It doesn’t take much to erode a customer’s trust. A questionable expense, poor service or even a perceived slight can cause a customer to walk away and never return.
Take the recent experience I had with an online travel booking service. During a weekend getaway, my spouse and I needed to make a last-minute hotel reservation. I checked a couple of travel sites and came across a listing that worked. The price quoted seemed a bit high, but the site warned it was the last available room and, after all, it offered a “best price guarantee.”
On attempting to confirm the reservation, errors came up repeatedly, so we hurriedly headed to the hotel just in case (its parking lot was nearly empty) and found the reservation had gone through but apparently not the payment. We were pleased when the hotel charged us at a lower rate than quoted.
Upon returning home, however, I found two charges on my credit card statement: the lower one paid to the hotel and the higher one charged by the travel site. I immediately contacted the site's customer service department. After a couple of frustrating interactions and repeated assurances I would hear back from them within X number of business days, the only contact I received was from the hotel indicating the booking service insisted the hotel refund what it charged so the service could re-charge me, presumably at the higher rate. When I asked the hotel representative about the price discrepancy, I was told it was likely a built-in “service fee.”
My point in sharing this story is that while the added cost incurred was minimal (less than $50) — particularly given the scope of other reports about the site I’ve since come across — the incident left me feeling cheated and frustrated by the lack of transparency and nonexistent follow through. I have since shared my experience with my family, friends and colleagues, most of whom travel frequently. It’s the way of the world — a happy customer will tell a handful of people, but a displeased customer will tell everyone they know. Another side effect? The incident has turned me off of using not only this travel site but all such sites for the foreseeable future.
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A company the size of the one in question can perhaps afford to lose what it likely perceives as incremental business in the face of millions of potential customers. But this isn’t the case for most companies or industries — the construction industry included. Even in the best of times, competition among contractors is fierce and profit margins tight.
Unfortunately, stories abound of less than honorable firms charging well above an estimate or bid, or using shoddy materials and cutting corners in other ways just to pad their pockets. This erodes trust in the firm in question, but there is often a ripple effect across the entire industry. Such incidents propagate the perception of the “shoddy” or “shady” contractor, and may cause prospective clients to hesitate when hiring out future work. And while such incidents rarely lead to much media attention, never underestimate the power of word of mouth.
In any industry, you’re only as good as your reputation, and that reputation can be tarnished fast if customers walk away feeling used or abused. Honesty, integrity and fairness in our business dealings — including transparency in pricing — can go a long way toward keeping that image well polished.
