The 3 Worst Customer Service Stories in 2021

The 3 Worst Customer Service Stories Last Year

  1. Hotel kicks out grandma & granddaughter at night, after they left a bad review

The Baymont Inn & Suites called the police to remove a 63-year-old grandmother and her 6-year-old granddaughter after they responded to an email asking how their room was.

  1. CEO of Better.com fires 900 employees on Zoom call a few weeks before Christmas

Vishal Garg must have gotten visited by three ghosts this holiday season. After receiving a $750m cash infusion from Softbank, Garg, CEO of Better.com, notified 900 employees they were terminated “immediately” over a Zoom call. “If you’re on this call, you are part of the unlucky group being laid off. Your employment here is terminated effective immediately,” said Garg.

  1. Hertz uses law enforcement to help solve inventory issues

More than 180 Hertz customers are suing the car rental company in bankruptcy court, seeking damages of just under $530 million. Most of these customers were stopped by police, and sometimes arrested, for driving Hertz cars that they had legally rented. Why would Hertz claim that its cars were stolen when legitimate renters were driving them? Believe it or not, the filing claims this is a cost-cutting measure. In some cases, the company simply misplaces a car or a rental contract and doesn’t know where the car is. Rather than upgrade its malfunctioning inventory systems or conduct its own investigation when cars are unaccounted for, Hertz simply reports these cars as stolen, filing claims. The plaintiffs say the company is “effectively using the police, criminal justice system, and taxpayers to subsidize inventory control for a private corporation.” The unfortunate renters who happen to be driving those cars are collateral damage.

How to Make your CX Training Fun and Memorable

By Jess Pischel

Launching your customer experience systems does not have to be like every other training you have rolled out. I recommend to my clients that they have some fun launching this to the organization. For example, when Alpin Haus, a retailer of outdoor recreation products with approximately 275 employees across 5 locations in New York, launched their Never & Always standards company-wide, they used credo cards, posters, and other marketing materials. But they took it one step further by dramatizing the “Never” standards in a fun video of their team members acting out scenarios that they would “Never” do. It was a great way to teach and reinforce the concepts. Check it out:

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About The Author

John DiJulius

John R. DiJulius is a best-selling author, consultant, keynote speaker and President of The DiJulius Group, the leading Customer experience consulting firm in the nation. He blogs on Customer experience trends and best practices.