Yesterday I had an experience with a car rental company that reminded me just how fragile trust can be in the customer journey, and how easily it can be broken when businesses fail to communicate clearly.
Last week, I booked a rental car for our family trip to Tasmania. The listing I chose was clearly labelled as “Launceston Airport,” so I assumed, as most people would, that the car would be collected from the airport when we arrived. But after landing, with bags and a tired little boy in tow, I couldn’t see the car rental brand amongst the dozen counters at the airport. I checked the fine print in the confirmation email only to discover that the company didn’t actually operate from the airport at all.
Instead, we were instructed to wait outside in the cold for a shuttle that would take us nearly 5km away to an off-site depot.
There was no mention of this during the booking process. It was buried in the confirmation email and certainly not proactively communicated. The only thing “airport” about this experience was airport location deceptively used on their website.
The problem wasn’t the distance. The problem was the expectation.
If they had simply stated: “We operate from a nearby depot 5km from Launceston Airport. This allows us to keep costs lower than on-site providers. A free shuttle will get you there in under 10 minutes,” … I would’ve had no issue at all.
In fact, I probably would have appreciated the savings and the transparency.
But instead, it felt like a bait and switch. And in that moment—cold, tired, and irritated—we made a decision: we won’t rent from that company again.
This is a small example of a much bigger principle: customers don’t need perfection, they need honesty. They’ll tolerate a bit of inconvenience. What they won’t tolerate is feeling deceived.
Radical transparency isn’t about over-explaining every operational detail. It’s about removing ambiguity from moments that matter. It’s about seeing your customer’s experience through their eyes and ensuring there are no nasty surprises along the way.
Transparency doesn’t just smooth the customer journey—it is the customer journey.
When you lead with honesty, you give customers a reason to stay. And sometimes, that’s all it takes.
