Customer care should be “the Big Easy” of marketing. You already accomplished the hard part— attracting a customer.
We just drove back from New Orleans and experienced the Jazz & Heritage Festival for the first time. It was somewhat like being in the eye of the storm with a burgeoning oil slick, President Obama flying in to inspect the damage, and New Orleans continuing to celebrate their culture and music despite drizzling rain and pending seafood industry troubles.
New Orleans was amazing!
Our hotel was not. We ordered a non-smoking room on the web service Hotels.com months in advance. We found ourselves in a smokers haven. The hotel informed us that they didn’t have any non-smoking rooms left and hotels.com will just book what is available. News to me. ::cough, hag, gulp::
I filled out a survey post-stay on hotels.com and voiced my complaint.
Today I received a “care” team response that I must share because, frankly I am really disappointed in the plethora of poor customer care in the world — and I think we can all do better.
What I am going to do:
1) share how I was treated and communicated with and then,
2) share a new solution that is both brand-centric and customer-centric
[with my interpretations in pink]: Thank you for your correspondence. We apologize for any inconvenience, but it does advise on our website at the time of booking [didn't you read all the fine print whomever you are?] that smoking preference is not guaranteed [you idiot, we just make it appear like you could choose]. Again we apologize for any inconvenience [actually, we really wanted to point out how careless you are].
If you have any further questions [because we feel better now], please respond to this email or give us a call. Our Customer Care team is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to assist you, at 800-394-1454. For International Customer Care, please use 00-800-1066-1066. [this makes us look big and hard to approach so you won't call]
Thank you for choosing Hotels.com. [we already have your money]
The bottom line: the bland and canned response made me feel stupid, careless and frankly worse about my experience with hotels.com.
The Proposal: This is the letter I wish I would have received:
[with strategic points in pink]:
Dear Jamie, please forgive us! We just found out you were booked in a smoking room instead of a non-smoking room as you requested [this shows they know my name and understand my concern]. We apologize for any inconvenience this caused you during your stay in New Orleans. [they have all of this data and can use it to make me feel special: my name, my trip destination and my preferences]
We will pass your complaint on to a systems engineer because our goal is to provide the best hotel booking experience possible to our guests. Currently, we include a disclaimer on our booking page that states we cannot guarantee smoking preferences. If you would like to provide suggestions on how we could improve this feature please email: name@hotels.com. [Why not give the customer the opportunity to provide real feedback around the real issue --- hey, they may even help solve the problem for you!]
Thank you for taking the time to tell us about your experience, it will help us improve our service and products in the future. [we really care, thank you for helping us improve our service] In the meantime, please accept our sincere apology. Feel free to call us if you want to discuss this further at 800-394-1454. We are always open and would love to hear from you! [it's okay to tell customers you want to hear from them! Especially if you have a team on hand 24/7 --- promote it with gusto!]
Marketing Sling: What if hotels.com would have given me a response like the one above — one that is both brand-centric and customer-centric? Well for starters I wouldn’t have written back a really sad note today telling them I am through, done, and finished being a customer. Additionally, I would feel like a valued client, almost a part of their team. And who couldn’t use more resources these days?
The customer is or the company isn’t.
Want more customer service ideas? See Top 10 Customer Service Blogs
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I really appreciated that you took the time to show us what an effective customer care letter should look like. This can be extrapolated to everyone needing to send an apology in their business. Thank you! Hotels.com — and everyone else — just got thousands of dollars of GREAT advice from a professional!
Wow!You propose an awesome response letter. I agree, as it seems we all fine the small print details latter. Thanks for your post. It made me smile. I too have departed from hotels.com
I really appreciated that you took the time to show us what an effective customer care letter should look like. This can be extrapolated to everyone needing to send an apology in their business. Thank you! Hotels.com — and everyone else — just got thousands of dollars of GREAT advice from a professional!
+1
Keep posting stuff like this i really like it