Questions:

1. Briefly summarize the complaints and compliments in Dr. Loflin’s letter.

2. Critique the letter of Gail Pearson in reply to Dr. Loflin. What are the strengths
and weaknesses of the letter?
3. Prepare an “improved” response letter from Gail Pearson.
4. What further action should Gail Pearson take in view of this incident?

1-> Complaints:

 Had to ask for the salads, rolls, and refill of water and butter repeatedly
 Expected service was not equal to Perceived service [ES > PS = Expectation not
met] Unsatisfactory service quality for the cost
 Had to bare rude treatment by the waitress and unrespectful behaviour by the
waiter while taking the order and serving the meal
 Had to wait too much for the cocktails, drinks and others
 High price w.r.t the service delivered
 Ordering restrictions (no appetizers without ordering entrees)
 Indifferent and laid back attitude and untrained staff

Compliments:

 Excellent food
 Beautiful and pleasant atmosphere

2-> Strengths:

 Accepted the complaint in the first place- there was no denial or dispute regarding
the poor service quality and thanked him for his valuable feedback
 Very professional letter- she was sympathetic and most essentially addressed the
issue without any hostility

Weakness:

 Complained about not getting staff for serving and other irrelevant issues
  Never mentioned any plans on rectifying the situation, or confidence of providing
quality service next time
 Didn’t offer any complimentary services

4-> Further actions that should be taken:

 Better training to the employees

 Incentives for excellent service provided to motivate them
 Guaranteed quality service should be there

3->

Dear Dr. Loflin,

Our sincere apologies for not providing a quality service of great dining experience (pleasant,
beautiful ambience along with tasty food and excellent service) which was our job. We
greatly regret the inconvenience and the trouble caused by our waiting staff / servers and the
comments made by them are totally inexcusable under any circumstances during your visit
here on October 13, 1986.

We also want to thank you for taking time to write the letter, which exactly brought out our
inconsistency and greatest deficiency. We have considered your feedback as an alarm to
concentrate on the serving staff which was left unattended despite facing such incidents
earlier. This also made us realise the importance of good serving staff and re-evaluate our
recruitment and training of the same.

We guarantee that such incidents (unacceptable waiting staff behaviour) will never repeat,
and we realise that the evening cannot be brought back (or we could not change the past), we
hope that you will give us another chance to rectify our mistake and we assure you that there
will be difference in the attitude of the waiting staff which makes your dining experience at
the Retreat House a delightful experience with our tasty food (better than ever).

Sincerely,

Gail Pearson