Yesterday my flight was delayed about an hour and twenty minutes. My plane was coming from Tulsa except that it had mechanical difficulties (read: broken plane). That plane nor its crew ever left Tulsa so they had to find a new piece of equipment and crew for our flight.
I got to thinking about a restaurant or a family entertainment center with the same issues. You know, a game could be down or you could be out of something on the menu. You could be shorthanded or someone “called in” sick so you have to find a new “crew”.
It struck me funny (or at least odd) that no one was having a giant fit at the airport about getting their money back. You know what I mean… if you had an equipment failure in your center, there would be more than one person having a giant fit! I’ve seen people at a restaurant practically turn a table over because their soup was cold. The reason I thought this was so odd is that soup or that game probably cost less than $5.00. I think I paid just under $500.00 for my airline ticket. Should I have been more upset because I had just paid so much for my bad experience? Or have airlines trained us how to respond in these situations?
I wonder why guests think they need to have monumental fits. I believe that our customers giving us feedback is important for us to improve our service, but I also feel like there are a few customers that have learned that if they fuss loud enough, they get their money back. In this instance, I think that the customer has trained us! Like if they get a regular Coke instead of Diet at a birthday party, the scream and swear and demand a full refund. In most situations, giving money back is not a long term solution.
Sometimes things are outside our control, or the situation, while an important customer service issue, warrants a less extreme action. For example, I think that giving some type of voucher so we have the opportunity to really give the disgruntled guest a GREAT experience on another day is a much better choice than just refunding the current situation. There is no guarantee that the refunded guest will ever come back.
I think American Airlines (or any airline) could benefit greatly by awarding miles for every minute they are late. All of a sudden, that time delay becomes more positive. I can’t imagine it would cost them a lot. The people who don’t fly often are incentivized to sign up and begin to collect miles and those of us that fly all the time, see it as a real perk to help offset the delay.
Here’s what I know about travel… there are going to be delays. I don’t normally have a fit. I know the airline is doing the best they can and they want to get that plane out of there as much as I want to go. It’s just part of the experience. (Sounds like the stuff you put up with when you shop at Walmart).
I’m not sure that I’m making my point today. I was just struck by the great divide in a guest’s mentality compared to the size of the disruption of service. And by size I mean amount of money spent on the purchase as well as perceived importance of the situation. Cold soup-Meeting delay. $5.00-$500.00.
It was a “No Fit” zone yesterday at the airport… we just waited. Your customer has a cow if they need to wait 5 extra minutes on a pizza. It’s an interesting business this business of guest service! Isn’t it? How is your employee supposed to know how serious the “disruption” is?
If you want to get your staff more prepared to handle that difficult guest situation, I want to encourage you to enroll in our “Handling A Difficult Guest” eLearning Course. It is FANTASTIC! We really want to be a resource for you in helping your staff become rock star performers! Talk with us
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