HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone! With the winter storms and airline delays over the holiday season it got me thinking about my company blacklist. This is a list that I have of companies that I will never ever do business again with no matter what. A recent entry is McDonald's (story for another day), Alamo car rental, and Delta Airlines. The air lines have so many excuses about why they can not provide any type of service at all. They blame the weather, government, unions, and the customers themselves. Well a great company would have a back up plan or technology to handle an issue that they KNOW IS GOING TO HAPPEN!! I am to the point the service is so bad I will drive when ever possible - I will not reward bad service.
A few years a go we were taking a family cruise from the Northeast. A very similar situation to the recent storms - they knew a huge storm was coming with a blizzard and minimum of 18 inches of snow being forecasted. I knew it would be difficult to rebook once the storm hit so I called Delta two days before to try and change my ticket - nope I would need to pay a change fee AND the increase in fare. OK I figured we are too far out so I waited the next day. Called again and no luck with a rude agent to add insult to injury. The impending storm was imminent so I tried a few hours later and was determined to get my ticket changed. I figured this is a win win - they would get some cancellation calls out of the way early and make a customer happy - YEAH RIGHT!! I was always told that call center reps were not allowed to hang up on customers, so I told the rep I was not going to get off the call until we came to a good solution to my problem (I was polite about it). Well ... they did not hang up but put me on hold indefinitely. I lost it ... I was at work and my poor staff had never seen me so mad - I think I scared them! They ended up charging me $700 extra to change my tickets. Two hours later they announced they would waive all fees. I called back and they would not refund the amount they charged me. I eventually contested the charge with my credit card and got all my money back. This is a great example of continued horrible service and a lost customer for life along with my family and anyone else I can tell never to fly on Delta. The airlines will never learn that hours in line, hanging up on customers, and not using the web and technology in these situations is not a road to prolonged profitability.
Contrast that with something that just happened just a few days ago. I got a new Norelco razor last Christmas and it stopped working a few days ago. I did not have a receipt but I called the company up to see what they could do. A nice woman answered and walked me through a couple of troubleshooting items - nothing worked. Without hesitation or me asking they shipped a brand new razor and cleaning unit at no charge with no questions asked. Now that is customer service - they have a customer for life.
The moral of this story .... when will companies realize that the money they spend on customer service will reap them benefits for years to come - even during the hard times. When Donna and I started our business we were committed to providing our clients with a level of service that they can not get anywhere else.
We never want to be on a client's blacklist.
Happy Cruising!!
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