How to dig yourself deeper into a poor service experience

How to dig yourself deeper into a poor service experience

I recently had cause to mull on how companies recover from bad service when I, and a planeload of passengers, were subjected to Air Canada’s fine display of poor service – and dismal recovery.

I was returning from Barbados to Toronto on a flight scheduled to depart at 3.05 p.m. Ensconced in the executive lounge and engrossed in the World Cup match between Costa Rica and Greece, I was oblivious to time, until I realized that my flight should have been called. Concerned that I had missed the announcement, I checked the flight status online only to see a new time posted of 5.30 p.m. Great. I thought. I have time to see the rest of the match.
However, as that time drew near, and still hearing no update, I checked again to discover a new departure time of 6.15 pm. And when that time drew closer, my angst level now rising and the match close to ending, I checked yet again only to see that the flight had been cancelled! I immediately consulted the receptionist who advised she had no notification of cancellation and that the plane was in St. Lucia about to depart for Barbados. Long story short, the flight WAS cancelled. And therein ensued lessons in how to make a not uncommon problem explode into a mess of disgruntled soon-to-be-ex-customers:

Lesson 1: Do not make announcements. Do not tell customers what is happening early on and every step of the way. Leave them in a vacuum of no-information so that they will have to mumble amongst themselves, ask each other questions, pepper your service personnel with all manner of requests and have them repeat the answers over and over. Allow space for them to get irate and shout at your employees. Let them swear that they will never fly Air Canada again, whilst your service personnel stare off into space with blank looks.

Lesson 2: Do not tell your customers what the process is when a flight is cancelled. Do not tell them what arrangements are being made, minor details such as where to collect their baggage, that they have to go through Customs, what hotel they will be booked into, where to get the bus, what time the flight the next morning departs, what time they need to be ready to leave the hotel. Allow them to find out from other passengers, bus drivers, hotel employees, baggage handlers and anyone who looks as if they might know something, anything.

Lesson 3: Make the process look as if it is the first time you have ever had a flight cancelled. Ensure that your employees appear flustered and do not know what to do. On no account should it appear that management has a carefully designed process for dealing with flight cancellations and that your employees know this process.

Lesson 4: Finally, as your passengers are boarding the flight the next day, safe in the knowledge that this will be the last time they willingly fly Air Canada, show them your “concern and appreciation” by offering something that will force them to do the very last thing they want to do at this point – spend money with you (they offered a one time discount on a future booking that must be taken within 60 days, among other conditions).

Providing a bad service experience need not mean the end of a good relationship with your customer. Here’s some free advice for Air Canada:

1. Design procedures for when things go wrong with the objective of creating positive outcomes for your customers. The procedures should cover every step from the first inkling that something is amiss (in this case the first delay) to the final interaction (when we boarded the flight the next day). If you already have such procedures, then audit them to make sure that they are achieving the objectives you want.
2. Train your team members in the procedures and in how and when to communicate.
3. Customers need information. Give it to them sooner rather than later. General announcements at regular intervals would have been very helpful, as would an announcement describing the process for accommodating us overnight and getting us to the airport the next day.
4. Understand your customers’ emotions as they are going through your process. Think: what can I do to help this customer feel better? Even more powerful would be to ask your customers. I did have a chuckle when the hotel asked me to sign my tab for “1 distress breakfast”. At least they understood how I felt.

Thanks for the discount code Air Canada. I won’t be using it. I would have appreciated something that did not make me have to give you one more dollar, like a gift certificate for a free massage. That just might make me less likely to book Westjet the next time I travel.

TAKE ONE ACTION

Examine a time when your organization delivered a poor service experience. Ask yourself:

• How was it handled?
• What process do you have in place to deal with such instances?
• Do these processes work?
• How do they make your customers feel?
• Are your team members trained and empowered to ensure that customers leave delighted?

And then get to work to design and communicate a process that ensures that your customers will be delighted even when things go wrong.

INTERESTING LINKS

Speaking of service experience, no-one does it better than Disney – deliberately creating and implementing processes that seem spontaneous and caring.
– click to view article

Perception shapes reality in that it determines how we behave. Watch how something as simple as chewing gum determines how people are perceived. What does this say about the judgements we make about customers, potential and current employees?
– click to view article