Bride claims she was told this after the wedding dinner, but manager says he stated it only as a possibility, as row erupts. --by Marcel Lee Pereira

All she wanted was a sincere apology for a strand of hair found in a bowl of shark's fin soup at her wedding dinner.  But the matter blew up into a month-long exchange between the bride, Ms. Wendy Scully, 29 and Starworth, the company which runs events at the Chijmes Hall.

When the Public Relations Manager felt she was getting nowhere, she shot a letter to this newspaper on Tuesday.  By then, it was not just the 15cm strand of hair that riled her, but Starworth General Manager K. K. Ng's suggestion that it could have come from one of the guests.

"He told me, it is common to find hair in food," she told the Straits Times.  The VIP guests, which included her husband's parents and siblings, had not touched the serving bowl, so how could their hair have got in, she asked.

Another sticking point with Mrs. Scully was that she had to wait almost a month--until Mr. Ng returned from a month's medical leave--before she could speak to him on the phone over the matter on November 15.

His reply scuttled the company's earlier efforts to settle Mrs. Scully's unhappiness with an offer of a set of dinner for four worth about $270, or a $300 dining voucher.  Mrs. Scully had rebuffed the offer, saying she spent $$20,000 on the dinner and that she wanted an amount enough for her to take the table's guest out to dinner again to make it up to them.

The company stuck to it's initial offer until Mr. Ng's return, believing it was fair because only the bowl of shark's fin soup was affected, and the staff had offered to change it right away.

Last week, Mr. Ng upped the offer to an eight-course meal for 10, but it was his refusal to accept full responsibility that made her decide to go public with her story.  A simple apology would have sufficed, said Mrs. Scully, who said her in-laws keep asking if the company had given an explanation.

2. The company should just apologise for the inconvenient caused and should just do a follow up right away

3. The company also should do a service recovery that is sufficient to both parties and perhaps the customer should accept what they had to offer because it is only because of one shark fin soup.

4. The tone or the replies from the company should come off as apologetic and calm so that the matter will not blow up 

Hani says:
1. Finding foreign object that is not supposed to be there calls for an apology at least. Unfortunately, it was an excuse that was given
2. Service recovery should be done as fast as possible which the company did, by offering a change of the bowl of soup. Unfortunately, it was rejected. The problem was it wasn't resolved soonest
3. Manager was only responsive after a month which was too long and aggravate the victim further

1) Choice of words must be carefully thought of as it might be used against you.

2) Need to remain calm and professional at all times

3) Do the necessary follow up as soon as possible

4) Must not take it personally and feel as if the customer is attacking you alone

5) Remain objective at all times

Hani says..
1. Who: If issue arises, let the manager attend first. This is to ensure that the guests feels important that their issue is taken seriously 
2. When: As soon as possible. If guest can only reach you after a month, that's would only cause the issue to snowball with time
3. How: An apology. Knowing that it is not part of your product or service to have it tagged along, a sincere apology and acknowledgement would at least appease the guest a little.
4. Why: As a business, they should have a holistic view of their brand's reputation. If management brush off or avoid an issue, word-of-mouth, or in this case, media gets involve and it's no longer and issue between the business and the complainant. It can also affect their revenue
5. Body language. Personal touch. If the management can offer an intangible recovery at start, most people wouldn't be demanding higher value compensation. Always attempt to salvage their emotion before offering monetary compensation.