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How to Turn Horrible Customer Experience into a Lifelong Business Relationship
One Helluva Trip
In February of 2012, I traveled to the UK with my family for my graduation. We planned the trip to include a stopover in Dubai to see the new jewel of the Middle-East. In essence, turning the trip into a graduvacation trip for the family — my family at the time being my parents and my girlfriend. Ahead of the graduvaction trip, I hired a travel agency (recommended by a friend) to book flights and hotels. The owner was this pleasant woman about my age, who drew out her words slowly from a slight stammer. We’d met only once through the mutual friend who’d recommended the travel agency.
To date, that trip is the worst trip I’ve ever embarked upon. Everything fell apart from the first day when we had a huge family fight, to when the airline we booked didn’t show up, and was rescheduled without giving us any reason. After losing a day because of the airline no show, we took off one day late to get to Dubai at midnight. Being our first time in this Middle Eastern city, it took us a while to locate the hotel we’d all been booked into. We dragged our tired bodies up the hotel steps only to be informed at the reception that our names weren’t on the booking register, and that the hotel was already oversubscribed, so we couldn’t make another booking. At this point, my…
