Here’s a solid piece of advice to airlines: Your employees foster customer loyalty. A good experience will lead to repeat use, a bad experience could lead to more than a loss in loyalty (especially in these days of Twitter and Facebook usage). In this tough economic and competitive environment, you need every loyal traveler you can win — consider that an important safety tip for your use.
I recently went to Bermuda with my family for an early summer vacation (more on this later). We flew on a direct flight with a well known major airline. As we approached Bermuda, the flight attendants walked through the cabin handing out customs forms to anyone who needed them. When I was handed a form, I asked the flight attendant three times whether this was the only form I needed. She assured me it was.
After a two-hour flight from Boston to Bermuda with three kids in tow, we land in Bermuda, walk off the plane and wait on the tarmac for our gate-checked gear (have I mentioned I was with my three kids?). The kids were going crazy at this point – we were finally in Bermuda after having discussed it for months. I queued up for Customs at the back of the line and after about 20 minutes I get to the agent who promptly informed me that I had filled out the wrong forms. Wait… WHAT?? Didn’t I confirm this with the flight attendant three times? Have I mentioned that I had three kids under the age of 9 with me?
In total, it took my family more than an hour to process through customs in Bermuda –an activity that should have taken 15 minutes. I had to fill out the correct forms (one per person) and get back in a line that had been freshly filled by two more arriving flights. My kids are fantastic travelers because they are use to it and understand there will be some need for patience. But, this put them over the edge and I couldn’t blame them. They turned into terrors (apologies again to the woman who was knocked down while they were chasing each other around).
I was originally going to use this post to slam an airline for lousy service, but it struck me that it may be one particular individual that caused the poor service. So, I am not going to mention the airline. However, at the end of the day, the airline must accept responsibility for their employees’ training and service.
I hope the airlines can use this scenario as a learning experience. Loyalty stems from trust and a positive experience. If you want customers to be loyal, you need to give them a reason for doing so.
I was given good reason to never fly with this particular airline again. In fact, I have a few new non-stop flight options to Bermuda. Next time we go (which I hope is soon because Bermuda is amazing), I will definitely remember what caused the painful experience. Airlines that do not focus on service will have their own painful experiences to deal with.
What are your horror stories?
© Cheapflights Ltd Carl Schwartz
