Last week I posted what was more or less a rant about the terrible service that I received at a hotel where I was holding a conference.  However, I think that I need to follow up on what could have been done better in the situation.  Thus, here are 4 steps to recover from a service failure during an event.

1. Apologize - It is so embarrassing to have to apologize for a mistake that you made.  However, apologizing is the first step towards bring the client from hell to heaven.  When I realized that I had a problem with my order and alerted the kitchen to the mistake I did receive an apology from the restaurant manager.  It would have been even better for him to talk to the clients directly and apologize. 
2. Solve the problem - The issue I had last week is that approximately 15 people were without lunch.  The very first thing that they needed to do was make food stat!  This created some chaos as we tried to sort out the situation,.  Although it took some time, everyone eventually received their food.
3. Empower your staff - This step involved giving your employees the ability to make customer service decisions on the spot without having to check with you.  When I worked for Study Tours at Rider, I made sure to train my staff about what to do if something failed.  They knew that they were expected to provide the best customer service possible and try to fix the situation (within reason).  They consistently went above and beyond the call of duty.  Even last week at the conference the staff did the best they could to serve the clients that were having lunch.  Unfortunately, they couldn't make the food come out any faster, but I appreciated their hustle. 
4. Make it right - Here is where the hotel fell short.  I mentioned that my lunch was complimentary, and although this was a step in the right direction, I would have preferred the hotel provide discounts to all those that were affected.   Instead, they came to me with checks that were not paid from food that was duplicated in the confusion.  Thus, they never fully recovered from the glitch.  

Service recovery can truly build clients.  It is one thing to have a mishap every once in awhile, but if you don't recover from the situation likely, you never will.

The experience last week left a bad taste for me, and this along with some other service failures would cause me to not return to this hotel in the future.