The trip is over. I type this sitting on the floor of the plane because we’ve got the best leg room ever right beside the emergency exit. But I’ve never seen this much leg room, it’s awesome. One of the best things of this trip.
The ship was quite impressive compared to the tug boat from 6 years ago, although as previously posted, I did run into an issue almost immediately.
Met and saw a number of interesting people… both on and off the boat. Jamaica in particular was an experience. The country is so poor that they natives are very aggressive with tourists. It’s too bad because it really detracts from the experience. And since tourism is one of their major industries, it leaves both a bad and sad taste in the mouth.
Imagine, as the voice of a number of companies, if I was rude, pushy and difficult because I was desperate. People would not call back. Have you ever had an experience with a debt collector or know what debt collectors’ reputations are all about? Same idea. You will pay…you will buy…you will take my illegal taxi on a trip you don’t want to take.
At The Virtual Alternative we pride ourselves on polite and appropriate customer service/representation of your business. If you think of tourists the same way you think of customers you have to treat them well or they won’t come back! I certainly will not be making plans to return to Jamaica any time soon, if ever.
So, the Jamaicans we met, while trying to survive, are actually biting the hand that feeds.
And a further example of bad customer service was that of Advantage Car Rentals. My husband had rented a car – 4 seater with a trunk big enough for 2 suitcases. When we got to Ft. Lauderdale – remember we were over 7 hours late – they told us they only had a Fiat. A Fiat?! 2 seater with a trunk that would hold one small case. Insisted that’s what we had ordered. My husband would never have booked such a thing. We argued and they insisted but we were both so tired and frustrated that he didn’t look for his confirmation paper. Cost an extra $100 to upgrade to the 4 seater we had booked.
By the time we returned the car, we had found the confirmation paper and we tried again. Nope, Romel Jean insisted, we had booked a Fiat – that despite the fact that we had a piece of paper which clearly said “economy car” not “sub-compact car” and “4 seater” not “2 seater”. Not wanting to miss the 2nd flight of our trip, we demurred to deal with it later. What made it worth it was the horror on Romel’s face when I leaned in and read his name out loud – “What do you want my name for?” “Well clearly”, said I, “we want it so that when we complain about the car we will also complain about your customer service…or lack thereof.” Then he tried to fight with me!
Customer service. It all comes back to customer service. If you’ve got good customer service, people will return and tell their friends about you. If you’ve got lousy customer service – or no customer service – people will not return and will probably tell even more friends the “horror story” they experienced.
If you want better customer service for your business, think of The Virtual Alternative, where customer service is our expertise.
Boy, Liz, so much for a relaxing fun vacation. I guess coming home was a relief….