Some Conversations Should Never Happen
It's been an extraordinarily busy time at SHIFT; I hope ya'll have enjoyed the long, slow posting schedule here at PR-Squared. I am hoping to re-energize Ye Olde Batteries over the holiday and resume a more rigorous schedule of bloggy brainspasms.
Meanwhile, may I rant? It's always fun to read about other folks' travel-related nightmares, right? But I am hoping to make a bigger point about customer service along the way.
I've been traveling quite a bit lately, which I normally don't mind, but lately I've been boggled by the poor customer service found at some of the airlines.
Last week I was trying to get from Philadelphia to Boston. My team and I were booked on a 3:30pm flight. We arrived at 2:57-ish. Most of the self-service kiosks were either in-use or (worse!) Out-Of-Service. By the time we could man the kiosks, it was 3:01pm. "Sorry --- you have got to be there 30 minutes beforehand if you want a boarding pass!"
No amount of pleading (nor pointing to the non-existent line at Security) would bend the rule. We literally watched our plane board, just 20 yards away. We could have easily gotten on the flight if someone at US Airways had the power to bend by an inch.
So, we're booked on the 5:30pm flight in consolation. Let's go eat? Better confirm with the gate agent that we're definitely on that 5:30pm flight. "Yup, you're good," we were told.
But we return from the airport's bar&grille at 5pm in order to be told by the new gate agent, "Sorry, you're not on this flight." We were holding tickets, which had been booked and subsequently confirmed by two separate US Airways agents! --- But "we're not on this flight?!"
For the first time, ever, I lost my cool at the airport. Many #%$&*#@ were blithely slinged throughout the gate area.
Thankfully, my cool-headed colleague finagled us to the head of the standby line, and we were admitted onto the flight. But not before the gate agent pulled me aside to scold me: "It's not about the job; it is about how you treat people. The job is nothing."
The warm-n-fuzzy Social Media Advocate in me empathized. But the guy who'd been jerked around for several hours disagreed:
"Actually, it is about the job. If the employees at US Airways had competently handled their jobs, if they had treated us like customers instead of ##s, I'd be home right now, eating dinner with my kids. I apologize for yelling at y-o-u, if it makes you feel better, but you're on the front-lines here, and you would not acknowledge --- nor showed much willingness to rectify --- your organization's incompetence."
Sometimes it's not about The Conversation --- it's about making sure that The Conversation never happens.
Tags: US+airways
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Comments
I empathize with you completely. When I was coming back from New York through Newark, I was told that my flight had been rescheduled until the next day. The person at the ticket counter looked annoyed that I asked her to find me another flight to somewhere near where I live.
When I finally said "and what am I supposed to do until tomorrow morning?" she replied: "You got a book?"
I have never been made so mad that I actually went full circle back to calm. No wonder they're all losing money.
Posted by: Ryan Anderson | November 21, 2006 07:48 PM
Urgh! That's a bad one, Ryan. It's a good thing there are armed guards throughout the airport!
The question is, Did you blog about it??
Imagine if everyone blogged about their terrible airline experiences. Sooner or later that level of transparency might motivate change. (Or not.)
Posted by: Todd Defren | November 21, 2006 08:03 PM
Todd:
Just reading your story about obvious imcomptence gets my blood boiling, though I do try and arrive at the airport extra early just to avoid this kind of scenario.
Now it would be really interesting if US Airways were monitoring the blogosphere and the "US Airways" Technorati tag, so that it could jump into this conversation.
That's what Marriott appears to be doing, if this post from Shel Holtz is any indication:
http://blog.holtz.com/index.php/weblog/marriott_update_theyre_listening/
(Shel's site appears to be down at the moment, but this is the correct permalink).
Think about some of the goodwill that US Airways and just about any business might be able to reclaim if it did so.
Are you holding your breath that that will happen anytime soon?
Posted by: Bryan Person, Bryper.com | November 22, 2006 11:46 AM
Amen! It is about the incompetence to me. Especially if the other party is law enforcement. Of course, my gripe is unrelated to your own. However, the similar atmosphere garnered my personal interest in your plight. Perhaps along with World Peace we also need Competent Employees regardless of what role in life they might play. Everyone should have the human decency to actually display a slight bit of common sense and logic when the particular situation arises. For those who lack the self esteem and confidence to "call the shots", I suggest unemployment suits the situation. Those who can't THINK.... should never interact with the public, and, certainly not as law enforcement or off shoots of HomeLand Security.
Posted by: Tonya Thomas | November 24, 2006 10:48 AM