If you have ever felt little or powerless in your life (and I bet most of us have at some point), you know how deeply unsettling that feeling is. Some of us would do anything to never experience that feeling ever again.
The pursuit of excellence in customer service, as with most of our pursuits in life, is all about empowering people to feel opposite of powerless. Our brands, our services, and our products are all about empowering our customers: whether it is to be more efficient, or to be healthier / happier, the list goes on.
That’s why it continues to baffle me that companies have such hard time understanding such an important concept, let alone implementing it in their everyday operations. It seems that the 3 Cs (communication, common courtesy, common sense) of excellent customer service are consistently ignored by companies in serving their most important stakeholders – their customers.
Case in point…
Communication
On February 21 I was flying out of JFK airport on an evening Delta flight. Heavy fog caused severe delays and impacted airlines’ operations. For those of us who fly regularly, we understand that there is little that can be done about weather delays. But one thing airlines can do is provide clear and timely communication to reduce passenger’s anxiety. Delta, however, didn’t do a very good job at it… at all.
The gate agents kept telling the passengers that the pilot and the crew are on their way, but the flight kept being delayed hour after hour. At some point we were informed that the crew is at the airport and is going through security, but hours later, it never showed up. The passengers started to get antsy. They wanted transparency, even if the news weren’t great. But gate agents wouldn’t communicate.
Now, it wasn’t agents’ fault. They were being fed bad intel from their headquarter team, which put them in a very tough situation. Passengers almost started a revolt. And at some point one of them said something that struck me: “This is insane, no one would tell us anything… But what can we do? We have no voice… Unless we go all Ukraine on them… That’s all we have left.” I wrote the quote down and it struck me how sad it was that Delta’s customers felt absolutely powerless.
The debacle continued. Another passengers very respectfully asked for the manager. The gate agent kept quiet and didn’t address the request… until almost an hour later… at which point she pointed at the woman rushing by and told the gentlemen to try to chase her down because “that was the manager” and it was up to him to “catch” her if he wanted to talk to her. The passenger looked at her in shock. One of his arms was in the cast, another tried to wrangle the two bags he had with him. Exactly how did she expect him to do it?
As I was watching this, I thought to myself: this all could have been avoided if the clear communication processes were in place internally. With some transparency and timely information this damage to the reputation of the company could have been avoided. All passengers wanted was human attention, a reasonable conversation, and an honest situation assessment. How hard was that?
At some point I tweeted at Delta, but never got a response over Twitter either. 7 hours later, the flight finally took off the ground, with passengers still discussing how poorly the situation was handled.
Common courtesy
It’s really all about little things in life. Like someone who is watching you making mistake pointing out that you might want to do things differently. Especially if it is your customer.
A while back I had to go downtown Portland for meetings, which happens rather rarely. Parking is hard in the city, so when I saw the clearly outlined parking spot on the street, I got excited. As I was parking my car in the wrong spot (yes, sometimes you don’t see the right sign or you are just plain clueless) a parking enforcement officer was standing right next to my car on the curb and watched me park. He waited as I paid the parking meter and left. I smiled at him as I walked by. When I returned, I found a ticket on my windshield. Apparently, even though the parking spot was identified with two white lines, that particular spot was for loading during certain times of the day.
Totally my fault! I should’ve looked for the sign. This was the first parking ticket I’ve gotten in my life and I fully deserved it. That said, I couldn’t help by wonder whether the story I am telling would have been absolutely different if the officer actually pointed out that I can’t park there instead of waiting for me to leave and happily sticking me with the ticket. Where did the common courtesy go? What an amazing (and missed) chance to make an advocate for life!
Well, Officer S. Morris, you made the city $90 in the short-term, but your lack of empathy will probably cost your employer much more in the long run.
This may not be a brand example, but what I do know is that in any business the lack of empathy, caring, and desire to go above and beyond in your employees translates to a significant long-term revenue loss.
Common sense
When you offer a product or a service, you want to ensure your customer has a great experience with it.
When someone stays at a hotel, for example, I bet what that hospitality brand is hoping for is for the guest to feel at home away from home. I bet the brand wants to create an immersive and fun experience that will have you coming back again and again.
Back in January I stayed at the Intercontinental hotel in Chicago. It was a great hotel and I was looking forward to spending an extra hour at the gym before my evening meetings. The clerk checked me in, gave me the key, and pointed me to the gym. But when I got there I found out that I had to pay an additional fee for the facility use. It would have been nice for someone to inform me about this in the first place.
I don’t know about you, but I travel a lot. And I have yet to experience paying for the use of the hotel’s gym. So I tweeted at the hotel. An hour later I got a response asking me to provide the feedback. “What feedback?” I thought, “Was my tweet not enough?” Another hour passed and I got a call from the front desk telling me that they can waive the fee for me. By then it was too late for me to hit the gym.
That said, it was very nice of the hotel staff to extend me that offer. And huge kudos to the brand for addressing my biggest concern around my stay through social channels. But yet again, I couldn’t keep but wonder: if you want to offer an amazing all-inclusive experience, wouldn’t you want to include the gym fee in your charge and make sure all your guests have access to it without the shocking hustle of an additional fee? To me, that’s common sense. But maybe it’s just me.
In closing…
When I share my personal experiences such as the ones above, I try to remember that we are always dealing with human beings and that to err is human (and I myself is guilty of that). That said, what the Delta flight passenger said about consumers not having a voice touched me. I wanted him to know that in the digital age regular people do have power, sometimes more than they realize.
These examples are yet another reminder that customer service and employees going above and beyond in their jobs can make or break the reputation (and eventually) the bottom line of any company.
P.S. Here are 40 thought-provoking quotes on customer service that may inspire you.
Originally posted in Forbes