Talk to anyone, anywhere, anyplace in the United States and you will hear a story about abominable customer service. It’s not industry, demographically, or geographically specific. It’s everywhere and, some would argue, getting worse.
Customers ask “Why do they treat me this way?” as they most times slink away tail between their legs feeling as if he have no recourse.
Congratulations! You just broke the code.
As someone who does not remain quiet when treated poorly I’ve come to the following conclusions.
Customer Service departments are set up in such a way as to discourage a complaint, legitimate or otherwise from ever landing on the desktop of someone with the clout and business acumen to say, “Wait, we need to fix this.”
Rat-maze voice-mail systems with what seems like 2,000 options and an equal number of menu layers to the form letter or non-response to an e-mail that fails to address the concerns of the customer. The entire process is designed not to satisfy the customer, but to make him or her go away.
If, in the unlikely event that the customer is persistent enough to continue to badger the company, only then will they receive the attention every customer deserves.
Why does it happen in this manner?
Simple economics. If 100 people call, e-mail or snail mail regarding a similar issue and as a company I can frustrate 80 of them into going away, another 17 into the “At least I got something” category and 3 who were actually a big enough annoyance that the company offers them what should have been offered to all for their error, then as a company I lower operating costs.
Take a look at the economics of bad customer service.
Take the above numbers and let’s say that a modest, yet fair compensation would be a $200 travel voucher. With a total of 100 people that means the company has a maximum exposure of $20,000. About 80 percent of our imaginary group just go away, leaving the maximum exposure now at $4,000. The 17 who raised a bit of a fuss each get $100 vouchers, while the 3 who raised a major stink now get $300.
The best part of it is when you take a look at the numbers. In my example the company had a $20,000 exposure that it made go away for $2,600 or 13 cents on the dollar.
If you believe as airlines do that all customers want is a cheap fare then the type of spreadsheet mentality will continue unabated. The current crop of MBAs running domestic airlines often can’t see beyond the metrics and grasp the simple fact that passengers are not self loading cargo, rather they are someones son, daughter, aunt, uncle, or grandparents, and as such have a reasonable expectation of having what they purchased delivered as promised and if not then a reasonable avenue to pursue to seek compensation, refunds and the like.
No one expects perfection. The mark of a good company is how they treat their customers. The mark of a great company is how they treat their customers when things do go wrong.
(Photo: alist/Flickr Creative Commons)
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There’s an easier answer. Stop flying that airline. I no longer fly United for exactly those reasons and that after being a Premier Executive for 10 years. Vote with your feet.
@TJAL, that’s too easy. In fact, with the current fortress hubs and de-facto airline monopolies, many of use just don’t have a choice. If it were that easy — if we could just walk away — most of us would have done so by now.
Fact is, lax government regulation allowed these monopolies to emerge. The people who were supposed to protect us turned a blind eye to predatory pricing. Now we’re stuck with this mess.
A couple of years ago at Disneyland, they set up a system where the guest was no longer allowed to write their own complaints; rather, they had to dictate them to the cast member, who would write out the pertinent information for them. Then the CM would enter the info into the computer with enough tag words to send out the apropos form letter of apology. I think your theory of discouraging the complaints in the first place doesn’t just lie with airlines, it lies in all areas of the travel industry.
In MBA-speak, customer service is “outside the value stream.” In other words, it’s an expense that only drains the bottom line without contributing to profitability. So obviously it’s among the first things to be downsized, outsourced, or possibly eliminated when a CEO seeks to “unlock shareholder value.”
Airlines particularly have a license to “make customer complaints go away.” In addition to the lax regulation and monopoly status that Christopher cites, the industry as a whole has a virtual monopoly on transportation. If you don’t have several days to drive across the country (or, God help us, to ride Amtrak), or to sail across the ocean (assuming you can even find a passenger ship), your only choice is to fly. Since airlines are all competing with each other to degrade the air travel experience as a cost-cutting measure, you’re going to get treated like self-loading cargo no matter which airline you fly.
Airline executives thus operate with the sure knowledge that no matter how badly they mistreat their paying customers, those customers will be back at the airport queuing up for more abuse sooner rather than later. It’s a monopoly of monopolies, which presumably is a fine example of the “Free Market” that is the goal of conservatives.
It seems that the only thing we can do about it is to avoid flying, whenever that’s possible. Unfortunately, that’s often not possible.
