SmallBizResource Blog -- Customer Service

Customer vs. Employee: Who's Right?

Posted by Gayle Kesten Monday, Jun 9, 2008, 12:03 PM ET

"Isn't it funny how it's just the little things that can make or break customer perceptions and loyalty?"

So starts a blog on SmallBizMentor. Here's my answer: Not at all. I'm all for a good belly laugh, but having recently been stuck on the customer end of the screwdriver, my sense of humor is failing me.

Here's my abbreviated tale of woe: Three months ago I arranged a roundtrip flight for a girls-only getaway. In mid-May, a few weeks before my trip, I realized I booked my return trip for the day after I intended. My bad. I called the airline to explore my options, joking with the rep that if he could switch my flight for free I'd be willing to sit in the bathroom. (No, I wasn't flying JetBlue.) He laughed, then told me my two real choices: to pay a $100 change fee to switch flights by phone or to wing it (my pun, not his) and fly standby at the cost of $25 at the airport.

Fiscally minded, I chose the latter.

Fast forward to the end of my trip when, at the airport at 6:45 a.m., I'm told that flying standby is not an option on a day other than when the original flight was booked (huh?), and that the change fee was $150, not $100. I had work the next day, so I paid the penalty and assumed the airline would reduce the charge to the standby fee when I called the following day. My second bad. After holding with customer relations for an hour, the woman on the other end pulled up my file and said there was no record of what I told her the airline rep had told me in May. She refused to refund my account and stood firm in her decision when I recounted my story several times.

So it comes down to my word against some computer file that I can't access. Granted, I'm sure zillions of people try to scam the airlines--or any business for that matter--to get a refund, free flight, etc. I'm not one of those people. I based my decision on what turned out to be misinformation, and that's costing me $125 more than I expected. Unfortunately for me, the airline doesn't know me from Adam. And I suppose it will go on without my future business.

But what about you small businesses? Your customers are not so removed. Their business matters. How would you handle a complaint if you weren't party to the original conversation and had to defer to the documentation at hand? Should the customer always win or should you stand by your employees no matter what?

As for me, I'm sure I could see many shades of gray -- if I weren't still seeing red.

Customer Service