Mastering Customer Service

By Philip M. Anderson
This was going to be an extremely long post so I’ve decided to break it up into two separate posts.

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Dallas, Texas, for a business conference.  During this trip I experienced a plethora of customer service ranging from outstanding to horrific.  I am first going to concentrate on the air portion of the trip.

My boss and somewhat travel companion, Shelley, had to fly to Washington D.C. to speak at a conference.  I flew to Dallas for the business conference that I’ve already mentioned.  She was supposed to finish speaking at the conference and then fly to Dallas and experience the business conference with me.

I will tell you that I flew on Frontier airlines and, although very full, both legs down to Dallas were flawless.  Shelley, for what she told me, had no problems getting to D.C.

So far so good, right?

Well, the conference that she spoke at went a little long and she found herself having to fight Friday afternoon rush hour traffic, trying to reach the airport and, thus, her flight on time.  She arrived at the gate, frantic, right about the time her flight was to take off.  She had been forced to go through extra security for reasons she wasn’t told and that actually caused her to miss the flight.

From that point on, Delta Airlines (the airlines she was flying) dropped the ball BIG TIME.  Now, before I get too far into this, I want to make it perfectly clear that it was not Delta Airlines’ fault that Shelley missed that flight.  Everything AFTER that, however, was.

They told her that they were sorry but there was nothing they could do and she would have to take a flight in the morning and PAY FOR IT IN FULL.  They never offered to put her on another airlines, something that is a common practice with quality conscious airlines.  There happened to be three other flights that particular night that would get her into Dallas, TWO of them were direct flights which Delta didn’t even offer.

It took me THREE hours on the phone with Delta as well as other airlines.  Shelley was increasingly more angry and turning into an emotional wreck with each counter she visited that told her, “I’m sorry, there is nothing we can do.”

Only after each time deadline did an offer come back from Delta.  For example, we would be told there is nothing they could do and she would have to get a hotel room for the night and fly the next morning and pay for a new flight.  Then, I would call back and get another “manager” or decision maker (THAT is an oxymoron, for sure!) who would tell me that they COULD help her…oh, wait, if we only knew about this a HALF HOUR AGO!  After explaining we’d been working on this for over an hour and nobody offered this solution then.

I’m probably not making sense or explaining this correctly but I am trying to convey how with every single opportunity Delta had for getting this problem right, they failed.  And they failed miserably.  You should know me enough by now to know I don’t pick fights just to pick fights but this was so poorly handled that I felt it is my duty to report this and get the word out so that other people might know what to look for.

What was the topping on the cake was when I was on hold the airlines music was interrupted by a voice asking if I would stay on the line and answer a few customer service questions that might help them provide better customer service in the future.  I was at my wits end but thought, what the heck, why not but then got disconnected.

Note to businesses, especially those that are hurting in this economic downturn:  When you have the opportunity to become a hero, DO IT!  Over deliver!  There were options and they didn’t even consider them.  Nobody thought outside the box.

I would venture to guess that had this happened to a person of notoriety such as a Bill Gates, Bill Cosby or Bill Clinton this would never have happened.  Shelley ended up having to spend another $800 to get to Dallas.  Was it initially Delta’s fault.  Nope.  Could they have won a customer for life?  Yep.  Did they?

Well, not only did they NOT win a customer for life, we will NEVER EVER fly Delta Airlines again and everyone I know will know that and why.  We live in a new age of transparency which allows the consumer to have more say when they are treated poorly.  This is one of those times and that’s why I’m writing this.

Thank you for reading and stay tuned for Part 2 which will deal with the POSITIVE’S of the trip because I experienced something that wasn’t the fault of the business but they still took ownership and made many people feel comfortable and at ease at a very crucial time.

aphilip369@aol.com