Interview question

[Berryracer]

I am going to be asked this tomorrow, please help me answer in a professional way to not put the blame on my colleague who made a mistake

Situation:

You are working in a company that offers a programme which is supposed to be a concierge service for high class members who expect you to do everything for them, hotel bookings, restaurants, gift recommendations, etc..

The member has asked your colleague to find him a good GYM in an X area in the city....

2 days later the member calls and is angry because noone has attended to him...

you get the call...upon checking the request, you notice that your colleague has forgotten to look into it...

What would you tell the member to keep him satisfies yet not put the blame on your lazy colleague? win both parties...if you know what I mean..

Please help me find a good answer as this will decide my next job if I get through this scenario which I will be asked tomorrow

 

[Berryracer]

I am going to be asked this tomorrow, please help me answer in a professional way to not put the blame on my colleague who made a mistake

Situation:

You are working in a company that offers a programme which is supposed to be a concierge service for high class members who expect you to do everything for them, hotel bookings, restaurants, gift recommendations, etc..

The member has asked your colleague to find him a good GYM in an X area in the city....

2 days later the member calls and is angry because noone has attended to him...

you get the call...upon checking the request, you notice that your colleague has forgotten to look into it...

What would you tell the member to keep him satisfies yet not put the blame on your lazy colleague? win both parties...if you know what I mean..

Please help me find a good answer as this will decide my next job if I get through this scenario which I will be asked tomorrow

 

[MovingTarget]

Could you explain how things were delegated to said coworker? Was there a procedure and/or documentation of that happening?

 

[Maximilian]

Kill and bury both parties, everyone is happy.

 

[Spikesoldier]

take personal responsibility for your co-worker's mistake. apologize quickly and politely, and then swiftly remedy the situation or offer a workable alternative.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Do it yourself and pretend you're your friend?

Or, do it yourself and don't reference you or your friend personally, talk about 'us' as in 'this hotel'.

 

[Farang]

Keep it vague, and move on to satisfying the request.

"I apologize for the lack of follow-up on this issue."

If the request is going to take more than a couple of minutes: "I'm going to make sure I get some info to you on gyms--what is a good time for me to give you a call back with a a recommendation?"

Or "Let's see what gyms are the area--there's this one, that one, and the other one"

If it becomes a pattern, talk to said co-worker. If not, chalk it up as a mistake and move on.

 

[Murloc]

did the member ask your colleague directly?
Apologize with some vague bullshit, then help him immediately with the gym thing.
Maybe you could do something to stroke his ego or offer something extra (even though it's a small thing compared to the amounts of money going around, it might be useful, it depends on the much resources you have).

 

[Pardus]

Kill and bury both parties, everyone is happy.

This.

 

[Berryracer]

Could you explain how things were delegated to said coworker? Was there a procedure and/or documentation of that happening?

Usually, there are 2 or 3 Member Assistants (us), so each one comes in the morning, takes the requests whic have come from the members either by email or by phone, then works on it.

The fauly of my colleague is that since this wasn't an urgent restaurant or travel booking, he set it aside and forgot it...

2 days later the member calls and is angry because until now noone has replied to him on which GYM would we recommend him to go in the Area X

I receive the call, my colleagues i OFF....

what would I tell the member? shall I just throw the blame on my lazy colleague and proceed to helping him? obviously not....

What would be a good get away from this situation so that I can calm the member down and ensure him that we will get back to him ASAP and that his request was under investigation to find him the best GYM

Thanks a lot

 

[Berryracer]

Keep it vague, and move on to satisfying the request.

"I apologize for the lack of follow-up on this issue."

If the request is going to take more than a couple of minutes: "I'm going to make sure I get some info to you on gyms--what is a good time for me to give you a call back with a a recommendation?"

Or "Let's see what gyms are the area--there's this one, that one, and the other one"

If it becomes a pattern, talk to said co-worker. If not, chalk it up as a mistake and move on.

did the member ask your colleague directly?
Apologize with some vague bullshit, then help him immediately with the gym thing.
Maybe you could do something to stroke his ego or offer something extra (even though it's a small thing compared to the amounts of money going around, it might be useful, it depends on the much resources you have).

Thanks ALOT guys! I really appreciate your responses! This saves me as I was out of ideas on how would be the best way to succeed in this role play!

God bless you

 

[Lanyap]

Sincerely apologize to the member and fix his problem. Don't get back to him, find him a gym while he is on the phone with you unless he wants you to call him back.

When your colleague returns tell him/her that this member called back and was very angry about not being called back but that you handled it. Don't be accusatory, stay neutral. If he/she is a good colleague they will understand and do better next time. If they are a bad colleague they won't care anyway.

 

[Berryracer]

Sincerely apologize to the member and fix his problem. Don't get back to him, find him a gym while he is on the phone with you unless he wants you to call him back.

When your colleague returns tell him/her that this member called back and was very angry about not being called back but that you handled it. Don't be accusatory, stay neutral. If he/she is a good colleague they will understand and do better next time. If they are a bad colleague they won't care anyway.

Thanks a lot!!! You guys are amazing! I am very pleased with the speed time of the responses receives as well!! :whiste:

 

[FoBoT]

blame it on occupywallstreet
make up a story about how the guy couldn't get to check out the gym because it was blocked by protesters

 

[alkemyst]

First you should ask would surprize buttsechs solve this?

