Immediate Apology
By Graham Davies

The Bellagio Casino is classy in everything that is does including the way its staff communicates. I got back to my room at 11:30 one night to discover that the air conditioning was not working and the room was uncomfortably warm. I immediately phoned Housekeeping to ask them to sort it out. They told me that they would inform Maintenance. Twenty minutes later, I was still sitting in stifling heat so I phoned Housekeeping again and asked to be put directly through to Maintenance. The lady at the other end of the phone said, “It’s not our policy to put guests through to the Maintenance department.”

This annoyed me, so I asked to speak to the Duty Manager. Once I described the situation, he immediately said, “I really am very sorry for the inconvenience you have been caused. I realise that you must be sitting in a very warm room and all you want to do is get some sleep. Would you please accept with my compliments a $100 credit on your room account? I will get someone to your room immediately.”

Four minutes later, a very chirpy fellow with a big box of tools appeared at my door and it took him about 90 seconds to solve the problem.

The Duty Manager had done everything right:

· He immediately acknowledged that the service I had received was not good enough.
· He graciously apologised for this.
· He took immediate action.

As far as I was concerned, he did not need to offer me the monetary compensation, but I was delighted by the gesture anyway.

When you are at the receiving end of someone presenting a genuine grievance, immediate acknowledgement and sympathy are vital…unless you do not wish to admit that you or your company are at fault in any way. Lack of acknowledgement will inevitably mean that the conversation will become a confrontation.

I suggest that the communication style of the Bellagio is something that most companies should aspire to.