On a positive note

While congratulating you for your very interesting column in The Sunday Times, I am writing to you about an experience I have been through lately which highlights a positive, customer-friendly attitude. It is good that we hear of such positive experiences.

I must admit that I read your column mainly to learn about my rights as a consumer. But the information you give us from time to time about some business people's good or bad consumer practices is also important. I had one such experience over the last weekend.

As I always do during the summer months, I avail myself of the home delivery service provided by the Corinthia Palace Hotel to residents of the Three Villages. For me this service is perfect since, within an hour of the order being placed, you have all the food freshly cooked, nicely packed, including napkins, and all delivered at home, not to mention the courteous way the girls and boys take and eventually deliver the order.

However last Saturday, for some reason, all this turned into a very bad experience and I was very disappointed and annoyed. So I quickly e-mailed Corinthia Palace Hotel with my complaint since I felt it mattered both for me and for them. I am happy to say that my complaint was dealt with in the shortest possible time and all was explained and settled between us for the benefit of all concerned.

I admire the Corinthia Palace Hotel, especially the general manager, Italo Rota, with whom I was communicating. They were smart enough to accept the responsibility straightaway without any excuses and, instead of losing a client, they in turn made me feel comfortable that if any other such incident crops up (after all, who is perfect?) it would not be a big deal to settle things as quickly as possible. And above all they showed me that they do care about me, their client, even after placing my order, not just before.

Some business people may take note of this fine, customer-friendly example. (Victoria Camilleri)

While thanking Ms Camilleri for her 'positive note' I must compliment the Corinthia Palace Hotel and particularly the general manager, Italo Rota, for his excellent customer orientation.

This is indeed another example wherein the customer gets a better impression of the supplier then s/he would have got had the bad situation never occurred in the first place. In a nutshell, suppliers of various services ought to look at such situations as an opportunity to make a positive impact on the customer rather than look at it as a problem.