Ever Had a Bad Experience With...

Everyone has had a bad experience with a car brand, restaurant, home builder, retail store, grocery store etc...and what did you do about it?

A few years back I was out at an Earls restaurant having super with my son and 'then' father-in-law. We all ordered coffee to start, then ordered our meals. Our coffee came and we all started to enjoy it, we were all big coffee drinkers. No sooner had I finished my first cup, and I could feel that tingling sensation of an oncoming cold sore...anyone who has had one, or gets cold sores knows that feeling...

By the time we finished our meals, and payed our bill, not only did I have a cold sore, my son had one...and my 'then' father-in-law had one as well. There was something very disturbing about that fact.

We knew that it was likely from the coffee, most likely the cup. Not cleaned properly, or maybe from someone in the kitchen that had the virus, touched our cups.

A couple days later I went back to the restaurant and had a talk with the manager. He was somewhat taken aback when I explained the situation. Basically telling me that 'it was not possible that we encountered the virus at his establishment'...wouldn't bend a bit on that conclusion. I left even more distraught and disappointed then when I arrived.

Needless to say, I have NEVER been back to that Earls restaurant again, or any Earls for that matter...and NEVER will.

How many people do you think I told about that crazy ordeal? Yep, everyone I knew! How much business do you think they lost? Well, unfortunately, probably not enough for them to notice...but they did lose some for sure.

If you treated your online customers like they don't really matter, or discredit an issue they have, with no reasonable explanation, how long would you be in business?

The answer shouldn't really surprise you. With the speed of the Internet and the modern technology out their today, it would take mere minutes to spread the word of the sour taste left by you and your business. With email, blogs, instant messaging, text messaging, cell phones etc...your name would be MUD before you knew what hit you.

Treat every customer, no matter how big or small, with the respect and courtesy that you, yourself, would want. And remember, 1 or 2 disgruntled customers in the online biz world could seriously damage or flat out ruin your name and your business with a few strokes of the keyboard in a matter of minutes!

Leave me a comment and share your own bad encounter, how you felt and were dealt with, and what the end results were.