence in Singapore's temperate climate. Totally unacceptable. As a hospitality provider, cleanliness is a given standard service expectation and in cases such as this, in-depth operational and process investigation should be conducted and reviewed to ascertain if this was due to incomplete process mapping or insufficient human capital investment.

Next, the letter did not address the other service gaps identified and this could lead to a potentially incorrect perception that the rest of the concerns raised was 'simply brushed off'.

Last but not least, the extension of two complimentary buffet dinner, putting aside monetary value, could again give the impression of this incident being taken lightly by the hotel's management.

The hotel's DOSM took a good initiative to arrange for a face-to-face meeting, attempting to reduce potential negative build-up and I must congratulate her for being EQ astute. But this also inadvertently gives me the perception that the GM had not managed the whole recovery process well and that he is 'inexperienced' in managing service recoveries.

For those keen to pick up tips and best practices in writing and responding to customer's written feedback could attend a 1-day Executive Development Programme titled "Responding to Customers' Written Feedback with Empathy & Professionalism" by Ms. Gael Lee on 24 July and 15 October, organized by the Marketing Institute of Singapore.

For more details on the seminar outline and cost, do visit http://www.mis.edu.sg/edp/seminars/ under Service Excellence or contact Angelina: 6327 7586, Su: 6327 7588 and Vivian: 6327 7581 for more information and registration.