Service was great like the first encounter but again, waiting time for the food was pretty long. It took an interval of 15 minutes for our 2 starters to arrive and another 25 minutes wait for our mains. While we were waiting for the mains to arrive, other servers walked past our table without much of a 2nd glance but there was this staff who came to us to inform us that she had checked on our orders and apologised for the wait. Unfortunately, I did not manage to note her name down but I must say that I appreciated her initiative in checking our orders instead of waiting for us to ask.

The staff were as upbeat and enthusiastic as they were on their 2nd day of opening, which was good to see. There were some Fish & Co restaurants that I went to where the staff lacked the enthusiasm and friendliness that were present in other outlets.

I liked the bruschetta with smoked salmon this time as it wasn’t over-toasted but still retained that crispiness. My partner however, preferred it to be toasted for a while more. We were disappointed to find that the seafood calleloni and our all-time favourite, Mermaid Freeze, to be unavailable. It gave us the opportunity to try another freeze (Jungle Freeze) which tasted good but I’d still prefer the mango-carrot combination of our favourite.

I ordered the Char-grilled Cod Fish with Lemon Pesto and thought that it would be good if the lemon sauce could be a little more tangy to make-up for the fish’s lack of flavor.

Overall, apart from the waiting time, the overall service encounter was great. It was good to see that orders were no longer mixed up and the staff looked less frustrated. Given that we went at about 8pm, I suppose the wait was expected but a near half hour wait for our mains was a little too long, in my humble opinion.

Dinner was at the new concept restaurant by Fish & Co, F.I.S.H. The menu items included lobsters, spring chicken, pasta dishes like calleloni, steaks and of course, fish items such as cod fish with teriyaki sauce and fish & chips. Taste-wise, I would not say that it was anything special or memorable. The calleloni ordered by my companions was too soft and the sauce accompanying the dish was a little bland. The spring chicken came in a rather small serving, so if you are expecting anything like the spring chickens you see at coffee shops, you will be disappointed. The freezes offered at the Fish & Co. restaurants are also available at F.I.S.H.

Even though it was well after 9pm when we entered the restaurant, the staff were still enthusiastic in their service, albeit showing some signs of fatigue. We had servers coming to us with orders that weren’t ours several times and saw their confused faces. Twice, we had main dishes coming to us even though we had finished with our mains, the empty/half-eaten dishes still on the table. Some of them huddled together with the dishes still on their hands, trying to figure out where the dishes should go to.A staff failed to inform us that we could top-up $1 to get free flow of the drinks we ordered.

All these confusion and service lapses it is due to the restaurant being 2-days old and hence there were still some SOPs that were not in place or that the staff members had not been adequately trained. What made up for the service lapses was when the supervisor came to us, asking us if there was anything that could be improved on. For a new restaurant, it is good and essential to seek for customers’ feedback on both food and service in order to attain at least an acceptable standard in both areas as well as to leave a good impression on the customers.Of course, I am not saying that other businesses do not require feedback – in fact, quite the contrary. However, if new restaurants seek and work on customers’ feedback, they could possibly find out customers’ preferences, which sets the path for them to being successful.

I first met Rina from Chanel at Isetan Scotts when I was looking for some make-up items recommended by some net-friends on forums. I was pleasantly surprised with Rina’s service – not only was she very helpful in recommending products, she took time to understand my concerns and further took the initiative to recommend me some skincare products that she thought would suit me. All these recommendations did not come with hardselling and made my shopping experience very comfortable.

Given my sensitive skin, Rina decided to put on the recommended make-up for me and try out to see if I’ll develop any reactions to the products. Unlike other beauty advisors who attended to me in the past, Rina did a whole string of skincare regime to prep my skin before putting on the make-up. In addition, she got my number from me and called me several hours later to check on whether I’ve got any allergy reactions from the products.

This is a stark contrast to other service encounters I had in the past with cosmetics counters, where the beauty advisors either tell u their opinions on what suit best for you or simply dab some of the foundation on your hand for you to have a feel of what the color/texture is like.

Since then, I’ve visited Rina several times and even though not all the visits ended up with purchases, she has never once slipped in her service. She was always warm, friendly and helpful with her excellent product knowledge. Rina never forgot to follow-up with calls to check on how the products are working and whether I developed any allergic reactions to the products she recommended. Little gestures like this goes a long way as I could feel that she not only concerned about the possible deal she could make but also concerned about the possible reactions my skin could have with the products.

As a customer, I appreciate the efforts that a service staff makes to ensure that I am comfortable with the service / product. Most importantly, I trust them when their sincerity shows with little gestures and with this, they have built a rapport with a customer. I may not be a marketing guru, but as a customer, I do feel that this rapport translates to more sales and good word-of-mouth advertising. Look at me, I have shared my pleasant service experience with Rina with at least 5 people, whom I know have since visited the outlet she was stationed!

I have been rather slack with my fitness regime with the upcoming exams and the lazybug bite. However, when I made my trip down for my gym session last week, I was in for a shock.

Apart from the swinging hooks in the changing rooms (that were still left untouched/unchanged), one of the toilet cubicles in the female changing room had the toilet seat completely dislodged. Thinking that it was just loose, I tried to adjust the seat only to witness the toilet seat dropping on the floor. That is maintenance at the True Fitness Suntec City branch for you.

I hope other gym users could share your reviews on the gyms that you have used / currently members of.

