Handling Complaints: How Did the Employee Respond?

In our case, a guest is having meal in The Hong Kong Jockey Club. She has order an a la carte with steak. She would like her steak with well done. Unfortunately, the waiter gives her a wrong meat temperature dish, i. e. medium. The guest is not satisfy with the dish and begin lose temper asking for explanation. The waiter has do the following step to provide the right and quality service to the guest. Firstly, the waiter tries to calm the guest down. Secondly, he is listening to the guest’s grievances, so as to provide the right service to the guest again.
And he is allowing the guest to vent, to let the guest express her unsatisfactory. Thirdly, the employee tries to apologize for the wrong service, to give the image that our restaurant is willing to correct our mistake and not to happen again. Fourthly, the employee has done the corrective action. He asks the chef to cook the dish again as soon as possible. And with the correct meat temperature i. e. well done. This can show to the guest that we have a positive “can do” attitude. Finally, servicing the guest with politeness again. The skills and theories that we have apply in the case:
For the procedural side: We have attempt timeliness. When the guest has problem regarding the steak she ordered. The employee has taken immediate action to approach to the guest. Listening what is her concerns and grievances. Then make a corrective action. Therefore, we can practice the moment of truth to the guest. Communication skill also applies on our case. When the employee notice that the food production section have cook the wrong dish to the guest. He immediately asks the chef to cook it again with the right meat temperature. And this dish is the first priority to be cooked.

So the guest needs not to wait for longer time. This can show that we apologize for our fault. For the personal side: Firstly, positive attitude can be found in the case. When the guest is complaining with the wrong dish, we immediately apologize for our fault. And we do try clam the guest down to let her vent her dissatisfy feeling. Also the employee listens to her concerns and grievances as to give the right service to her again. Secondly, guidance also can be found in the case. The employee use positive wordings like “Please wait; let me order a new one for you. This shows that we are willing to be of assistance. And we are concern of every customer’s needs. No one we will miss out. Lastly, we have solved the problem immediately when guest has a problem. The employee immediately calls the chef to cook the right dish as soon as possible. Therefore, the guest no needs to wait for long time to have her meal. So the guest tempers being recovered very soon. And do not affect her feeling while dinning out. Recommendations for improvement To avoid the problem happen again, I suggest when taking order from the guest, repeat what items the guest had ordered.
It is because double check of order can prevent mistake, sometimes the environment is noise, and service provider may not listen well to what the guest has ordered. Also, the chef can ask clarification from the front line staff when come across some rare food order. It is because in tradition in cooking steak, cooking steak with well done are not commonly found in western eating culture. When the chef comes across with this kind of rare cooking method, he can ask the front line staff to make clarify. Then mistake can be minimize.