It has become almost cliché to pick on the airline industry, but they really bring it on themselves. I travel frequently for business so I have ample opportunity to observe air carriers at their best, and also at their worst. Unfortunately for all of us, customers tend to remember you more for your worst moments than for your best ones. Jan Carlzon, the former president of Scandinavian Airlines, coined the phrase “Moments of Truth” to define the many times you impact your customers perception of your business in either a positive or a negative manner. Mr. Carlzon contended that these “Moments of Truth” with your customers can combine seemingly minor individual experiences into a collective positive or negative overall perception of your business. Mix that with the commonly accepted axiom that bad news travels ten times as fast as good news and you have a recipe for potential disaster if you don’t minimize negative experiences for your customers.
Why then, doesn’t the airline industry wake up and smell the coffee? You can’t talk with three people at a party without finding at least two of them with highly negative airline experiences they are more than willing to share. I know this to be true because I’ve tested this theory at several parties to validate my assumption. Instead of spending millions of dollars advertising how much they love baggage, cute animals, and more leg room why don’t they put some of that money to work making the customer experience more positive?
I recently had an experience where my flight into Chicago was delayed getting to the gate due to bad weather forcing the workers off the tarmac. I understand that safety is a major concern and didn’t think twice about the delay. After exiting the plane, I had to hustle to my connecting gate for Buffalo only to discover that the connection was delayed as well. Once again, I was disappointed but certainly not surprised. The weather will be what it wants to be. To my surprise, while I was waiting for the Buffalo flight to board, I received an e-mail from the Airline apologizing for my delay and a link to a website where I could select a gift as a token of their sincere regret. Wow, I was impressed! Maybe I was wrong about this Airline carrier and they actually WERE funneling some money into improving the customer experience! Not so fast, the story doesn’t end there as I was only halfway to my final destination.
My plane for Buffalo finally left about forty-five minutes late so that wasn’t so bad. The problem, we later discovered, was that they had left at least half the baggage behind in Chicago. After landing and discovering our bags were not coming, I found myself on the opposite side of the baggage carousel from the lost baggage claim office, causing me a spot about twenty people deep in a line to file a missing baggage claim. It wouldn’t have been so bad except for the fact that I was traveling with a hockey team of twelve year olds and it was now one AM in the morning! After spending another forty five minutes standing in line to get my bag claim filed we grabbed our rental car (no problems there) and headed to our hotel to try to get some sleep. It was a bad ending to the flight as my son had no equipment, I had no clothes, and we certainly were not going to get enough sleep.
This was not my first rodeo and I have certainly experienced missing luggage before. What made the experience so ironic was that I had received a sincere apology by e-mail for sitting on the tarmac for forty-five minutes due to circumstances beyond control of the Airline before I even reached the gate for the next flight yet recieved nothing for what I considered to an incident that was completely the fault of the air carrier. When I say nothing, I really do mean nothing. No apology e-mail with a gift for my inconvenience, not even a stranded passenger packet with toothpaste and a toothbrush. Nothing, zip, nada!
The next day I finally received my bags and even though my son missed his first hockey practice before the tournament it all worked out. The downside for the airlines was that they had scored points with me for how they had handled a “Moment of Truth” that was clearly not their fault yet gave all those points back, and then some, for how they handled a “Moment of Truth” where they had clearly failed numerous customers.
Where is Jan Carlzon when we need him most? Remember that it isn’t enough to manage MOST of your “Moments of Truth” with your customers, you need to manage them ALL in order to avoid situations like I described here. You never know when one of your fumbled “Moments of Truth” will impact someone with a fairly well read blog!
Chuck Terry is the Executive Vice President and CSO of Carew International and is regular contributor to Carew’s blog – Executive Insights
Carew International is a leader in sales training and leadership development; specializing in comprehensive, proven training programs for sales, sales management and customer service excellence. For over 30 years, Carew has earned its reputation of delivering increased productivity and profitability to our valued clients world wide.
