Megan McArdle is a blogger and journalist who currently blogs for Atlantic. She had a really bad experience this week at the Comfort Inn in Jamaica, Queens near New York's Kennedy Airport - bad enough to inspire a full online rant.
As readers of this blog know, I believe that customer service outweighs almost all advertising in determining what people think of your product or services. You may have the world's greatest ad campaign, but, as surveys have shown, in today's search-friendly world, a bad customer review carries a lot of weight.
I've seen (and heard) lots of commercials for Comfort Inns. I'm sure there are a lot of good inns in their chain. I'll accept the fact that this story may have been only an exception to the rule.
But I travel a lot. And when I'm choosing my next hotel, will I be thinking of Comfort/Quality's ads? Or will I be remembering the unhappy story of a very dissatisfied customer?
Businesses that can't figure out the answer to that question may not stay in business very long.
(Hat tip: Instapundit)
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