My ZipCar experience: I rented a car for a full weekend last October, and returned it several hours before it was due back. I forgot to "tap out", though, and ZipCar sent me a late return notification and charged my credit card. No big deal, just a simple mix-up, so I called customer service.
Unbelievably, they couldn't do anything about it from the national help line, and when I was redirected to the NY office, I got more runaround. It got to the point where I called my credit card company to do a stop payment, as it was clear that I wasn't going to get help from ZipCar.
Then I tweeted about it. Someone at ZipCar saw the tweet, and the whole problem got fixed pretty much immediately - I got an email saying my case had been reviewed, that the computer showed I did in fact return the car on time, and that if I could cancel the stop-payment, I'd get my money back (which I did).
It was awesome to get the problem fixed with just a simple tweet, but I wasted hours on the phone and would have wasted hours more dealing with the stop-payment fallout, when they already had the information that I hadn't actually returned the car late. I'm still a member, but I think I've used them only once or twice since. The whole experience left me pretty soured on them.
The takeaway is: if you're only giving good customer service to the people who complain publicly, you're doing it wrong.
>The takeaway is: if you're only giving good customer service to the people who complain publicly, you're doing it wrong.
Speaking as a provider who has been in that situation before (e.g. losing a ticket, then responding to a public complaint) I agree completely. First off, 98% of your customers are not going to complain publicly. They are simply going to leave. And as I keep saying, the people who don't complain are the cash cows... the silent majority, from whom you get most of your money.
Now, I'm not saying you should ignore public complaints... that would be bad business. Respond publicly and solve the problem, or at least give a refund. But you must treat the complainers like canaries. for every valid complaint (and yeah, you will get invalid complaints... respond to those too, and offer a refund, but it's okay to say "I'm sorry my service does not meet your needs." - you can't be all things to all people.) you need to review your processes, and figure out why the complaint wasn't resolved through normal channels.
Unbelievably, they couldn't do anything about it from the national help line, and when I was redirected to the NY office, I got more runaround. It got to the point where I called my credit card company to do a stop payment, as it was clear that I wasn't going to get help from ZipCar.
Then I tweeted about it. Someone at ZipCar saw the tweet, and the whole problem got fixed pretty much immediately - I got an email saying my case had been reviewed, that the computer showed I did in fact return the car on time, and that if I could cancel the stop-payment, I'd get my money back (which I did).
It was awesome to get the problem fixed with just a simple tweet, but I wasted hours on the phone and would have wasted hours more dealing with the stop-payment fallout, when they already had the information that I hadn't actually returned the car late. I'm still a member, but I think I've used them only once or twice since. The whole experience left me pretty soured on them.
The takeaway is: if you're only giving good customer service to the people who complain publicly, you're doing it wrong.