If not just book him into a club via phone in 5-10mins. There has got to be a gym with openings in a 5 mile radius in this economy.

 

[yllus]

It's not terribly important to explain what happened - the customer is going to mostly be concerned with how amends are made.

Say (to the client) that you haven't seen any notes in your system about this, but that at Concierge Co. you all work as a team for your client's needs. Thus, you collectively failed to back each other up in this instance and that you personally apologize to the client for that, and that you will make amends immediately by ________.

Having done that, you speak the truth but don't hang one individual out to dry. Giving your personal apology even though it isn't your fault will also make most people do a double take and dissipate their anger.

 

[iGas]

Apologized for the oversight, then tell the customer that you will do your best. Immediately look for a GYM for the customer with out putting the blame on anyone.

 

[xanis]

It's not terribly important to explain what happened - the customer is going to mostly be concerned with how amends are made.

Say (to the client) that you haven't seen any notes in your system about this, but that at Concierge Co. you all work as a team for your client's needs. Thus, you collectively failed to back each other up in this instance and that you personally apologize to the client for that, and that you will make amends immediately by ________.

Having done that, you speak the truth but don't hang one individual out to dry. Giving your personal apology even though it isn't your fault will also make most people do a double take and dissipate their anger.

There's no need to say all of that to a client. You simply apologize without putting blame on any one person, and you move as quickly as possible to find a solution. Clients don't want to hear about why there was a failure, they want to hear about how the failure will be fixed.

"I apologize for this, sir. Let me check on gyms in the area and see about getting you in to one as soon as possible."

 

[Berryracer]

It's not terribly important to explain what happened - the customer is going to mostly be concerned with how amends are made.

Say (to the client) that you haven't seen any notes in your system about this, but that at Concierge Co. you all work as a team for your client's needs. Thus, you collectively failed to back each other up in this instance and that you personally apologize to the client for that, and that you will make amends immediately by ________.

Having done that, you speak the truth but don't hang one individual out to dry. Giving your personal apology even though it isn't your fault will also make most people do a double take and dissipate their anger.

Thanks That's golden advice!

 

[iGas]

There's no need to say all of that to a client. You simply apologize without putting blame on any one person, and you move as quickly as possible to find a solution. Clients don't want to hear about why there was a failure, they want to hear about how the failure will be fixed.

"I apologize for this, sir. Let me check on gyms in the area and see about getting you in to one as soon as possible."

I have to agree. KIS is the way to go.

 

[RavenSEAL]

I work for an IT support center for my unversity...sometimes when people make mistakes you gotta take the shit, deal with it, apologize and make it right for the customer.

Normally if its a big deal, I take it up with my supervisor and have them deal with it.

 

[yllus]

There's no need to say all of that to a client. You simply apologize without putting blame on any one person, and you move as quickly as possible to find a solution. Clients don't want to hear about why there was a failure, they want to hear about how the failure will be fixed.

"I apologize for this, sir. Let me check on gyms in the area and see about getting you in to one as soon as possible."

Once a customer has been screwed over, you're sitting at a trust level of little to nothing. The natural question is, why should I believe you're going to treat me right the second time when you couldn't do it right the first time? Ultimately the only way to answer that question is to draw a distinction between what happened the first time and explain what you're going to do differently now. There's also an emotional closure aspect to this that's important.

Six Ways to Reduce Customer Complaints

Explain Later

At the same time, you should explain to the customer exactly what went wrong. Try not to include any excuses, but rather talk to them about what happened from your end of the transaction. Stick with the facts of what happened and point out where things went wrong. This will show that you care about the transaction and that you have clear reference points from which to change the issues so they don't occur again. In addition, when you explaining what went wrong, give the customer a chance to tell you whether you are 'getting' what they saw as being wrong.

 

[xanis]

Once a customer has been screwed over, you're sitting at a trust level of little to nothing. The natural question is, why should I believe you're going to treat me right the second time when you couldn't do it right the first time? Ultimately the only way to answer that question is to draw a distinction between what happened the first time and explain what you're going to do differently now. There's also an emotional closure aspect to this that's important.

Six Ways to Reduce Customer Complaints

I think the trust comes from fixing the problem as quickly and professionally as possible. I'm not saying that you shouldn't explain the situation at all, just that it should probably wait until the customer's situation has been remedied. I still maintain that when a customer is upset, they care more about what you're doing to fix it than how it happened.

 

[Berryracer]

Thanks a lot guys, I learned a lot from this thread. I think what I am going to say is:

I apologize for the delay in follow up and quickly find them a GYM that they wanted in that X area. IF the customer insists to know why he wasn't served quickly the first time Ill blame it on a little systematic upgrade we were doing in our system which was to ultimately serve him, the customer, better

 

[Howard]

Thanks a lot guys, I learned a lot from this thread. I think what I am going to say is:

I apologize for the delay in follow up and quickly find them a GYM that they wanted in that X area. IF the customer insists to know why he wasn't served quickly the first time Ill blame it on a little systematic upgrade we were doing in our system which was to ultimately serve him, the customer, better

The customer will know that reason is BS. Don't bet on people being stupid.

EDIT: If I have to explain how anyone will know that's BS, you probably shouldn't have your job.