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11/18/2009: "A Recent Customer Service Experience Highlights Importance of Chapters 10 and 11"

My wife and I decided to splurge and buy first class tickets on Delta Airlines on a recent trip to the west coast. We soon discovered that "first class" was just a glorified name for a bigger economy class seat. The entire experience was a disappointment, but the poor quality of the cabin was just the beginning.

We booked our tickets on Expedia, the online travel company. My wife, who is a vegetarian, made a special meal request, that was acknowledged. At the Delta check in counter in Toronto we asked the agent if the requested meal would be available. She replied, "I don't know, check with the agent in Minneapolis, where you are connecting." Even though these were the words she used, her entire attitude was, "I don't really care." She stopped short of making a rude gesture.

At Minneapolis we approached the counter. We were told, "If you requested a vegetarian meal, I am sure it is on board." We boarded the plane and were horrified at the stained carpet in first class. For our meal we were offered a choice between two meat items. My wife asked about her vegetarian meal. "Oh," came the reply from the flight attendant, "We don't cater to special meals on domestic flights, only international ones." My wife said, "But, the agent in Minneapolis assured us that my special meal was on board." The employee merely shrugged.

Chapter 10 is on how to align all functions in a business around the customer, the topic of customer focus, much talked about by businesses, but practiced by very few. Chapter 11 is on how to attract, satisfy, and retain customers. Our recent experience with Delta suggests that senior management could be well served if they read, digested, and implemented these concepts.

In reality, achieving customer focus is very difficult unless the business puts in place the building blocks suggested by Chapter 11. Merely talking about customer focus is not enough.

All of us have had bad customer service experiences. A good conversation to have in class with your students is to solicit a couple of bad experiences and a couple of good ones. Then, ask the question: "If you were a senior manager responsible for customer focus, what would you do to engage employees, especially the all-important ones on the front line?"

I look forward to receiving your comments at asirsi@schulich.yorku.ca