Another Airline Experience Lesson

I have been meaning to write this blog post for some time now and on my return flight from the Grant Professionals Conference I finally got the push I needed.

About 6 months ago, I was on a Southwest Airlines flight returning home after a long week.  I was working on my way home, and as we prepared for landing the flight attendant asked me to stow my laptop.  I was in the front row, so I had to put it in one of the side bins.  As soon as I locked the bin, I thought there is no way I am going to remember this.  Sure enough, I got off the plane and headed home.  About 11 PM that night I realized that I had left my laptop on the plane.  I went into panic mode.  I called Southwest with no real hope of getting it back, but figured it was worth a shot.  The first person I spoke to transferred me to the office in Austin, and in less than 5 minutes (and I am not exaggerating) they had found my laptop.  The lady asked if I wanted her to stay, so I could pick it up that night.  I told her that was not necessary and that while I appreciated it, I would collect my once lost laptop the next day.  AMAZING!!!!

The next day, I went to the terminal, showed my ID, and picked up my missing laptop.  I mean seriously, it was amazing.  They had a process in place to transfer left items from the plane to that city; makes sense to me.  Everyone knew what to do and where to send people with lost items.  Sure is nice to have a process in place that helps your forgetful customers.  As I look back on that experience, I realize that sense the incident, I have flown Southwest every time I have flown expect once and I applied for the Southwest credit card.  I guess good customer service does pay off.  That interaction really did have an impact.  I wasn’t thinking about the loyalty they created with me until I went to write this blog.  It was just organic because the experience made me feel so good about them.

Now, this is what actually prompted me to write that story.  Today in great contradiction to Southwest, I was on an American Airlines flight.  As I got ready to board, the flight attendant told me that my roll aboard was not going to fit.  I told her, that no indeed it did fit and that I traveled with it all of the time.  (Then I thought, maybe this is a smaller plane.) So, I asked, “Is this a smaller plane?”  Well, a normal response to that question would be, “Yes Ma’am it is, so your bag is not going to fit.”  Instead, I got “Well, why don’t you roll it back there and see, and then you can roll it right back out because it ain’t gonna fit.”  SERIOUSLY!!!!!  I just starred at her; surely she didn’t just say that.  “Ma’am, it won’t fit.”  She is still talking, I am still shocked.  Needless to say, this experience really did shine a light on how important customer experience is.  I won’t fly American Airlines again (by choice). 

Take-away:  There are a few for this blog post:

1.       Don’t put people with poor customer service skills in a customer role.  I am sure that flight attendant gets crazy annoyed with people telling her their luggage will fit all day when she knows it won’t, BUT guess what she doesn’t get to get annoyed.  She is being paid to provide a service.  Customer service shouldn’t stop in a customer service role EVER!

2.       Put procedures in place to create a memorable experience when people least expect it.  The positive ramifications of a positive experience have a trickle-down effect which = positive feelings, and in the case of Southwest Airlines positive ROI!