This is a long post but I’m on a plane and have time to
spare:
Today I need to throw in my two cents in on the whole conversation
about airline business problems. Now more than ever I think it’s a problem of
focus on customer service. Being in a city that is a Delta hub I’m going to use
them as an example but I think my observations are could be applied to any US carrier today. On the surface of it Delta appears to be really focused on customer
service: lots of lovely language everywhere thanking you making you feel better
about your choice, nice little brand messages on everything from the back of
tickets to the quirky messages on baggage tags, professional uniforms, etc.
Scratch beneath the surface though and you find an organization that only gives
lip service to customer service, realizing (amazingly pointed out to me by one
of Delta’s ticket agents) that Delta is just interested in providing enough
service to handle the most economical amount of issues. Just enough not to be
considered evil…
Everyone has one but let me tell you my Delta horror story…
First let me set the scene… It was the eleventh hour when I
was invited to a conference in NYC. It was MLK week so fares were outrageous and
to make matters worse I live in Salt Lake City/Park City and at the end of the
week Sundance was starting. This meant that flight were packed, sparse, and
expensive. But I had to get there! So I ended up coughing up 50,000 frequent
flyer miles for the trip. The flight out was no problem and my conference in NY
ended on a Thursday. I was scheduled to fly back with a connection in Cincinnati giving me 45
minutes to catch my final leg to SLC. Flying out of a delta connection flight
means taking a bus out to the tarmac to get on your plane… this is when things
went very wrong… They had waited until everyone was on the plane and ready to
go (even making a stink about everyone having to be off cell phones before we
could leave) before testing the steering. Well the hydraulics didn’t work. I
would miss my connection but what was worse is that no one cared… First off the
pilot was not apologetic at all and not forthcoming with any details and kept
making the case “these things happen”, the flight crew was standoffish and hid
in the back, if anyone asked them a question the quickly snapped back that “we
don’t know anything about what’s going to happen, you can’t ask us you will have
to ask a ticket agent” (this really paled in comparison with a story I had read
the previous week, make sure to read the story it will make you feel like there
is hope). So we were all shuttled back to the concourse where gate agents were
just as rude and pretty much told us we were screwed all remaining flights that
day out of JFK, Newark,
and La Guardia were booked, in fact they were overbooked.
Overbooked? Now that I had all the time in the world I asked
them to explain how this works. The agent firmly placed the blame back on
corporate saying she didn’t agree with the policy but the lowdown is that
flight schedulers look at a large amount of statistical data about how many
people fail to show up for flights in a particular market in a particular time
going to a particular place and make an estimate for how many seats they can
oversell knowing those oversold will take the seats of the no shows. Sounds
efficient in principle but it clearly has two major flaws. First, there is no
room for error meaning if anything happens out of the statistical norm then
they are unprepared to deal with it. Second, obviously regional events are not
taken into account. In my case the combination of our flight being cancelled
and everyone and their dog trying to get to Sundance resulted in 10 people deep
waiting lists on every flight out of almost every airport.
I ended up taking a later flight to Cincinnati hoping to be on the wait list and
catch a latter flight to SLC, also asking the agent in JFK to book me on the
early Friday flight just in case I didn’t make the late SLC flight, which I of
course didn’t make. I was staying the night in Cincinnati. Throughout the process so far
every gate agent was polite but all continually said well there is just nothing
I can do my hands are tied, only one empathized with me as a customer. Here’s
the kicker I went to main ticketed to get Delta to take care of my night stay
and found out that the agent at JFK never booked me on the early Friday morning
flight to SLC, which was now booked… I’m stuck in Cincinnati for an unspecified amount of time.
I finally found a fight connecting through Denver (hoping the same thing
wouldn’t happen and I would be stuck in Denver for the weekend) What’s funny is
while the agent was very empathetic she used words and body language that made
it very apparent that she thought she was doing me a favor by booking my way
home and putting up at a hotel. She was taken aback when I thanked her for
fulfilling Delta’s obligation to get me home but that I expected to be
compensated for the hardship especially since I had just used 50,000 miles for
the tickets (obviously flagging me as a very valuable customer if I had that
much to spend) She started the dialogue already apologizing that she was only
given the abilities to offer limited compensation and put the blame squarely on
the big bad corporate office then suggested that I send an email to Delta
asking for compensation. This entire experience has highlighted to me that they
have the tools in place but that the companies overall policies are out of
touch with the needs of their highest brand evangelists, their employees.
Companies who really care about the customer will empower
their customer service staff with the means to take care of the most valuable
customers and make right any wrongs even at the short term negative impact to
the company. People who have a good experience with a company do recommend the
company/service to other but those who have had a horrible issue that was
either avoided or “made right” in the end will be customers for life and will
recommend their services to other passionately. Giving employees this
flexibility also breeds pride in your workforce, no longer are they the ones
being yelled at, apologizing for their policies, and blaming the company. Now
they are the hero’s, the ones in the position to right any wrong and make stark
raving fans. The employee who are now empowered to be the hero by the company
recognize their unique position and this fosters loyalty (obviously a problem
at Delta since three of the ticket counter agents had their study guides out
for the real estate license test).
In Delta's case changing their algorithm for calculating overbooked
flights will cost them a few empty seats and short term profits, but it will
allow agents the ability to help displaced passengers, and give the agents the
ability to appear that they are really taking care of the customer by sneaking
them onto a “full” plane. If all else goes wrong by allowing your agents to
adequately compensate those who they cannot take care of will allow the agent
to still be a hero, have a if not satisfied then at least placated customer,
and have the airline get repeat business.
Side note: Paper vouchers that are only usable at Delta
ticket counters & travel agencies in an age of electronic ticketing and
travel are an annoyance and degrade the good will they are intended to impart.