Aptify

I recently concluded a wonderful vacation with my wife. That is wonderful until our return flight home. Let me explain. Our return flight from Mexico took us first to Dallas where we endured an excruciating journey through customs which took longer than normal due to a lack of on duty custom officers – but that’s another story.

After successfully navigating customs we realized we had ten minutes to catch a flight that was literally on the other side of the airport and required a monorail ride followed by a dead-on sprint through the terminal to our gate. Unfortunately, the door leading to the boarding ramp was closed and the gate agent wasn’t in sight, although the plane was still at the gate. I bolted over to the next gate and asked that boarding agent if there was anything to be done. Her response was no worries the agent will be right there to help you. Wrong. An agent never reappeared, but we did manage to watch our plane depart the gate. I was perplexed, wondering how could this happen and how are we going to pick up our daughter? When making our reservations I had booked my flight via the airline’s website and selected the combination of flights suggested by them – surely they took into account customs.

We moseyed back over to the previously visited gate agent who clinically and efficiently issued us new tickets for a flight taking off three and a half hours later. The agent did her job – no question, but a look of empathy and a ‘gosh, I’m so sorry for your inconvenience,’ or something that resembled some compassion was really what I needed at the moment, but I got nothing.

I did inquire about the timing of the connecting flights and the agent, again very clinically informed me our original flight took off on time and even landed four minutes early. Really? I knew that already. I wanted to know why a connecting flight would be scheduled one hour and fifty minutes after our arrival time when it took an hour and forty-five minutes to get through customs. (In case you’re wondering we didn’t encounter any problems at customs, just long lines.) Her response was customs normally takes only an hour, so while we missed our connecting flight IT WASN’T THE AIRLINES FAULT. Nothing makes me crazier than to hear: ‘IT’S NOT MY FAULT.’ I could have accepted the explanation without the exoneration of fault.

I wasn’t looking for blame, up until this point I was still pretty mellow, but my buttons just got pushed, so I pushed back. ‘Ok, we missed our flight and we’re stuck in the airport for another three plus hours. Can the airline at least comp us a meal?’ I asked.

‘No, according to our rules your missed flight ISN’T OUR FAULT, but we did rebook your flight without a penalty or additional charges.’ Did she really just say that?

‘Can I speak to a supervisor?’

‘The supervisor will talk with you, but he is very far away.’

Finally the supervisor shows up and I explain our situation. This time I at least get a smirk, but the same ‘ITS NOT OUR FAULT.’ Ok, I get that, but how about twenty bucks for dinner? ‘No, according to our rules your missed flight ISN’T OUR FAULT.’

‘Ok, can I speak to your supervisor?’

‘No, but you can go to www.LackofCompassionAirline.com and file a complaint but they’re going to tell you the same thing and if you incur any additional charges due to the delay which you expect the airlines to pay for you had better be able to provide proof if you expect us to even consider your complaint. But it’s not our fault so you’ll be wasting your time.’

At this point I called the airlines, spoke to a very pleasant booking agent who expressed her sorrow (contrived or not, it was nice to hear) and put me through to her supervisor who was even less sympathetic and more acerbic than my gate agent and the supervisor. He said and this is a direct quote: ‘It’s not our fault, go complain to customs.’

I will never, ever fly LackofCompassionAirlines again – ever. Although I relied on the airlines to arrange my flights it would have been GREAT if there was a ‘Risk-O’Meter’ to indicate the likelihood of making a connecting flight. For instance if the Risk-O’Meter indicated a 40% chance of making my connecting flight I sure as heck would have selected another option. Wouldn’t that be cool? Then the responsibility lies with me to select an appropriate connecting flight based on my tolerance for risk.



Empowering someone with the ability to choose is HUGE – how often do you empower your members to make a choice?
 
With all of this extra time on my hands I started thinking about how we deal with our members. Do we track their experiences via metrics and pat ourselves on the back when we surpass the numbers by which we measure success and execute each member experience with clinical efficiency and a ‘by-the-numbers’ mentality? Or, do we routinely go the extra mile to make a member happy leaving them with a positive experience?

Think about a call center within an association (but this applies equally to any member interaction). Chances are pretty good your member service representatives have quotas to meet. Does your organization rely solely on a tangible set of metrics like the number of sales or hourly call volumes? Do you bother to query your members for perhaps a more intangible metric like member happiness? There is a need for both and a quick 1 or 2 question survey can be most effective:

1. Were you happy with your most recent interaction with XYZ Association?
2. If so, why? If not, why not?

That’s it you’re done, but if the member isn’t happy you had better take remedial action with your staff and fix the perception with your member. Members are precious and we retain them one member at a time, one experience at a time.

I believe it is our responsibility to make the interactions we have with our members memorable in the most efficient, positive and pleasant way possible. Would it have killed our gate agent to show some level of caring for our situation? A sad smile, an apology, even though it wasn’t the airlines fault. I know for sure I wound up wasting a lot of people’s time at LackofCompassionAirlines because I just wanted to know they empathized with my situation. Maybe an ‘I’m so sorry you missed your flight and won’t arrive home in time to pick up your daughter, I know how stressful that can be.’ My response would have been a simple, ‘thanks,’ and we would have been done; situation diffused.

Next time you are given the privilege (yes, privilege) of serving the needs of a member, remember they are the reason you have a job. Yes, often the perception is that members are unreasonable, stupid, mean, cheap, jerks, procrastinators, liars, (I’ve heard it all before), but our goal is to serve in the most effective way possible and to resolve any problem presented in a manner that makes the member feel valued, appreciated and glad to be a member. Anything less – then shame on you and me.