Treat Your Customer Right

“Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.”  a quote by Donald Porter, V.P. British Airways.

How can a company or a service-providing organization jeopardize its reputation for a small amount of money, and treat at least one customer in a way that he will be lost forever?! This is really strange, and can’t be absorbed by anyone, from simple one in streets up to an executive in an elite organization.

Surprisingly, I happen to come cross a strange story about the well-known “Holiday Travel & Tourism” company here in Amman. One of my close friends decided to go with them, since they have strongly advertised about their EID offers for various destinations. Istanbul – Turkey was his choice.

Despite the fact that the booking process went smooth and quick, it lacked the real sense of professionalism that such Agency should have. All what mattered for them is he pays the amount and charges ASAP to confirm his reservation. The rest of the procedure was neglected by the agent and the management. There was no checking for the needed documents of travel, although my friend questioned if they need to have copies of the passports or at least have a look at them to ensure that the spelling of the reserved names are correct and he won’t face any troubles while he is in Istanbul. The reply was that “THERE IS NO NEED!”

You might be asking about the consequences of such little mistake, and yes I call it a “mistake” and both, my friend and the Agency, have done. Unfortunately, the passport expired one day before the travelling day, and to have the story quite complicated, this was during the EID holiday. The Department of Civil Status and Passports was closed.

My friend visited the Agency on Saturday night to inform them about this incident and asked for the flight and the booking to be rescheduled till the very next Monday, where he could have the time to renew the expired passport. He also submitted a letter for the Management of “Holiday Travel & Tourism” appealing for the reschedule. We had good presumption that they will surely cooperate and deal with this rare case with extreme care. We kept into this spirit until we came to the fact that they do not really CARE about their customers. Oops!

They insisted that he shall be held accountable for this mistake, and the fees will be forfeited because he did not pay attention to the expiry date, and he did pay the full amounts. A question then popped up: “what if a misfortunate event occurred in one’s life, a sudden death among a family member, a car accident while going to the airport, or any other matter that will definitely prevent anyone from travelling even to Dead Sea. How would you – Holiday Travel & Tourism Office – deal with this specific, and yet unusual, circumstances?”

The reply was – and to our surprise in confident – from the Agency: we will forfeit the fees. We are not responsible for this!!!!

We know that there are a clause in the contract, where customers should advice prior the cancellation or rescheduling of any booking 3 days prior the travel date; but come on, there are times when you really have nothing to do, and he needs a good sanctuary to people who can support him. Who is better that the Agency he trusted to ask for their help?!

What would have happened if they approved to reschedule the flight one day, one week, or even one month, and he should pay the 50-JD-fine as per the contract. It will be a win-win situation: they will prove they care about their customers, and my friend will have his vacation and has not lost his money.

All they had done and proved that they need to learn a lot about the meaning of a “customer”, and that customer is the one who pays their salaries and bills at the end.

For me, I am sure I will not deal with them for any future bookings, and hope that you find your selves another more trustworthy Agency. One that will treat well while you are in Jordan, to feel safe and secured while you are outside using their name in case anything happens.

You have illustrated that you walk the talk of your slogan "Lifetime Memories". Yes, this customer will never forget that he lost his money and you treated him badly.