“Welcome to Town, USA! Please stay seated till the aircraft has parked at the gate, the temperature outside is 69 Freedom Degrees, the local time is 6:19 PM so good luck leaving the airport with any amount of haste and no there isn’t an air-rail link, we thank you for flying with us, enjoy spending almost as much time in traffic as you did on the plane!”

  • ZinkEnglish
    7·
    1 year ago

    I have to assume the data car rental companies have shows that spending money on customer satisfaction does not make up for the cost of not renting out a reserved car when somebody is standing there with money in hand.

    They’re in a market where people usually shop online ahead of time on price, or automatically go to them based on loyalty programs or corporate policies for work travel. So by the time they interact with you, you’re essentially locked in to the transaction and one of their low level employees gets to try to placate you for the negative results of company policies.

      • ZinkEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        Well yeah, though keeping your customers happy actually matters in many other industries, whether that is a quality product, or customer experience, or both.

        Just goes to show that in industries where customers are used to everybody sucking ass, spending money to not suck ass hurts you. It’s like natural selection where such a weakness likely means you won’t stick around. Or, more likely, you’ll adapt.

        It sucks, but that’s why I think it happens. Every transaction is a vote with somebody’s wallet, and many people just want their shit cheap and don’t care how it got that way.