Never Forget that Your "Company Policies"
Mean Nothing to an Unhappy Customer

I came across a page on Tustin Magazine that had been posted and forgotten, detailing the story of a really dissatisfied customer and how a Tustin business failed to properly respond to that customer's complaint.  The business may well have changed hands by now, or seen the evil of its ways, so I took down the old article.  But seeing that article still posted served as another reminder how businesses let things get out of hand, often over complaints that could have been easily addressed.  Often, the problem is the business' own policies, which the business comes to think of as the law.

For an even more dramatic example, consider the case of musician Dave Carroll.  Carroll was traveling via United Airlines with his band mates from the band Sons of Maxwell. While sitting on the tarmac, they witnessed their instruments being tossed around by the ground crew. They reported the incident that second, but according to United Airlines the official report that one of the guitars had been officially damaged was not reported to the official official until after the company dictated 24-hour deadline. Carroll spent nine months trying to get United Airlines to do the right thing, and when he reached the final, official "no" from a company representative (identified in the song as "Ms. Irlweg"), he promised he would write, perform and post three videos about the incident on YouTube. The video link above is the very entertaining first installment of the planned trilogy.

After the video attracted more than 3 million viewers on YouTube, United Airlines agreed to donate money to a charity as an apology to Mr. Carroll. The complete story can be found on Dave Carroll's website.

Lesson for all businesses:  No doubt, United Airlines thought it was in the right the entire time.  After all, it's a company policy that damage has to be reported to the correct person within 24 hours, and Federal regulations support that position.  I guess you showed him.  And because you showed him, the next time me and three million other viewers are choosing a flight on Travelocity, deciding whether to click the button for United or American, the lyrics "United breaks guitars" will be playing in our minds.

So what?  As the song says, "you broke it, you should fix it."  The analysis was that simple.  In the article now removed, a local tailor lost an article of clothing but wanted to argue the point.  "You lost it, you should replace it."  Is it really likely that a deviation from your policy will subject you to a flood of customers to your shop, claiming lost articles of clothing?  That's extremely unlikely.  When you disappoint a customer, there are two paths you can take -- deal with the problem and maybe end up with an unhappy customer, or be intransigent and guarantee an unhappy customer -- one that might write an article for a local website, or compose a song.

I've not yet been involved with a case where the offending company was attacked by way of song, but I get calls every week from companies that let minor situations get out of hand and are now the subject of attack blogs. Your company's policies and procedures are not the law, so don't cite them as justification for rejecting a legitimate complaint. Indeed, even if the law is behind you, that's no basis to deny a valid claim. Do you really want your business practices to be no better than the minimum required by law? Look at what happen to Bank of America when if tried to quote the law to my client.

Remember, when you receive a customer complaint, consider that you may be dealing with another Dave Carroll.

-- Aaron Morris