In a new book, hotelier Nakul Anand explains how to handle customer complaints

Once we had a service design in place for our hotels, a double-check was necessary to ensure we had included what I call “a menu of musts” – a phrase that refers to a list of essentials considered de rigueur for a service organisation looking to build a reputation for excellence; a clear reminder that while creativity and differentiation are welcome, the fundamentals of great service can never be compromised.

A critical item on this menu was service recovery – the process of “recovering” dissatisfied guests from bad service experiences and turning them into loyal customers. Errors in service are inevitable because human beings are involved, and people tend to make mistakes. There are days when Murphy’s Law hits, and anything that can go wrong does go wrong. The key is to anticipate errors and build a fail-safe mechanism to recover gracefully.

In fact, service complaints go as far back as the time of Jesus Christ! The first ever recorded service error is mentioned in the Bible, when Mary and Joseph were denied a room in an inn they had confirmed in Bethlehem, resulting in the birth of their child in a manger.

Service recovery is such a powerful tool and we figured that if...

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