I recently decided to abandon one of the major rental car companies.  That sounds much more dramatic than I mean it to, in fact.  Truth be told, I don’t really have much ‘loyalty’ to any rental car agency, and don’t consider much difference between them, unlike in, say, airlines or hotel chains (and I’ll allow that, even in those businesses, your mileage may vary).  But I think it was that ambivalence that really led to an interesting reflection upon the decision:

Nobody cares.

They clearly don’t care:  I won’t get into all the details about it, but suffice to say that there was a hidden charge that I only later would suddenly see appear on my credit card statement; I challenged it; they more-or-less blew me off and strung me along; they never refunded or even suggested they might or should, but rather pointed toward the small-print of their Terms and Conditions document and considered it (from their perspective, at least) a closed matter.

But in the end, it turned out, as I reflected:  I didn’t care.  First off, in all honesty, it wasn’t a huge fee, so I kind of figured I’d see it as a somewhat inexpensive lesson about how this organization operates: their dismissive and officious manner was more exhausting than offensive on a personal level; there are many more rental car companies to use; and really, this day and age, who has the energy to get all huffy about it?

And that’s the rub, really.  My time, energy, and emotional focus is worth more than their penny-ante grubby little “policies” that they’ll readily and easily wield against their own Customers.  They don’t care, so why should I?

It was kind of a liberating feeling, in fact.  Instead of making a big issue of it, escalating, shaming, demanding satisfaction, I simply decided, “Meh.  This is a company that will, out of the blue, screw me unnecessarily.  I can either eat it (potentially costing me money when they decide to do so next), fight it (costing me time and effort and hassle each time they arbitrarily decide to screw me), or simply go elsewhere (without having to expend any sort of emotional energy whatsoever).”  That was an easy decision.

I think maybe since I’m in the CX business, I lose perspective on making such straightforward and stoic decisions as a Customer myself.  I feel an obligation sometimes to reach out and see about rectifying things, or perhaps to offer up some feedback in the spirit of helping them out, lest they lose more, other business.  And yes, as my husband will attest, I do tend to be that angry old man shouting at clouds sometimes.

But when I consider the pedestrian (if you will) transactional nature of something as simple as making a reservation, arriving at the airport, driving a car (of course, filling it up when I return it!), and dropping it off before flying home, what could be more boring?  If that’s unnecessarily complicated by the prospect and risk that the company with which I’m dealing feels no compunction against unceremoniously and unexpectedly gouging me with hidden fees, then hiding behind policy and small-print, well… who’s got time for that?

So in the end, it didn’t really have anything to do with loyalty or affection for one brand over another.  It’s as straightforward as if one rental car company simply had crappier, older models that I didn’t care for (and for a different Customer, maybe he doesn’t care about that); or another one literally didn’t even have a location where I was traveling.  It’s business, not emotion!

And I think that’s what it comes down to for us CXers:  We can chat amongst ourselves all day about loving Customers and doing right by them and loyalty and all that.  We can authoritatively say that the experience that matters even more than the product or service.

Maybe we’re right.  But.

In the end, your product sells or doesn’t; your service delivers or it doesn’t.  Incompetence won’t be overcome by really wishing you could do better because you really love your Customers.

And similarly, if you’re a hassle to deal with and unpredictable about that to boot, people will simply go with your competitor.  But let’s not kid ourselves that it’s because they hate you (nor should your competitors fall for the impression that your erstwhile Customer now suddenly loves them).

You probably have lost Customers who left in a huff yelling and screaming (or at least metaphorically doing so), telling you that you suck and don’t deserve to be in business.  Perhaps they are even more upset because they feel betrayed, having been so loyal to you that you wouldn’t return the respect.

How many Customers to you lose, though, who just walk away because you’re a pain in the ass to deal with?