Guest Experiences Gone Awry, What's Your Service Recovery Strategy?

Jan M. Smith
Inland Management Group

Have you ever thought to be thankful for guest service experiences gone awry? A less than perfect guest experience can be an opportunity for excellence. If you embrace your guest’s candidness, raw emotion, and pure honesty, you can actually learn enough to ensure the situation doesn’t happen again. You should be rejoicing the guest is actually communicating the problem with you!

Here’s why:
96% of your guests do not complain to anyone who can help them.
95% of your guests will return if they feel their complaint was resolved quickly.
90% of your guests with unresolved complaints will never return.
(White House Office of Consumer Affairs)
Social Media sites like Twitter, FaceBook, My Space and blogs capture the immediate pleasure or displeasure of the guest’s experience. Often time, the guest is communicating their experience through social media avenues even before they leave your company!

Service Tips

Practice service recovery strategies with your employees to ensure they are ready and empowered to handle a guest service issue.

Tip 1: Acknowledge that the guest has been inconvenienced and apologize for it.
Don’t be defensive, and don’t shift the blame to the guest or fellow employee.
Often times just a simple genuine apology will help neutralize the situation.
“I’m sorry about your experience today. Let me see how I can make this better for you.”

Tip 2: Listen and empathize with the guest.
Listen carefully, and let the guest explain their point of view. Let them vent their frustrations.
Stay calm as the guest verbalizes their issue. It is important for the guest to be heard. Somewhere along the line their expectation of what they wanted, and the reality of what they received, did not sync, and it’s your job to show genuine care during the complaint.
Try to understand the guest’s perspective of the situation.

Tip #3: Step up to the plate and take care of the problem.
Personally take care of the issue. Don’t push it off on someone else.
The guest wants to feel that you have the ability to handle the problem, without having to escalate it to another level of company hierarchy.
Resolve to fix the problem in a timely fashion.

Tip #4: Offer some value-added compensation for the inconvenience.
Offer a token of goodwill, or something that symbolizes you are sorry for the service breakdown.
Empower front line service workers to appropriately compensate the guest for their inconvenience in a service breakdown situation.
True empowerment is about giving employees the freedom to act both creatively and responsibly to meet service recovery needs.

A colleague of mine, who I’ll call Kay, recently shared a story of visiting a local restaurant. Kay ordered a beef brisket sandwich and was instead served pork. She informed the server of the mistake, and the meal was removed. The server promptly returned with the same meal, stating the chef has checked it, and said it was the right order. Kay asked to speak with the chef, and in their tableside conversation, the chef debated about the order, and insisted it was right. With more insistence, Kay convinced the chef that there was a mistake. The chef went back to the kitchen and then returned, stating there was an apparent switch in the meat trays and Kay’s assessment was correct. The right meal was offered, but declined because the situation took too long to resolve. There was a slight apology by the server, but other than that, no other offer of service recovery.

What was the outcome of this guest experience gone awry? This restaurant is off my colleague’s list of places to patronize, however, she is more than willing to share her experience with anyone who will listen, including the social media blogs. This could have been an easy resolve, but no one at this restaurant thought to implement a service recovery for the situation.

All service recovery begins with the expectation of fairness from the guest’s perspective. Nine times out of ten, the guest is only looking for a reasonable resolution to the problem. Consider service recovery an opportunity to keep guests satisfied after the worst happens.

Remarkable service recovery means handling the service breakdown in a way that makes the guest even more devoted to your establishment after the issue has been properly resolved. Consider service gone awry an opportunity for excellence!

Jan M. Smith is the Founder and Principal of Inland Management Group, a Human Resource Consultancy located in Temecula, specializing in the Hospitality and Entertainment industry. You can contact Jan at (951) 302-6483, http://www.inlandmgtgroup.com/, or email at jsmith@inlandmgtgroup.com.

THE POWER OF A SMILE

An estimated 1 billion people watched the recent Michael Jackson memorial. His brother Jermaine sang a compelling version of the well-known Charlie Chaplin song, “Smile”, which clearly, through the song’s title and lyrics, portrays a message of the absolute and defined power of a smile.

The business application of a smile can relate to front line employees and their potential impact with your customer. While most hospitality managers know the importance of first impressions, unfortunately, not all front line employees seriously consider this impact. Yet the truth is, the general consumer prefers to do business with friendly, open, accommodating, welcoming, and most importantly, smiling employees.

Previous experience working for The Walt Disney Company helped me to understand how all customer service positions work best when the employee understands they are “on-stage” when they are in front of the customer. Disney employees realize very quickly that regardless of how they are feeling, they must put all of their personal issues aside and get into “character”, appropriately representing the company with exceptional customer service. It’s not always easy to smile when you don’t feel like it…it’s just necessary, even critical, for a successful first impression of your company.

A smile can be seen as an invitation or a barrier. Greeted with a smile, you are being welcomed, greeted with a grin or scowl; you are being held at an arm’s distance.

What does your front line employee look like? Have you ever observed from the sidelines what type of greeting your customer first encounters? If you haven’t had the chance to do this, it’s a good time to think about this type of observation. The economy today dictates exceptional customer service in order to stay competitive and keep your customers loyal and engaged. If your front line employees do not connect to your customer (and this generally can be accomplished by greeting them with a smile), the potential sale may only be a one-time deal, or worse, no deal at all.

Consider observing potential candidates for your company. During the interview, take special note if they are smiling. If they aren’t during the interview, chances are they will not smile as a customer walks through your company’s door.

Hospitality managers should insist that all front line employees “wear” a smile. Remember, this simple gesture invites a relationship with the customer. Encourage this behavior with your employees. Create visual reminders to your employees such as something recently noticed at a local business. A small laminated card attached to the outside of a cash register, perfectly situated for both the employee and customer to see. It read:

JULY SERVICE TIP

A company’s front line employee often tells the customer exactly how they are feeling, by means of their non-verbal communication. What should be observed is something that reflects enthusiasm and appreciation that the customer has stepped in your front door.

The employee’s facial and body language should show excitement for the service, product or value your company has to offer. How can you expect a customer to shell out their hard earned (and closely kept) dollars if they are not connected through your front line service worker?

Consider observing your front line employees in an anonymous way; perhaps even contemplate using a shopping service to do this for you. Shopping services are used for a variety of reasons, including benchmarking service delivery levels prior to a training initiative. Additional information gained from a shopping service can help your company optimize operations, improve human resource management, develop and enhance brand image, and most importantly improve the customer experience.

When selecting a shopping service, be sure to:
• Carefully research the background and references of the shopping service.
• Ask to see sample reports and client/reference list.
• Speak with like-industry references and ask them what they found useful (and not useful) with the shopping service. Were they happy and confident with the service?
• Ensure the service understands your business processes well enough to critique your processes.
• Set the criteria to be observed and ensure the service watches for the initial first encounter they have with the employee…were they smiling?

I can see why Michael Jackson’s favorite song was ‘Smile.” The lyrics, “Smile though your heart is aching, smile even though it’s breaking…. Light up your face with gladness, Hide every trace of sadness…” are encouraging and necessary for all front line employees.

Remember, front line employees are continually “on-stage”, providing the most exceptional service necessary to retain your customers.

Jan M. Smith is the Founder and Principal of Inland Management Group, a Human Resource Consultancy located in Temecula, specializing in the Hospitality and Entertainment industry. You can contact Jan at (951) 302-6483, www.inlandmgtgroup.com, or email at jsmith@inlandmgtgroup.com.