Communication and caring: If they’re MIA in customer interactions – especially the ones gone bad – kiss your credibility and your customer goodbye. Lesson learned from my vacation experience with an airline that did it all wrong and an airline employee who did it all right.
Groggy, but excited to start our vacation, my family awakened at 3:30 a.m. last Saturday. We wanted to allow plenty of time to travel to the Baltimore/Washington airport, park the car, check our luggage, go through security and board our 8 a.m. flight to Texas.
Despite our punctuality, below is the situation we found upon arrival to the United Airlines check-in area.
Worried? Sure we were. But we figured if things were going to get a little tight, eventually a United representative would call out our flight and expedite our visit to the desk so we could get on our way. So we waited.
And waited…
And waited.
The line hardly budged after an hour, and not a single United rep ventured anywhere close to our neck of the woods to pull people to the front for any soon-departing flights. Nor did anyone offer any explanation whatsoever about the problem in progress.
Getting desperate, we decided to try our luck at the curbside check –in. The line there was also long, but it had to be moving faster than the stagnant one we were standing in. It was. And even more promising was when the attendant asked for everyone in line with an 8 a.m. flight to go inside the airport. FINALLY, they were going to put us through baggage check and send us onward!
So inside we went…only to find what we did before. A long line with no official airport peeps providing any direction. We went back out to the curbside check-in attendant to politely ask what we were supposed to do.
His response, “Go to the back of the line.”
Our observation, “But we were already there, and our flight is leaving in 20 minutes.”
His response, “Not my problem.” (Truth. He really did say that!)
So there we were again…in the same line where we had originally been. Sadly, it still had not moved. In fact, it had grown longer since our first go at it.
As before, no United reps or other airport staff walked to our end of the earth to provide assistance or insight into to what was happening – or not happening as it were.
No communication (not even by email on my smart phone). No information. No alternatives.
Clearly we were going to miss our flight and had no choice but to wait with the other hundreds of people who needed to have their departure plans amended.
Eventually, after about two hours, an announcement aired over the P.A. system indicating that United had delays due to “airport conditions.” Oddly, the same BWI “airport conditions” didn’t seem to be affecting the flight schedules of the Delta passengers who we enviously allowed to cross through to get to their check-in desk. The relief on their faces was insuppressible as they realized they didn’t have to stand in our line!
After another hour, we decided to take our chances and join a few other United passengers in a separate line that we self-proclaimed as the “we missed our flight because of your ‘airport conditions’ so you need to make us a priority” section. Finally, around 10:30 a.m., we were at the desk.
Exhausted and frustrated with no high expectations for anything resembling satisfactory service, we met customer service rep Myra. Myra greeted us with a smile, compassion and a willingness to do whatever she could to get our vacation started as smoothly as possible considering the present circumstances. For two arduous hours, she scoured through the reservation system and talked us through the process as she searched to find suitable flights at BWI and nearby airports that would accommodate our party of 5. Although she surely was feeling stressed and at the end of her rope, Myra never took it out on us. No aggravated tone, no apathy. Just stellar customer service in a situation that seemed completely unsalvageable.
Despite Myra’s best attempts, we had to begin our vacation a day late and from an airport that was an additional hour away from home. Sensitive to the inconvenience we were experiencing, she secured reservations at a Washington DC hotel that was within 5 minutes of Reagan International airport and changed our return flights so that we arrived ½ hour earlier there than we would have at BWI.
Did that make it all better? No. But because of her positive attitude and hard work to make things as right as possible, Myra succeeded in diffusing much of our distress and disappointment.
Will we fly United again? Not sure that we will. But then again, I’m not sure that we won’t. And United has Myra and Myra alone to thank for us not completely wiping them from our list of carrier options. What a difference communication and caring can make – even in the most challenging situations.
Your turn! What customer experience have you had that got turned around (good or bad) by a solitary someone or something?
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Dawn – i can relate to your experience… I personally fly either United (when going out of Harrisburg when heading to Chicago) or Southwest out of Philly when heading to the left coast. I can tell you that the level of service that United provides has significantly decreased since they aquired Continental… even out of a smaller, less busy airport like Harrisburg. their scheduling is compressed with fewer flights available, the pilots and flight attendants do not seem as “pleasant” as they used to be, and they seem to have many more mechanical failures on the planes than they used to.
granted, the flights out of Harrisburg to Chicago and Washington Dulles are actually with a United branded partner, however they are still ultimately responsible for how the contract carrier represents the brand. Normally the folks at MDT that work for united behind the counter / load the bags / etc… go out of their way to accomodate (i cannot remember a time that anyone at MDT was intentionally rude or uncaring) but you can tell that even they are feeling the effects of the merger. Sometimes growth is not a good thing.
Hi Jim! It does seem that the growth has stunted their ability to provide good service. We’ve flown Continental to TX in the past and always had good experiences. Now, as you said, decent flight times are tough to find and most employees seem frazzled and apathetic.
Traveling as much as you do, I’ll bet you’ve got some stories to tell!