Page 88 - Communication in Organizations Basic Skills and Conversation Models

Handling complaints 77

wine as well. As I understand it, Carl Campbell, my assistant, reacted quickly enough
to your remark, but it didn’t really matter anymore, [summary]
PAUL: Exactly.
HARRY: Was there anything else that you weren’t happy about? [open question]
PAUL: No, this was it really, but it’s important enough!
HARRY: Absolutely.

Investigating the practical aspects of a complaint

Sometimes a guest’s story is clear but you don’t have enough practical information to be
able to solve the complaint. It may be necessary to know when an article has been
bought, when the guest stayed in your hotel and in which room, when the guest had
dinner in your restaurant and what they ate, the name of the guest and where they can be
contacted. If you don’t already know some or all of this information, now is the time to
ask for it. The guest has had the chance to explain the complaint and will be open to
finding possible solutions. Asking for details and practicalities will be interpreted as
preparation for solving the problem:

HARRY: One thing I would like to know is: how many guests did attend the party?
PAUL: About 300 guests I would say.

Finding a solution

When you try to find a solution to a problem you must keep in mind that the solution has
to satisfy the guest. No matter how well you have listened in the first phase, if you come
up with a solution the guest doesn’t like, you may give him the impression that the matter
has not been taken seriously after all. A good way to find a suitable solution is to ask the
guest to make a suggestion. Then together you can find out if the company can handle
this and what the practical implications of the solution are.
When searching for a solution you must try to depart from the fact that the company is
indeed responsible for the situation and that the complaint is an excellent opportunity to
improve. Blaming the situation on the guest does not get you anywhere and will only lead
to losing a customer. Ask open-ended questions to involve the guest in finding the
solution:
HARRY: I would like to discuss some possible solutions to this problem with you to
make sure things like this will not happen again. Would you have any ideas about how
we could prevent this in the future?
PAUL: Well, it seemed to me that you somehow made a mistake when estimating the
amounts. Maybe you should use a different number of plates and drinks per person. Or
make sure you can get some very quickly. I didn’t mind that your assistant Campbell
went to get them, it just took too long. And there should have been enough wine.