Don’t leave your customers stranded at the airport
It’s 7:30pm on the East Coast and a family of four has just arrived at the Orlando International Airport. They collect their luggage and push two exhausted toddlers to the RideShare pick up section. It’s been a long day but the parents are thrilled they didn’t have to haul car seats along for the cross-country trip; RideShare apps like Lyft and Uber have cars with car seats in Orlando. The dad whips open his phone and schedules a ride. This is the beginning of a three hour spiral into despair. No cars with car seats were available. Ultimately, the family books an exorbitantly priced private car service and gets to their hotel five hours after landing.
Too often we see companies make promises that aren’t actually kept. It sends consumers scrambling and companies often don’t jump to fix the problem. Instead, companies should follow three key steps to ensure they avoid this cycle.
Know your company's capabilities and don’t promise beyond them. If you’re a RideShare company with a few cars with car seats, make the information easy to find. Communicate how many car seats are available and how often they are booked. If advanced reservations are needed, communicate that to customers. Provide insights about your capabilities so customers know if you’re the right fit for their needs. Nothing is worse than a customer who needs more than you can give. The customer will ultimately complain, leave you and tell their friends how you wronged them.
Acknowledge mistakes when you’ve over promised and fix them immediately. This is the time when you bend over backwards for a customer. If you’re not the right fit for a customer, let them know, apologize and offer to fix the situation, even if this means paying for them to use a competitor. Imagine the frustration a dad feels stranded at an airport when he finally reaches customer service only to be told, “too bad, so sad.” Don’t be that company.
Highlight your strengths over and over and over again. We’re confident your company has some amazing features to offer customers. Make sure you’re screaming them from the rooftop! It may seem mundane but you can’t predict the exact path customers will take to discover you. Imagine how different our stranded family would’ve felt if they had learned that the taxi company in Orlando has car seats in almost every cab.
As a final thought, these steps should be revisited on a consistent basis. It would be great if you could evaluate your business once and fix any customer experience gaps but that’s not practical if your business is growing. Keep growing and manage customer experiences before they become a customer disaster, especially before you leave a family stranded at the airport.