Dissatisfied customers can even change your name
While doing research for my third book titled “Customer Icebergs,” I realised that dissatisfied customers can even change the name of your brand and / or the company. For instance, a dissatisfied customer of FORD came with what FORD stands for, that is, “Fixed Or Repaired Daily.” I decided to give my own twist to it by suggesting that FORD actually means :Fooled Or Repaired Daily” as when I bought a Ford Ikon car, the dealer tried to chaet me of Rs. 9,600 and Ford Motor Co. response to solve my problem was pathetic. Recently, I came across a frustrated customer of Air Deccan Airline who said the name of Air Deccan Airline should be changed to “Air Dhakhan” Airline. The word “Dhakhan” is slang for something derogatory in India. Well, what about Jeremy Dorosin’s quest to turn “starbucked” into a verb meaning that the customer has been ill-treated by the company. Also, the negative website for United Airlines was named “untied.com” while Glenda Woodrum and her room mate John Osborne named their website “U-hell.com” after they had a disgusting experince with U-Haul.
Companies spend huge sums to build their brand name. However, dissatisfying your customers could turn all the investment in brand building a futile exercise. I hope you realize that dissatisfying customers can turn your brand image upside down.
I thought it would be interesting to hear about some of the names that others have given to the companies which have ill-treated them. Has anyone of you been creative when ill-treated by companies? If yes, I would appreciate if you could share the same with all of us.
Avinash narula
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
Angad hi!
First I would like to apologise for not responding to you. Now I am back. I hope I will hear from you again.
avinash
The best way to protect your brand and keep these sorts of things from happening is, of course, to keep your customers happy!
Hello Sir,
For years, I’ve been studying consumer behaviour. As per your rules, I’ve done my best and have been making fortunes.
With my experience, I’ve learnt that consumers are much more informed and picky these days. They want high quality, cheap price, and excellent service. They expect to be treated like royalty, and think that it is acceptable to treat the person that they are doing business with badly.
They do not want to be held accountable for anything. If the consumer makes an error, the seller should have to take the hit. If the seller makes an error, then the consumer wants to sue.
Profit is a dirty word. Used to be, a seller and consumer would work out a mutually beneficial arrangement for an item or service. Now, the seller is expected to LOSE money for the PRIVILEGE of selling an item or service to this consumer!!!
So that’s the evolution: Consumers used to be fair and act honorably. Now they *****, whine and moan over every little thing, and expect that they should be thanked for it!!!
Hi!
My experience suggests that you are right partially. What you have said cannot be said of all customers. I think that there are more customers “who have been through hell” because of poor service than those (the kind that you are referring to in your email) “who are from hell.” I have had experience with such customers also and I have given examples of such customers in my books.
However, I would like to point out the following:
1. If you take on a customer then treat him well. If you do not want to deal with him, politely avoid doing business from him but do not give poor service. Always maintain your standard of service because after experiencing other vendors he may come back to you sobered uop.
2. What choice do we have? We cannot survive without customers. Just like we keep believing in God inspite of the fact that we go through a lot of pain and suffering in our lives, similarly we have to keep believing in the concept “Customer is King” even though we come across a few from hell.
I am currently writing a book on CRM in which I am pointing out that relationships are a two-way street. Both sides have to do their part if a relationship has to survive. We as suppliers have to provide “value for money” to the customer and the customer has to be reasonable in his demands.
Lastly, stick to providing the best service you can. Keep the customer’s interest in mind while serving him. You will find that even those who go away will come back later as I have experienced.
As I have said in my first book, achieving higher levels of customer satisfaction is not for the faint-hearted.
Hope the above helps.
Hi
I’ve read your book ‘Customer Math’. I’ve been applying all the rules. There’s everything one need to know about Customers. Book covers every aspect one could ever imagine. Earlier i thought i knew everything about handling customers. But once i started reading the Book, I got to know what i didn’t.
What i wrote earlier was about those exceptional customers. It was my way of telling my team that in worst of the case, customers may behave like this, but we still have to follow the customer math’s rules.
I had told you earlier also that it’s only you who has changed my professional life completely.
Actually, I’m not even sure if I’ve been able to communicate even a single percent of what YOU mean to me.
Avinash,
I agree with this article and as our company stresses that maintaining a relationship with your customers is just as important as the products and services you offer. Businesses should be aware that while services are based on competence and talent from a customers perspective they are really about relationships, feelings and talent. This is really what our business is focused on. We focus on allowing businesses to enhance their relationships with their customers through interaction and a mutual exchange of information so that they can be proactive about addressing their needs.
- Joe
Hi!
I am back on this topic, that is, customer can change your name, your positioning and even your tag line. Jigar, a highly dissatisfied Vodafone customer, wrote to me that Vodafone’s tag line “Happy to help” should actually be “Happy to harass.”
So watchout what dissatisfied customers can do to your brand name, tag line and positioning. If you have also been harassed by Vodafone, you are welcome to write to us or log in your complanit at complaints.customermath.com.
Avinash Narula
Hi guys!
I had mentioned in the ealier post that dissatisfied customers can change your name or give your name a new meaning. FORD became “Fixed Or Repaired Daily” and I had modified it to “Fooled Or Repaired Daily.” Air Deccan Airline became “Air Dhakhan” Airline. The word “Dhakhan” is slang for something derogatory in India. Now I was reading brand failures by Matt Haig in which he mentions that the name of Ford’s car “Edsel” was changed to “Every Day Something Else Leaks.”
So, beware that your brand name could also be changed drastically if you dissatisfy customers.
Avinash Narula
Loading ...
I really like your article and hope you do your best in comming future regarding customer problems.
Reply