It took  about 20- 25 minutes for our main courses to arrive and another 20 minutes for our ice-cream orders to arrive after our main courses have been cleared. When the desserts arrived, the Sticky Chewy Chocolate that I ordered came with about 20%-25% melted. I figured this happened if they were preparing ice-cream orders from other tables and preferred to serve all of the orders at one go. This makes sense especially if you play the Diner Dash game where you gain extra points for doing the same actions consecutively (e.g. serving dishes to different tables consecutively). However, I would really prefer my food (hot or cold) to be served at its best and melted ice-cream isn’t exactly one of my favourites. I have to mention that the restaurant was not even 50% filled at that time so the waiting time is not exactly ideal.

The other thought I had while having my meal was the staff’s use of a table right behind the order-taking counter, as a collection place for dishes. Staff collected the dishes from the tables, put them on that empty table set for two people, and then go on piling the dishes there.Only after a while, one staff would go to the table and start piling the used plates, sometimes collecting the leftovers on 1 or 2 plates before bringing them to the kitchen.

I found this rather unsightly for a restaurant and didn’t quite understand why the used plates could not be brought to the kitchen immediately instead of leaving them at a place where customers could see. This may work operationally where less time is spent walking to-and-fro the kitchen to clear the plates but I doubt it is any appetising for customers to see an unfinished plate of crayfish pasta with used tissues on the plate and perhaps some other food remains that is piled on top.  Especially if you are ordering crayfish pasta yourself.

I thought that the service overall was average,  staff weren’t rude but neither were they friendly. Also, there is definitely room for improvement on the waiting time.

I have to say that my service encounters with the local Starbucks haven’t been anything special and  interactions with the staff typically ended the moment I picked up your drink and got a seat. Perhaps it was because I wasn’t quite a regular at any particular store? I know of a friend who enjoyed her Starbucks at a particular outet (story here).  However, how about us non-regulars?

Has Starbucks really lost its ‘third-home’ image in our minds?

This morning, I received an email from Clarins with the standard and expected response that the feedback has been attended to. Although it was mentioned in the email that the retail manager will follow up with me, I doubt whether there will be any follow up. However, I was proven wrong when I received another email from Mr. Larry Foo, (President of Clarins Singapore), apologising for the service lapse and assuring me that they are reviewing practices to improve their service standards. I was surprised to receive an email from the top management of Clarins Singapore but most importantly, I could sense the sincerity in the email. Then and there, I thought to myself, “At least they bothered to reply personally to feedback emails!”.

Thinking that the matter has come to a close, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a call from a florist deliveryman and my sister to inform me that Clarins has sent over a floral basket. This is certainly beyond my expectations and a very nice finishing touch to this incident. Service recovery was quick, prompt and sincere and for me, the personal touch totally worked.

Even though the sales assistant at Takashimaya did a fairly horrid job in his service, Clarins  Singapore’s management did a wonderful job with salvaging the situation and went beyond expectation to putting things right. This is a very good example at how damage control and service recovery is at its best.

Of course, companies should not wait until a service lapse occur before they start looking into their service procedures and training. However, it is also important to put in place a proper service recovery procedure so that every customer’s feedback and comments are properly handled and treated with care.  With social media widely used by the public (this blog is an example),  people can share their experiences in the shortest time with the widest reach. I share my experiences on forums and similarly obtain information about products and services from forums and blogs too.

I think it is definitely important for companies to know and track not only comments about their products/services through the traditional channels (e.g. direct feedback to companies, survey forms) but also customers’ rants and ravings on the Internet. With that, they can track reviews of their products and services right from the customers themselves and not wait till an absolutely irate customer to inform them about the problems.

On a different note, I think there are customers out there who are at a dilemma on what to do when they were given sub-standard service. Should we send a feedback to the company? If we do, will we cost the staff their jobs? Frankly, It took me a few hours to decide to write that email to Clarins but I decided to go ahead as the issue here is not to get that poor guy fired but rather, to inform Clarins of the poor service delivered and that they need to get something done to improve their service. Of course, the fact that the sales assistant’s behavior was totally rude and unacceptable also helped me in making the decision.  I was just a step away to saying goodbye to Clarins’ product for a long time.

Would you have written in to feedback on poor service received?

At the age of 17, I was working as a swim wear promoter at a departmental store. It was my 2nd day at work and about 10 minutes before closing time, this lady sauntered to my area, picked some swimsuits that caught her eye and decided to try them on. When the store’s closing music came on, she decided that she wants to buy 2 suits (to my delight) while in the changing room and gave me her ATM card to make the purchase while she tries to change out of the suits .

Well, we all know that in order to make a purchase with your ATM card, you would require a private PIN code to be entered. But being new and flustered, I rushed to the cashier’s counter and informed them that I had a customer who was about to make payment and told them to process the items first. They told me that they could wait but could not process the payment since I obviously didn’t have the customer’s PIN code. And so I ran back (about 30 secs run) to the customer who had just came out of the fitting room and told her that she has to complete the purchase herself. She flared at me, scolded me for my incompetence, asked for my name and left with her parting words, “I’ll lodge a complaint against you!”

Frankly, I was really worried then as it was only my 2nd day of work and I already have a complaint looming over my head. I was prepared to be fired the next day but well, the complaint did not come and I stayed on the job for another 4 months until my tertiary education started.

Well, that’s just one of my memorable experience with an unreasonable customer. I do have my bad days at times and perhaps played the unreasonable customer role, which I’ll definitely share soon. In the meantime, do share your experiences with some customers that are truly unforgettable!