Based on my own experiences, here is a list of things your company can do to treat your customers poorly.

Empty Promises

Not only did Boingo promise a “free” $25 Amazon gift card after two months of service at $9.95, they have repeatedly failed to follow through. My two months were over after January 1. I have since been hounding them for my gift card. I didn’t think it would be so hard to get something that I was promised, especially from a company I hadn’t heard anything bad about.

Instead, I get stock responses, empty promises from random customer service representatives, and still no gift card. Being worried to cancel the service for fear I wouldn’t get my gift card, I have now sent Boingo almost $50. Is this partly my fault for believing that I would get something I was promised? I guess so.

The main point is that I (and your customers) trusted a business to provide them with the codes they were promised. When this doesn’t happen, it is understandable why customers get so upset. They feel slighted and out of control. Taking all steps necessarily to right your mistakes can help put the faith back into your customers.

Superfluous Billing

Sendible double billed me for three months last year and I still haven’t gotten over it. After many, many conversations with support, they finally refunded me the double payments I had been making.

This is another issue that goes back to trust. I trusted Sendible to make sure that the billing process was going smoothly. While this was an issue where both parties are at fault (I should have been checking my account statements more quickly).

Easy Mistakes That Could be Easily Fixed

I get it Orbitz. My husband should have known my last name. But he spelled it wrong for our flight reservations for our honeymoon. After several minutes on hold and with the representative, they wanted to charge me a fee for fixing the error. Why can’t you just fix it? It was an obvious mistake, it’s our honeymoon, come on. But the rep and manager refused to budge. So, as the above link described, I took to twitter and contacted Delta directly. They responded and within 5-10 minutes, they had fixed the error and sent us revised flight confirmations. This has made me a hardcore Delta fan who still won’t shut up about my great experience, over a year later.

 

Whether you are in a business role or a customer role, the promises and customer service a business can provide makes a big difference. The internet makes it easy to solve customers’ issues in a fast and secure format.

What are you doing to help make your customers happy?

Kelsey Jones

Kelsey Jones

Founder/Chief Marketing Consultant at Six Stories
Kelsey Jones helps clients around the world grow their social media, content, and search marketing presence. She enjoys writing and consuming all kinds of content, both in digital and tattered paperback form.
Kelsey Jones
Kelsey Jones