For anyone who has followed the last couple of blog posts regarding my rental car woes…  It would be wrong for me to withhold this information.  I was contacted by Alamo.  Apparently Heidi from Alamo read my blog post.  She offered her apologies AND took responsibility AND offered some future free car rentals.  AND in the process they regained a customer.  (Now Priceline that’s a different story.)

Now I’m not really sure how Heidi ended up reading my blog — my first guess is a simple google search — but what I appreciate is that when she read, she responded, and she responded with something more than words.  The last few times I have encountered different customer service moments, it has seemed to me that the current training program for customer service agents might go something like this —

1. 1) Apologize at every opportunity.
2. 2) Take responsibility for nothing — but continue to apologize.
3. 3) Offer to do nothing — but continue to apologize.
4. 4) Ask if there is anything else you can do to help.  (That’s the one that I love :)  And then apologize one more time.

But sometimes the words of apology are empty without the actions of responsibility.

So I just wanted to say thanks to Heidi and Alamo — for the words and the actions.