Customer experience is the foundation of the service industry. At least that is what is taught in the very expensive business schools. But how many companies/brands in the industry actually do take customer experience seriously?
Many brands fail to live up to their promises in some way or the other & in the end it is the customer who is left with an experience of a lifetime (Definitely not the one we would want).
But what do you do when you have such an experience. Let’s say you order some clothes online or some electronics items & either the delivery is delayed or the product came damaged or the refund has not been initiated. We, like every other customer, would call up the respective brand and demand some answers and solutions to our problems effectively.
Nowadays, posting our grievances has become the last and in some cases the most effective resort.
But recently, there has been a piece of news about a customer who handled the situation very uniquely. An ‘Oyo Rooms‘ customer has created a website called www.oyo-ruined-my-anniversary.com, which has a detail description of their harrowing experience after they’d booked an Oyo hotel in the Andamans.
As per his ordeal, the customer arrived in the Andamans with their spouse for their anniversary but discovered that the hotel was unwilling to honor their booking.
He claims that the hotel manager responded saying that there were some payment issues with Oyo. Apparently Oyo has been sending guests to his hotel for a price that was unacceptable to him. And he had written to Oyo nearly a month ago regarding this and received no proper answer
The guest like any other troubled yet responsible customer called up the Oyo call customer care & after a lot of struggle he did get connected to an executive.
After listening to his grievance, Oyo finally decided to give the customer an alternative booking. The customer agreed to take a taxi to the new hotel but then discovered that the hotel that Oyo had suggested was in West Bengal, a full 1,300 kilometers away.
When he called the customer care number and told them about what had happened, again, he was accommodated in a hotel in the area itself which was nearby. What went wrong? Well the new hotel was allotted at a higher price by Oyo and the manager of the hotel refused to honor the payment made to the first hotel and he ended up paying the complete payment in cash.
All the guy wanted was to get along with his anniversary.
After returning to Chennai, he tried contacting the customer care for his refund, the executive connected him with another customer and left them confused and more agitated. This happened again when he called back.
He then gave up hopes and build his own website and wrote his entire ordeal. Oyo has issued a statement that they apologize for the mishap and are looking into the matter.
With the growing conflict with the hotel association, Oyo rooms should take a step in order to get things right and so that its customers are spared of such unhappy experiences.
