Integrating Politeness into the LEAST Framework: Strategic Communication in Restaurant Complaint Handling
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21111/ettisal.v11i2.36Keywords:
Company Culture, Customer Complaint Handling, LEAST, Politeness Principles, Quick Service RestaurantAbstract
In Indonesia’s fast-food industry, effective complaint handling serves as a vital strategic communication tool to mitigate reputation damage and sustain customer retention. While quick-service restaurants (QSRs) often rely on operational frameworks such as LEAST (Listen, Empathize, Apologize, Solve, Thank) for service recovery, the communicative quality and politeness strategies embedding these procedures remain underexplored. This qualitative descriptive study examines how QSRs integrate linguistic politeness strategies and corporate culture into the LEAST framework. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with corporate leadership, HR, marketing, shift captains, and front-line crew, supplemented by field observations and document analysis. The findings reveal that while the Solve stage operates as the primary operational focus through immediate compensation and structured escalation, emotional de-escalation relies heavily on the Listen, Empathize, and Apologize stages through tactful speech, controlled tone, and linguistic humility. These practices directly align with key politeness maxims (tact, generosity, approbation, and modesty) and are sustained through case-based briefings, SOP training, and complaint audits. The study demonstrates that procedural frameworks like LEAST succeed in QSR environments only when coupled with culturally embedded politeness strategies, offering a holistic model for strategic customer communication.
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