As a frequent traveler who has spent approximately 1 out of every 3 nights on the road for decades, I have certainly encountered my share of bad experiences as a guest, passenger and customer.
Being in the hospitality industry and having spent my share of time on the “other” side of the front desk, service counter and phone conversation, I do my best not to take out my frustrations on the front-line service providers. In fact, I rarely complain at all, especially when encountering “uncontrollable” issues such as those caused by weather, staffing shortages or other factors that are obviously beyond the staff’s control.
But when I do experience a major problem that is caused by a preventable shortcoming, I try to complain to the right people by way of the right methods. I’ve always been a fan of Christopher Elliott, a well-known consumer advocate who, among other things, is the author of the Travel Troubleshooter consumer column. Following his advice, I always put my complaints into writing and direct them to the proper channels at each travel company.
By the way, this is not a weekly thing with me, but a few times each year I send a written complaint to an airline, hotel or rental car company. Occasionally I also post a negative review, but only if there is no response.
I should also add that most of the time I’m not looking to receive compensation nor any freebies, although there are times when I need to have an unfair fee waived or a refund issued for extreme shortcomings. Most of the time, like so many others, I just want to be heard.
Typically, when I receive a personalized response in which the company’s representative takes full responsibility, that’s usually enough. More typically though, I receive a generic response which leaves me feeling even more unappreciated and invalidated.
Similarly, when I read replies that hotel leaders post in response to negative reviews, I often see generic, scripted messages. These are sometimes copied and pasted to more than one review!
My guess is that these responses increasingly are being generated by AI. When I read hotel and hospitality articles, I see experts suggesting the use of large language model AI systems for this purpose, so this reinforces my guesswork.
I am certainly no expert at ChatGPT nor Bard, but I do know one shortcoming of these systems is that they are non-sentient. Because they do not have emotions, one cannot expect their strong point to be showing empathy and understanding of the root causes of complaints. Of course these systems can only draw on content that already exists on the web, and most of the human-authored content I see fails to emphasize the most important part of resolving guest complaints, which is to show empathy for and an understanding of the uniquely human emotions caused by the problem.
When responding to complaints, most humans either go straight to addressing the problem which caused the complaint, or they first offer a meek apology. I suppose we cannot expect AI to do any better.
Let me share a couple of personal examples. Not long ago, I rented a car from one of the top brands, of which I am a high-usage loyalty member. After renting this vehicle at a New York airport, I proceeded to drive west on I-80. It was very late on a Sunday night and there were few other cars on the road. Suddenly the “low tire pressure light” came on. Not wanting to have to change a flat on a long, dark highway, without a flashlight or flare, I immediately found the next exit. The gas station there was closed and the air machine only took quarters, so there was no way to get change. On to the next exit, where the air machine was out of order. Finally, after the third stop where I finally found a working air machine, the gauge indicated that all four tires were very low on air. This not only caused me nearly an hour in delay, but also an extreme amount of stress while driving that dark highway.
Later, I wrote up this story in even more detail in an email to the brand’s customer service contact. Here is the obviously generic response I received:
“Thank you for taking the time to tell us about your recent experience. We appreciate your feedback since it helps us improve our service and your rental experience. Please accept my sincere apologies for the inconvenience you have experienced. You are a valued customer; everything we do is aimed at providing you with an excellent car rental experience. We would like to regain your trust and hope to serve you again in the future.”
Similarly, when I read responses to the one-star reviews of four-star hotels, all too often I see some version of the same “textbook” response as this:
“Thank you for taking the time to share this feedback with us. The experiences you have had at our property are not up to our usual standards. Providing the highest level of hospitality is our No. 1 objective and I apologize for failing to meet your expectations. I will review your feedback with the entire leadership team to prevent this from occurring in the future. I hope you give us the opportunity to host you again and show you how we can make it right for your next visit.”
Now, in defense of those who are tasked with writing these responses, which is often an entry-level, junior staff member, I can imagine it is challenging. Here are a few training tips:
- Paraphrase and restate the writer’s specific stated issues. Skim the original complaint message or bad review and pick out the main shortcomings.
- Express empathy for how this affected them personally. Good writing prompts are “I can understand…” or “I can imagine…” followed by a statement showing how you, too, can project how it would feel to experience the stated issue on a personal basis.
- Then, and only then, apologize, adding an appropriate adverb such as humbly, sincerely, wholeheartedly or truly.
- Resolve the issue if it can be resolved. Don’t be too quick to offer refunds or compensations. Many guests simply want to be heard and to receive a sense of validation.
- Invite them to return and offer to assist them personally. This provides a chance for you to personalize and humanize your “brand” to ensure their next experience is a positive one.
Of course I understand that some online reviews are unfair, malicious and obviously sent in an effort to obtain a freebie. However, most of the time, guests just want to have their emotions validated, and a personalized, humanized, empathetic response can do just that for all to see.
Doug Kennedy is president of the Kennedy Training Network, Inc. Contact him at doug@kennedytrainingnetwork.com.
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