#1 Hated Company files for Bankruptcy
#1 Hated Company files for Bankruptcy / Don’t be a Disney Boss / Stop Sending Your Customers Holiday Gifts / America’s Most Trusted Brands
Do Not Send Your Top Customers Holiday Gifts
Your customers don’t want your brownies – As 2024 comes to an end, businesses start thinking about how they will show their appreciation to their customers. One of the most common ways is to send their clients a holiday gift between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. I strongly encourage you not to do this. Think about it: how many gifts get sent to your office during this time? Dozens. Your gift will get lost with all the other ones your customers receive. I know you think they love the brownies you have sent over the last 20 years. Instead, consider sending your customers an appreciation gift in February or June. It will stand out and be the only gift and thank you card your client receives during that time. I promise you; no one will even notice you didn’t send the brownies this year.
Spirit Airlines files for Bankruptcy
One thing you can say about Spirit Airlines is they are consistent. Consistently bad, consistently ranking the lowest in customer satisfaction. Consistently rated the most hated brand in the entire US; as a result, Spirit Airlines filed for bankruptcy.
According to an Associated Press report, the budget airliner has lost $2.5 billion since the beginning of 2020 and has upcoming debt payments exceeding $1 billion. “Spirit as we’ve known it has come to an end,” James Gellert, executive chairman at Rapid Ratings International, a firm that evaluates the financial health of public and private companies, told Newsweek.
“Spirit’s decline is largely a function of it having lost billions of dollars in the first two years of the pandemic due to decreased customer demand and Spirit’s positioning at the very bottom of the market,” Daniel Gielchinsky, partner, cofounder and commercial litigation attorney at South Florida-based DGIM LawSpirit, told Newsweek. Spirit won a “race to the bottom.”
CXO Academy 2025
According to a Zendesk report, 80% of companies plan to increase their customer experience (CX) investment in 2025. This trend reflects a growing recognition of the importance of customer service in driving business success and a focus on enhancing customer service capabilities to meet evolving consumer expectations. The DiJulius Group’s 2025 Customer eXperience Executive Academy launches January 28-30 in Cleveland, OH, the Customer Service Capital. This twelve-month part-time course has been designed to certify leaders like you worldwide for a new leadership level, benefiting your career and your organization. This course enables you to assess an organization’s current state of service and work to build systems to deliver world-class experiences consistently. There are a few spots still available for the January class.
America’s Most Trusted Brands
The 2024 Axios Harris Poll 100 reputation rankings have just come out. For the second year, Nvidia ranked #1, with other great customer experience companies such as Apple #9, Costco #11, Trader Joe’s #13, Amazon #16, and Chick-fil-A #21. Meta #97, Spirit Airlines #98, X (Twitter) #99, and The Trump Organization #100 came in as the least trusted.
Employee Experience Executive Academy 2025
It all starts and ends with your internal culture. Are you selecting the right new employees? Are you onboarding them properly to uphold the company’s standards and reputation? Are you retaining them long-term? And finally, are you developing your future generation of leaders? That is why we are so proud to announce that starting this January will be our first Leadership Academy Class. This comprehensive program empowers leaders, HR teams, and emerging managers to create a workplace culture where inspiration thrives, teams are fulfilled, and growth is inevitable. One of the biggest challenges Senior Leaders faces is developing emerging leaders. In fact, The Chartered Management Institute’s research found that an incredible 82% of bosses are “accidental managers,” and what’s even scarier is that 25% of those are in senior leadership roles. This negatively impacts employee morale and a third of employees are quitting their jobs. Give them the education they need, see how it impacts them, and your culture.
Don’t Be A Disney Boss
Maybe you have heard the term “Disney Dad,” which is known as a parent who indulges his or her child with gifts and good times during visitation and leaves
most or all disciplinary responsibilities to the other parent. Too many leaders act in similar fashion, acting like “Disney Bosses.”
A Disney Boss is a leader who likes to make the annual big splash, where he/she invests a significant amount taking his staff to an exclusive resort or giving away hundreds of thousands of money and prizes at the awards dinner, which definitely gets everyone’s attention in the moment. However, for the other 51 weeks of the year, a Disney Boss focuses more on what’s wrong with his team’s performance and barely provides any acknowledgment, leaving the rest of the management team to do damage control. Research and the vast majority of employees will tell you they would much rather have more recognition from their leader than trips and prizes.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/airline-junk-fees-senate-hearing-american-delta-united-frontier-spirit/
US Airlines get drilled on Capital Hill
The term in the airline industry for gauging your customer is “junk fees”, when passengers are being charged for baggage, seat selection, and other services that in the past were not add-ons.
“Our investigation found that in 2023 alone, American, Delta, United, Frontier, and Spirit collected more than $3 billion in seat fees — only seat fees. That’s not airfare, just fees for booking a specific seat in advance, or selecting a slightly better seat,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal in a hearing by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on the impact of such charges on consumers.
Terrible experience
The subcommittee says Spirit and Frontier paid employees $26 million in incentives in 2022 and 2023 to strictly enforce airline bag policies. Sen. Josh Hawley criticized Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines during the two-hour hearing for bonuses paid to gate employees to charge customers extra fees for large carry-ons. “You guys do appreciate that flying on your airlines is a disaster, don’t you?” the Missouri Republican said, adding, “Flying on your airlines is horrible, it’s a terrible experience. I mean, I say this as a father of three young children. But I can’t tell you — nobody enjoys flying on your airlines, it’s a disaster.” Spirit charges between $15 and $77 for a carry-on bag that won’t fit under a seat.
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Transforming Leaders – Transforming Experiences – Transforming Cultures
Our Experience Academy courses have been designed to certify people for a new level of leadership, benefiting their career and your organization.
The Customer Experience Executive Academy enables you to assess an organization’s current state of service and work to build systems to consistently deliver world-class experiences.
The Employee Experience Executive Academy enables you to assess your current culture and build systems to hire, onboard, train and retain the best employees.
Learn more about the CXEAcademy
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