How to alienate a customer for only $5

My intent for ThisQuarter’s blog isn’t to use it as a forum for touting the egregious customer service violations I experience in my daily life.  However, it seems that once I made the conscious decision to be on the lookout for business experiences that are relevant to revenue growth, these are the types of things that keep popping up.  In most cases, I intentionally omit the company name when it’s a story of poor service because my goal isn’t to bash companies but to encourage business leaders.  I hope that reflecting on these situations will help you take a closer look at how you interact with your customers and inspire you to consistently improve your service.

On a recent family road trip we decided to make a last minute stop in El Paso.  The night before, I had checked the room rates for a particular hotel that was in the area where we wanted to stay.  The price on Expedia was $89.  When I walked into the hotel to register, the guy at the front desk said the room would be $94.  I let him know that the price listed on Expedia was $89 and asked if he would honor that price.  He refused.  (Huh?!)

I asked him if they had free wireless internet access.  He said “yes”.  So I said, “you are telling me that I can sit down with my laptop on that couch and book it online then walk up to you in two minutes to check in and you’ll give me the room for $89”?  He said “yes”.  You’ve got to be kidding!  It really blew my mind.  Of course, I persisted and he ultimately gave me the room for $89.  But, rather than feeling satisfied that I had won the battle, I was left feeling the same as if I had paid the higher price because I had to go through the arm wrestling exercise to make it happen.  Thanks to that experience, I will try to avoid staying at that hotel chain in the future.

The moral of the story: Don’t hassle your customers.  Just give them a good deal and they’ll usually come back and spend more money with your company.  If you promote different prices through different sales channels, honor them through other channels if the customer brings it to your attention.   There’s no reason to alienate a customer for $5.