Letter of Service Recovery

Dear Mr Bennert, 

I am M Charmaine Malini, the General Manager of Watermelon Sands Hotel Singapore. Thank you for taking the time to review our property, and I truly apologise for the incident that you had experienced during your stay here with us. 

The Watermelon Sands Hotel Singapore is a place where the genuine care and comfort of our guests is our highest mission and we value your opinions. We sincerely apologise that our service was not up to your expectations during your stay here. 

I understand that you made a reservation for three nights on the 6th of January 2017 with breakfast included and was instructed by one of my Guest Services Agent (GSA) to contact Agoda directly. On top of that, you also unfortunately received a faulty room key which caused much inconvenience. We apologise for the lack of initiative to call Agoda on your behalf and we assure you that this is only a one-time incident. This is not the level of service that we pride ourselves in providing and remedial actions would be taken. 

As a form of apology, the hotel has decided to waive off your breakfast charges during the stay. We hope that this incident will not hinder your decision in choosing to stay with us the next time you visit Singapore. 

Thank you once again for giving us the opportunity to review our processes and to improve on our service. We assure you that this will not happen again and we hope we can have another opportunity to be of service to you. 

I look forward to welcoming you back to Watermelon Sands Hotel Singapore again. 

Warm Regards, 

M Charmaine Malini 
General Manager 

281 words 

REVISED: 2 March 2017 

Interpersonal Communication Problem

Two months into my internship at The Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore as a guest relations officer (GRO), I was tasked to guide a new trainee to conduct a proper in-room check-in. I demonstrated the full process twice and asked if she had any further questions. After which, I got her to try it once.

Halfway through her trial, she paused and asked for help as she could not remember what else that had to be covered. Since it was her first time, I decided to let her off and guided her through once again. I got the trainee to do the check-in one more time, hoping that she would have gotten the grasps of it. However, despite multiple times of repeating the steps, she still could not get it right and this resulted in me getting frustrated. My tone changed and I could tell she was afraid. At that moment, I realized that it was her first time learning how to perform an in-room check-in and I was once like her as well. We all have different learning abilities and each of us takes a different duration to adjust to situations. She might not have caught on to the jargons that I was using which led to her not being able to remember the steps.

How might I then make amends with this trainee?

REVISED: 20 Feb 2017 

Personal Branding

As many might already know, I am someone who has a never-ending source of energy inside me that is portrayed wherever I go. This has become something others know me for. Despite having few hours of sleep, I would still be as energetic as ever, going around interacting with everyone around me. As much as possible, I try my best to spread the positive energy to people of my surroundings.

I enjoy initiating small talks with friends and this has definitely helped me with my communication skills when I head out to work. Interacting and communicating with guests are highly essential in the hospitality industry especially since it emphasizes so much on personalized service.

At a young age of nine, I was exposed to playing netball with my teammates on a regular basis which trained me to work well in teams. I would describe myself as someone who is collaborative, someone who is able to listen well and someone who is able to compromize. Friction among team members was never favourable and I believe strongly that when everyone makes the effort to work well together, the team will achieve better results. Everyone plays an essential role, no matter how big or small and I believe that if the right environment is set, everyone will be able to strengthen and maintain strong relationships that we share with one another. In my opinion,  supportive behaviours would be deemed more appropriate for teams where everyone comes together to solve the problems faced.

As a persistent and self-motivated individual, I am always determined to complete tasks assigned to me well. Standing by my principle that "Nothing is Impossible", I will always complete things with the best of efforts. Even if results do not show, I would still be contented since I have already done the best that I could.

Learning never stops and nobody is perfect. We all make mistakes and that is when we pick ourselves up to come back stronger. These traits and skills which I have acquired will be of great help when I continue pursuing my passion. However, as I continue embarking on this journey, I am sure that I will be equipped with more skills for future development and growth.