Customer Service - Where Have You Gone?

  

Recently, I was reading an article from Kris Vockler's blog in the USGNN Newsletter entitled "Why Is Customer Service So Difficult?  It really got me to thinking.  Lack of, or poor customer service, is a real pet peeve of mine.  As Kris said in her article, how is it that some companies "get it" and others don't seem to have a clue?  I will site an example from a trip my wife and I took  recently to attend a wedding of the daughter of a long time friend in North Carolina.  We flew a prominent airline, and to put it mildly, they made what should have been a pleasant experience a nightmare.  The flight from Tampa was scheduled to leave at 6:45AM, and ended up departing 45 minutes late, due to a mechanical issue.  OK, I know things happen, but during the entire delay, the pilot came on only one time to let us know what was happening and the progress being made, or lack of it.  Now I'm becoming concerned that we are going to  miss our connecting flight in Charlotte to take us to our ultimate destination in Asheville.  We get to Charlotte in enough time to make our connecting flight only to find that it was delayed twice and then cancelled!  I should mention here that the wedding was at 4:00PM the same day.

When I asked why the flight was cancelled, I was told "maintenance", and instructed to go to the other end of the terminal and to get "re-booked" on another flight.  A number of disinterested looking booking agents informed us that they get get us on the 4:30PM flight to Asheville.  When I told them that wouldn't work because the wedding was at 4:00PM, they looked at me with a blank "oh, well" stare.

I should add that this prominent airline recently ranked second in airlines with the most complaints.  I wonder why?

Tired of dealing with people who simply did not care about customer service, I decided to take control of the situation.  I whisked my wife down to Enterprise and rented a car for the two hour drive time trip to Asheville.  What a difference!  A young lady named Lea showed genuine interest in our plight , got us on our way in 10 minutes, with a free upgrade.

Enough of my ranting.  The point is, both of these companies are going to get letters from me.  What do you think each one is going to say?  With competition as fierce as it is today, and companies both large and small going out of business, you had better take care of your most important commodity, the customer.  Somebody once said that it is ten times more difficult to get a customer back than it is to get them the first time.  Someone also said"  the customer is the reason we exist."   Both are good business mantras to live by.

Customer service where have you gone?  I miss you.