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Occasionally, I would go out on a food trip adventure with friends.
Nov. 4 was the day when my friend and I went to dine in at “Hukad sa Golden Cowrie” in Ayala Terraces coz we have considered ourselves frequent customers since the day it inaugurated. We know we can get excellent food at very reasonable prices plus the service I believe has improved a lot better.
We arrived at 11:30 a.m. The waiter then took our orders. Since we have tried different versions of the “Humba”, we decided to satisfy our craving and placed this as an additional order.
In less than 15 minutes (which by the way I considered a “fast & timely” service), the food was served and scrumptious as always… except for the so-called “Humba”. We were dismayed coz the portions were really small, not meaty and practically all bones. I felt that I should bring this up to the Manager’s attention so he will be well-aware of the poor food portioning. I politely expressed our disappointment considering that it was our first taste test of their “Humba”.
He apologized for the unpleasant experience and explained nicely that each dish is already pre-portioned as to per serving. He confessed his regret that a bad portion was served to our table and has offered to replace it right away. (…though I was a bit surprised by his offer)
After a few minutes, a newly cooked “Humba” was placed on our table.
This time the Manager approached me and was interested to know what I now think of the serving. The dish looked more meaty and mouth-watering with the right amount of fat & chunk… top & marbled with delectable sauce. It was very tasty and titillating to our palates!
I really admired how the Manager handled the situation. His quick judgment, action & response I must say is very essential. By doing so, he pacified a guest, corrected a complaint & eliminate a bad impression on the food/service.
As we know, most or probably all of us may have been in similar situations where we experienced lousy services, badly cooked food, unsanitary conditions or the mere fact that the food server has poor hygiene & the eatery is violating health rules.
These things can be averted if we do something about it or acted on it … like ‘speak up’ for instance with a dash of tact, whether talking directly to the Manager or Owner, writing a letter of complaint or even just a phone call. In other words, DO SOMETHING & SAY SOMETHING.
Be transparent and point out your ordeal & negative experience. By doing so, we are giving them a huge favor so they will be well aware and to use these to bring about positive changes & continually improve the quality of their customer service.
Most complaints are actually from people who do care about the places they visit. Most are not looking for freebies. However, it is a good judgment to rectify a complaint by replacing the item in order to compensate for a bad service (this of course is greatly appreciated by the complainant).
Once the complaint is acted upon and resolved, customers are willing to return to the same restaurant.
“The key tool of a profitable business is quality customer service & good management.”
Ms. Scarlet is a part-time writer, hospitality consultant to Hotels & Cebu's big time businesses and mind you, a hard core advocate on quality customer services. Still young but she has accomplished a lot of achievements and has gone far beyond the extremes on how to deal with complaints and managed to have a calm demeanor... which makes her one of the vital key persons in this industry.