Hapgood September 9, 2009 at 5:21 pm
In MBA-speak, customer service is “outside the value stream.” In other words, it’s an expense that only drains the bottom line without contributing to profitability. So obviously it’s among the first things to be downsized, outsourced, or possibly eliminated when a CEO seeks to “unlock shareholder value
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explain THAT in MBA speak: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/100-In-the-Bag-US-Airways-bw-2562481961.html?x=0&.v=1
Frank, that bit of good news is easy to explain. Tracking and recovering mishandled bags costs airlines money. So the MBAs looked for ways to cut those costs. They crunched the numbers and decided that giving employees cash awards for improving baggage handling metrics would reduce those costs more than enough to offset the cost of the awards. MBAs see only numbers and widgets; the “human factor” just gets in the way of cost-cutting. In this case, the cost-cutting measure coincidentally happens to benefit passengers (assuming that it actually has reduced the reliability of baggage handling rather than merely gaming the metrics).
Not to worry, as the coincidence is only temporary. Eventually we will become so acclimated to their “Old McDonald” business model (“here a fee, there a fee, everywhere a fee fee”) that they’ll be able to get away with charging a fee for tracking down and recovering mishandled bags. Then they’ll do away with the cash awards and lay off more baggage handlers. But they haven’t beaten us down quite enough yet to get away with that. Just give them time.
I’ll take a somewhat devil’s advocate view on customer service. I think we can all agree that not all complaints are equal. In fact, I would argue that at least half, or even a majority are completely inane. Just look at a lot of the drivel on untied.com. As long as there are so many people with just stupid or petty complaints clogging the communication system, the airlines or other travel companies aren’t going to waste a lot of time and money being responsive to people who frankly don’t deserve a thing. This does come at the expense of legitimate issues.
So how to separate the legitimate problem from the bs? Well, I do think that being in a loyalty program can at least get you a better chance at getting problems resolved. Perfect? Hardly, but my experience as a former Premier with United and current Platinum with American (as well as Platinum Priority Rewards and Hilton Gold) did show a markedly better customer service experience when things went outside the norm when I was in the position to have additional customer service access options.
Second, there needs to be a more realistic expectation when one adds layers to the travel planning process. Third party intermediaries can be helpful on a rock bottom price, but the downside is that when something goes wrong, you have to deal with more than one business, which as this site has shown, seems to increase the likelihood of an unsatisfactory outcome.
Third, people need to pick their battles and be realistic in what they feel they deserve. If too many people feel they deserve a free ticket because their flight was 1/2 hour late arriving, well wouldn’t you just start ignoring the noise? Some of my most hellish travel experiences occured in the 70s as a child traveling with my family, and not the last several years as a frequent flier. The “good old days” were just not as good as many would like to think–its just that we (collectively) have a much more self centered and crazy perspective on what “we” feel we “deserve” these days.
I guess my point is people want rock bottom prices to travel. Travel businesses therefore cut back on everything they can to provide those prices. Customer service suffers. People think they deserve the moon for minor inconveniences. Travel businesses tune out the noise. Customer service suffers.
Legitimate grievances go unanswered, probably because they represent such a small portion of the overall picture.
What this country needs is more plumbers, carpenters, & electricians–and fewer MBAs.
Give me the trip with the fewest hassles, even if it costs more. Am I alone in this?
Allison, nice to see someone with a more balanced perspective. So many of these rants would have people believe that all customers are saints with 100% legitimate grievances, being victimized by some horrible company with whom they voluntarily chose to do business. Whatever happened to that old adage about glass houses and stones? If the maladjusted, egocentric screamers would just move on, the legitimate issues could be resolved and everyone could go home early. Step outside the mob mentality and take a look at what is really happening, and you will find that instead of constantly attacking the companies, you’ll be looking at the passenger next to you (or in the mirror) and wondering how they could believe they are entitled to whatever it is they are demanding. It’s amusing (on some level) to watch and listen to the people that show up at an airport, primed for offense. They look for any excuse to be outraged by any percieved injustice. In reality, they don’t “have” a problem, they are the problem. The solution is simple. Everyone needs to do their own job the way they demand other company’s emplyees do theirs, and treat other people the same way they insist on being treated.
@Kelley & Allison,
When I wrote the above piece I made the assumption that we were discussing legitimate issues and not some of the pettiness you’ve politely pointed out. I am one of the founders of FFOCUS (Frequent Flyers Organized & Concerned over Unacceptable Service. I act as a Customer Advocate and have a good high level contact at the airline I’m responsible for. The somewhat amusing thing is I tend to be tougher than my contact when it comes to suggesting remedies. I also don’t get involved in petty issues. When I get contacted with a BS complaint I politely refer them to the e-mail form on the web page.
