If it is ever okay?
I am currently in Singapore. With my husband and the little one, for 1 month while Finland is having a holiday. Our aims are to guide and monitor that the HUONE standards in Sales, Customer Excellence and other processes here in HUONE Singapore are in tuned with our expectations. Everything is going well, the team is great and we are seeing so much potential from Singapore.
For the past 2 days I have encountered a rather rude guest who has been commanding my team members and quite honestly made them rather disturbed.
Sentences (not a word to word quote, however, since it is described by the team) like:
“Don’t you tell me about the price difference of the rooms, if we weren’t here you will be closing your doors, I can change the room however I wish.”
“I don’t care about your company policies on bringing outside food, just stop talking.”
Personally, I got a taste of her rudeness while I was (in uniform) teaching the host on rearranging the buffet while she came out from her room and asked me for a “plug”. Not knowing what “plug” she was referring to I asked if she can elaborate, then she lost her patience and asked me to just go and get her Event Coordinator- Denise. I then said “of course” and started walking towards the reception. I was immediately shushed off with a few claps with these exact words: “faster, faster, walk faster, stop wasting my time”. At that time I just thought she was having a bad day so I didn’t cared much but took a faster pace on my steps to assist her.
Later I was informed that she has been yelling at one of my team members in front of guests from other events. This guest has not been nice to any of my team members during her 2 days company meeting. After a bit of investigation, I later found out that she is the executive assistant who booked the event but the director and the rest of the team have been a very pleasant bunch.
As someone who believes the best of people, I was caught wondering if I should have stepped up and expressed how I do not appreciate her mistreating my team. Being a newcomer and a start-up here in Singapore, we do not wish to be tainting our reputation with a bad review. Moreover, this client has already another event booked next month.
Dear friends, acquaintances and other professionals in the service industry, what would you have done in our shoes? Should we cancel on the upcoming event? Or?
Do share. 🙂