Customer Service: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Is there anyone who doesn’t like good customer service? If you are working with people in any capacity, you need to strive to meet the expectations of those people. Whether they are clients, patients, consultants, or colleagues. Most people value good customer service so if you want to stay in business, you need to be conscientious, and take responsibility problems. 

Truly, if you are offering great customer service to begin with, you won’t have escalated discussions or problems with anyone. They will be avoided altogether. That is The Goal! 

Let’s Examine a Recent Experience I Had

I was in New York City last month for three nights. I won’t mention the name of the hotel because they made good on the mistake in the end, but it’s a great case study. 

I made the reservation online and was offered $150 discount each night if I paid in full ahead of time. I chose that route and paid $900 plus all the  taxes you can imagine. 

I called ahead of my trip to let them know I would be checking in after midnight because that’s when my flight was arriving at JFK. They acknowledged that and said they added it to my reservation. The hotel was fine–clean, efficient, good location in relation to my daughter’s new apartment. When I left on Sunday, I just gave my keycard to someone at the desk. I had not charged anything to the room and I had pre-paid so I was not concerned with the bill. 

They emailed me the receipt.

There was the original charge, plus $600++ additional fees. Excuse me! 

I called the hotel right away and I was hot! I had pre-paid. We were settled. Now I was being ripped off. The clerk couldn’t find my reservation with my confirmation, then tried with the receipt number, then needed to put me on hold. I got hotter anticipating the worst. 

She finally got back on the phone and said that the bill was correct. That I was a no-show on Thursday and then paid for Friday and Saturday night. No-show? Oh no, I showed! 

Hotter. 

I told her I called ahead to tell them I was coming after midnight. No one said that would cancel my reservation. I didn’t have any trouble checking in, but I was there, at 12:40 a.m. I had the taxi receipt to prove it. 

I asked her to explain the first $900 + tax charge (my pre-paid three nights). She said that was just the price of Thursday night. I asked what kind of room was almost $1,000 there, and she told me it was the same room I was in.

Seriously? Thursday night is almost $1k but Friday and Saturday are $300? 

She said that was correct–“It’s all based on how busy we are.” Again, Thursday was the busy night? World Cup is over. Taylor Swift is married. I wasn’t in Times Square nor near the Theatre District. And the streets were empty enough that my taxi got there in 40 minutes.

She told me I was hostile and rude. 

You are stealing from me! Now gaslighting me by telling me that an efficiency hotel room was worth triple its Saturday rate on a random Thursday. Doesn’t that warrant hostility?

The word bamboozle was floating in my fury. 

Mistakes:

1. She did not understand the receipt. She didn’t think how absurd her explanation of room rates was.
2. She got defensive. This is not personal, nothing is. Listen with an open mind to understand, then react to what the real problem is. Wouldn’t she be upset about a receipt that charged an additional 2/3 the negotiated rate?
3. She argued that the charges were correct. She didn’t deal with what happened so it doesn’t keep happening. It seems as though she had no idea about this pre-paid benefit from the parent company’s website. Good customer service solves problems. Bad customer service seeks justification.
4. She blamed me, the customer. This is the worst! There’s really no recovering from this immature reaction. The most ludicrous part of this is that it prolongs a bad situation. They don’t realize that by being civil, you end the bad situation. She said I didn’t “show-up.” This is almost comical. It wasn’t a wedding reception I RSVP’d to and she bought me a plate of filet mignon that went to waste. I paid for a room and there’s no obligation for me to use it. In addition to being a “no-show,” she said I was hostile and rude.

I asked to speak to the manager.

She would not be in until the next day. I got the manager’s email and provided her with a detailed account of what happened with documentation. I attached my printout from my online reservation, my taxi receipt to prove I had arrived at 12:40 am, my flight reservation that documented LAX to JFK, and recounted the details of my check-in, checkout, and even the name of the maid who left her name on a cute dry erase placard every day–there would be a record that she cleaned my room, I was not a no-show. Who would ditch a $1,000 coveted Thursday night? Could you imagine? LOL! 

I had combed the website looking for a “no-show cancellation policy.” There isn’t one. 

The following day I called to talk to the manager. She pulled up my reservation. Discerned that the system cancelled the reservation after midnight. The clerk who checked me in, reinstated the reservation, but the system added the charges for two more nights (at the discounted rate) and he hadn’t caught it. 

She apologized, issued the refund, and I was cool as a cucumber. I told I her I did not think the clerk I spoke to when I called had been prepared to talk to someone as mad as I was. I told her the gal had not understood the receipt, and shared the room rate story, The manager laughed. That did not make me mad, it made me feel vindicated. My hope is that she trained that clerk with the details of this situation.

What Needed to Happen

1. Pay close attention to the details. If you are reviewing work closely before it goes to your client, and correcting and addressing mistakes and making them right, you avoid conflict. No one looked at the receipt before sending. The clerk who checked me in, did not notice what happened when he reinstated my reservation either. It could have been sorted out behind the scenes without me ever knowing.
2. Be proactive. Solve the problem before it happens. The manager explained they had a new room reservation system. Now they know about this glitch and can correct it before other guests go through the same thing.
3. Listen. I understood the receipt better than the employee. If she listened to what I was asking and pointing out to her ($1000 for a Thursday night), she could have been empathetic, and still passed me to the manager but I would have been more placated.
4. Use your manners. 
5. Apologize and maintain cordiality. 

What I Could Have Done Differently

1. Not called while I was mad from the initial shock. Wait. Go take a walk and give myself a chance to compose myself.
2. Started my explanation earlier in the process. She didn’t understand the first $900 charge was a pre-payment for three nights, not one night.
3. Recognize the extent of that person’s knowledge. She did not understand, and did not appreciate me countering with knowledge about room rates. Clearly, she was not going to solve my problem.

Dedicate time and energy to creating an atmosphere of good customer service. We seek this now more than ever in stark contrast to the bots we are regularly interacting with online and in automated phone systems.