I will and have gone eyeball to eyeball with this particular airline in support of the customer since August of 2002 and I will continue to do so for as long as it takes for them to realize that without customers there is no airline.
Frivolous or just downright silly complaints do indeed clog up the system and in that regard Kelley is spot on in her observations.
However, until the metric in the example changes to the point to where it is cheaper to give good customer service rather than bad or indifferent service little if anything will change
The endless prompts that so many companies use to shield themselves from customers is simply the electronic version of the same system we were all raised with. As children, problems and confrontations were frequently deferred, delegated, or ignored, not by a computer voice, but by “wait til your father gets home” or “go ask your mother”.
I have had my fill of airlines. I have a few necessary trips I have to fly and a couple of trips to use up frequent flyer miles. After that I will be able to schedule everything around driving to my destination.
With less and less customers you would think even the biggest idiots would figure out that in addition to the economy, bad treatment is a substantial part of the equation.
Allison September 10, 2009 at 1:17 am
I’ll take a somewhat devil’s advocate view on customer service. I think we can all agree that not all complaints are equal. In fact, I would argue that at least half, or even a majority are completely inane. Just look at a lot of the drivel on untied.com. As long as there are so many people with just stupid or petty complaints clogging the communication system, the airlines or other travel companies aren’t going to waste a lot of time and money being responsive to people who frankly don’t deserve a thing. This does come at the expense of legitimate issues.
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Awesome! Allison, your post is one of the best I’ve read here in a long time. Nice job!
There is another simple solution to bad service. Make a claim against the airline, or other bad service provider, in small claims court. No lawyer is needed for individuals making claims. In most cases the service provider will settle up rather than spending ‘expensive’ lawyer time on this (corporations must be represented by lawyers). In Illinois the court filing fee is about US$ 25 – 50..
Wow, Allison. That is just too much logic for one post.
Just a ‘clue’ for those with the biggest complaints of all (or should I say most numerous) – Lost Baggage:
The airlines very rarely LOSE your bags!!
Yep, you heard me correctly… They VERY RARELY actually LOSE your bags!
BUT, they do VERY OFTEN (and on purpose) LEAVE THEM BEHIND!!
As a former baggage/freight handler, here’s how it works – it’s plain and simple, it comes down to money (of course!):
When your plane is full of PEOPLE, it won’t be full of baggage!! Planes can only carry just so much weight and still be able to take off – the heaviest items are Fuel and People – You MUST have fuel to take off… And PEOPLE pay to fly… Baggage does not (well, it used to be free anyway, now they charge to discourage you from bringing any!).
So, if the plane is full of people, it CANNOT be full of bags/freight… Oh, and freight is a higher priority than baggage…
So, when they purposly leave your bags behind, it’s because they know they can send them on a ‘less full’ flight later (less full of paying passengers that is!) and they will pay to have them delivered to your home/hotel because they know it’s cheaper in the long run to hire someone to spend 4-8 hours delivering 5000 pounds of ‘lost’ luggage than it is to lose out on 5000 pounds of passengers (baseline is 200lbs per passenger to include carryon – this means 25 paying people) over just a few flights… After all, paying someone $15 an hour to deliver bags will only set them back $120… But taking out enough seats (6 per flight) to ensure bags get sent on will cost them 5-10 times as much!
That’s why they ‘magically’ find and deliver (or call you to come get) your bag within 24 hours… They know exactly where the bag is (it’s bar coded even!!) – they also know it was left off because of weight restrictions… Not ‘lost’…
Oh, and first bags NOT to be loaded in case of weight restrictions?? Those huge jumbo bags… After all, they can make 1 person mad or 3… Also, bags are put onto the carts by FILO… Meaning first in, last out… so, if you get to the bag drop off early, your bags will be buried and might not get loaded… you are best off being in the middle somewhere…
Robert Johnson September 10, 2009 at 10:42 am
When I wrote the above piece I made the assumption that we were discussing legitimate issues and not some of the pettiness you’ve politely pointed out. I am one of the founders of FFOCUS (Frequent Flyers Organized & Concerned over Unacceptable Service
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I’ve seen your website, you should of posted it: http://www.ffocus.org/awa/
Good cause.