Who ever said bad customer service isn’t funny?
Case in point: The following collection of videos, which are a must-see for anyone who works in a customer-service job or who has ever had a service problem with a company.
In other words, just about everyone.
The videos are more than humorous, though. They’re also instructive, offering broader lessons about becoming a better customer and avoiding truly awful (though sometimes laugh-out-loud funny) service.
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Yes, you would. That’s the conclusion of the fifth annual Customer Experience Report from Harris Interactive.
An overwhelming majority — 85 percent — said they would be willing to pay more than the standard price of a good or service to ensure a superior customer experience.
Before I continue, a warning to any business reading this: That doesn’t mean your customers are stupid.
For example, my Honda dealership in Orlando recently decided to become like Saturn and refuses to negotiate with customers on the price of its cars. It thinks if it can provide better service, customers will be happy to pay the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, which is wildly inflated.
Well, you know what P.T. Barnum said? What he should have added was that there was a finite number of suckers out there.
And we all know what happened to Saturn.
So the real question is: How much more?
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Will the company with the worst customer service please stand up?
When it comes to the travel industry, I have the inside track on that answer, because I run a travel blog. Last week, I surveyed my readers. And they told me.
The winners? Airlines, hands down.
More than half the respondents — 58 percent — said air carriers have the worst service. Coming in second: car rental companies (37 percent). Cruise lines and hotels trailed the pack at 6 and 5 percent, respectively. More than 500 people took the survey.
Equally interesting was what they said about the service.
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You may have missed it, but Continental Airlines and United Airlines officially tied the knot on Oct. 1. And guess what? You might actually like the new United Airlines.
Chris Romm thinks he will. He wrote to tell me about an experience he’d had with United’s customer service department that may be an indicator of things to come.
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Virgin America begins service to Orlando tomorrow. Remarkably, the three-year-old airline has stayed off my radar, when it comes to customer complaints. I asked David Cush, Virgin America’s chief executive, how he’s done it.
First of all, congratulations on adding service to Orlando. I live here, so I’m pretty excited about having a new airline in town. At the same time, I’m curious about your reasons for coming here. Orlando isn’t exactly a lucrative business travel destination. What’s the appeal?
Orlando has an incredibly strong year-round tourism economy and a great deal of convention traffic. The addition of Orlando also helps us address seasonality in our still growing network. As we grow we do have to balance out our network for seasonal traffic patterns – adding a sunny warm weather destination like Orlando helps us balance our winter schedules.
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I find it incredibly self-serving when a blogger leverages his platform for personal gain. So let me say this up-front: I’m not doing this to get anything, but rather to highlight a questionable customer-service practice.
One of my sites is hosted by Bluehost.com. Its rates are affordable, and its service is generally adequate. But during the last several months, I’ve experienced some “down” time. Bluehost offers “99.9% Network Uptime Guarantee.”
Today, after the site crashed during primetime, I decided to invoke the guarantee. Here’s the transcript of our online chat.
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Spirit Airlines, as you might have heard, is trying to raise $300 million in a public stock offering. Here’s the Form S-1 it filed last Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
It’s worth a read. Companies are required to disclose any risks to potential investors. And although this one seems obvious, it’s interesting to see how Spirit characterizes its own reputation, when it comes to customer service.
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