The Red Queen

Complaining, et.al

In our PR class with Sir Barry last sem, he asked us to share our experiences on having bad encounters with establishments’ staff. My classmates shared a lot — and Sir Barry shared his own experience as well. I can’t remember, though, whether his experience was with Shopwise or with PureGold.

He was shopping for Christmas baskets with his family that time. He asked for a staff’s help — but the staff happens to be impolite and unprofessional in dealing with him. I can’t really remember everything, but that’s basically how the story goes.

Anyways, Sir Barry dealt with his, erm, problem, lightly. He didn’t put himself in a shameful situation by arguing with the staff, pointing out their mistakes, and, well, being eskandaloso. Instead, he sent an executive (err, my memory’s capacity really sucks, sorry) an e-mail containing his sentiments — very professional, very Sir Barry. ;p

Sir Barry’s efforts weren’t put to waste. He got a reply from the executive, telling him that they already sent their staff to a training in response to his complaints — and, the executive showed how much they’ve appreciated what Sir Barry did by sending him a Christmas basket for free 😛

No, you’re not reading a story book nor a sir-barry’s-so-great kind of post. I just wanted to share that from Sir Barry’s kwento, I learned how to deal with things better — that being lion-like in dealing with rude staff isn’t always the best option. Good PR skills’ a key here.

I had a disappointing experience with Conti’s Trinoma ealier. Yet I remained calm and composed — keeping in mind that I’ve learned a lot from my 4 years of stay in my degree already, and that I know PR.

I decided to, instead, send Conti’s an SMS after the encounter — asking for their company’s e-mail address since I had something to share with the management. The staff replied to my SMS with their e-mail addresses.

Conti's Logo

Here’s what I sent Conti’s:

Dear Ma’am/Sir,

I am Jhe David, a senior BA Organizational Communication student at the University of the Philippines Manila.

I am sending you this e-mail to let you know of the experience I had with Conti’s Trinoma earlier this evening.

My family and I regularly visit Conti’s Trinoma to grab goods for take-out since we reside nearby. We usually experience great service and get quality products from your store. What I experienced earlier, however, was quite disappointing.

It was around 8:45pm when I came in the store and ordered linguine in pesto sauce with seafoods (serving size’s good for 8 people). The cashier-on-duty called up the kitchen to check if how long I’d have to wait for my order to be served — she then told me that I’d have to wait for 30-45mins for my pasta. I asked her if I could just pay for what I ordered, and come back in 40mins to pick-up my order — she agreed.

45mins passed, I came back to the store, presented my receipt, and tried claiming my order. They asked me to sit down and wait till my order is served. Then a staff approached me, politely telling me that they already ran out of pesto sauce — meaning, they can’t serve my order.

I asked for reimbursement instead, and didn’t argue with the staff anymore since I knew that doing so wouldn’t really solve the problem — and I wouldn’t want to waste any of my and their time anymore.

I ordered for 2 slices of Mango Bravo instead. Still, to go — I wanted to bring something home for my brother. I sat down and waited for my order to be served. However, I cannot understand why it took them 15mins before having my order served — it was, after all, just two slices of cake. I was watching them, nobody was fixing my order. Had I not stood there in front of the cashier and politely asked that my order be fixed, nobody would have attended to my order.

Conti’s Trinoma is one of my personal favorites, I’m just sad and disappointed that I’ve experienced service that, for lack of a better term, sucked.

I really hope Conti’s Trinoma would address this concern immediately. I wouldn’t want to visit the store, going home with the same bad experience again. Perhaps the management could make better operations plan — or at least make sure their employees coordinate well.

Thank you, and good day!

Sincerely,

Jhe David

I just hope that Conti’s would give me a respond somewhat similar with how Shopwise/PureGold responded to Sir Barry’s e-mail. Hehe.

PS: Next time you hit Trinoma, try grabbing Conti’s Linguine in Pesto Sauce with Seafoods — I wouldn’t go as far as sending them an e-mail if their foods weren’t essential to my existence 😛 And, oh, Mango Bravo is love 😀

Mango Bravo