One of the interesting things to come out of all the gee whiz, email, dot whatever, high tech, glory, is this notion that because of all this tech stuff, service, being close to customers, etc, should be better.
When I was a kid, a long (LONG) time ago, I bought a box of candy for Mothers Day. Bought it from the local 7-11 store. The candy turned out not to be good because, as it turns out, the store had put the candy on a shelf that got sunlight during the end of the day. Warmed up the stuff just a bit and then it cooled back down. I cranked out a letter to the candy people complaining and sure enough got back a nice letter pointing out what the problem was, thanks for bringing to their attention and coupons good for free candy. Excellent customer service.
Fast forward to today. I'm headed out of town and I'm using Travelocity to chase down a hotel. After finding one, I begin the process of getting the reservation confirmed. There's a problem with American Express. It appears they are seriously trying to discourage me to use it, at least on the hotel pages. Lots of errors and I can't get this reservation completed.
I send a note to Travelocity customer service with a 'what's the deal with AMEX' question.
Good news, pretty fast response.
Bad news, check out the response:
Dear Rick Segal Thank you for writing Travelocity.ca. Yes the site has a strange wiring problem where it is omitting American Express as a payment option in the hotels link. If you are still experiencing this problem please contact our customer care center at 1-877-282-2925 for further assistance.
Easy for me to solve: Expedia.
Here's the key point for you to remember. I'm willing to bet you anything that the Travelocity email/customer service system considers my email/issue resolved. Think about it. I sent mail, they answered, known issue, see ya later bye.
But the big bet? I'll never, ever, get a we fixed it, please come back email, phone call, visit, etc. Never, ever gonna happen because all that fancy high tech stuff that got me a speedy, yup, we know, has not been set up to get me back. I'm on expedia and will be there until they have a brain fart at which time I'll probably wander over to Orbitz. Travelocity? Nope, they are broken as confirmed by the helpful customer service people.
Follow up in your business takes on a whole lot more meaning these days. In my view, as you build out your service and support systems, build them to watch, track, and resolve problems.
But add a key feature: Get em back. Link fixed problems to those customer who complained so you can try to get them back.
Rick, my name's Gary Potter and I work at Sabre Holdings (Travelocity's parent company) and I've forwarded your post to Travelocity's customer care team. I can assure you that you will be contacted.
Posted by: Gary Potter | May 18, 2005 at 13:24