Doing the Right Thing the Right Way

Posted by Christopher Stevenson

I had a lousy travel day yesterday. I was traveling back to Madison from Denver where CUES was hosting our School of Business Lending and School of Risk Management. The weather had been marginal and I knew that flights were probably going to be delayed, which is no big deal to me. I figured if I could get as far as Milwaukee, I could rent a car or take a bus and get home. Besides, I was flying Midwest Airlines, one of the few airlines I've never flown, and I was excited since they have a reputation for clean, spacious airplanes and great customer service, even with their recent cost-saving measures.

Time was going to be tight between the end of School of Risk Management and my flight. I had checked in on line and didn't have any baggage to check, so even with returning the car, riding the shuttle to the terminal, going through security, and then riding the tram to my terminal, I managed to get to my gate an hour before my scheduled flight time. I was feeling pretty good about my efficiency.

My flight was delayed. No biggie. I sat at the gate and read my book.

When the plane did come in, the Midwest attendants made an announcement that they wanted to do a quick turn. Once everyone was off the arriving plane, they would board immediately. Fine. The arriving passengers disembarked, we lined up, and filed down the jetway. Since the attendants were in a hurry, they didn't bother to scan boarding passes; they just tore off the stubs and kept us moving.  

I boarded and made my way back to seat 17B, two rows from the back of the plane. Someone was in my seat. We compared our stubs to confirm we were both assigned to the same seat and then flagged down the flight attendant and let her know.

"The flight isn't full, so just sit here in seat 18B. It shouldn't pose a problem." Wrong.

For a so-called fast turnaround, the plane was taking an awfully long time to back up from the gate. I heard murmurings from the flight attendants about there being 38 passengers, but only 37 were supposed to be on the plane. Since I was the one with the duplicate seat assignment, they checked my boarding pass, said it was fine, and then checked it again. Eventually, the flight attendant made her way down the aisle with the passenger list and checked us off one by one. Guess whose name was not on the list.

The flight attendant said nothing more to me and turned back up the aisle, mumbling, "That's the problem."

Things got worse from there.

The loud speaker blared, "Is there a Chris Stevenson on the plane? Chris Stevenson, please raise your hand."

For crying out loud, they knew I was on the plane. They'd looked at my boarding pass twice and just noted that I wasn't on the passenger list.

I raised my hand.

"Chris Stevenson, please come to the front of the plane."

I stood and walked all the way from the back of the plane to the front--past the accusing eyes of my fellow travelers.

When I arrived to the gaggle of Midwest employees near the airplane's door, one of the attendants said, "You're going to miss your connecting flight in Milwaukee."

"I know."

"We re-booked you on another airline."

"What?"

"We re-booked you on a United flight to Madison."

"You didn't tell me that. Why didn't you tell me?"

"You checked in on line and didn't check luggage."

"So?"

"We had no way to tell you."

"I was sitting in the waiting area for over an hour; you could have called me up to the desk."

"Do you know how to get to the United terminal?"

I walked back to my seat, grabbed my bags and my book and exited the plane.

Midwest had the right idea. They saw a potential problem for a customer and proactively made arrangements to mitigate it. But they not only fell short, they made the situation worse. Here's how:

1. They did not consult with me to see if I wanted to be re-booked. What if I'd already made arrangements for my wife to drive the 60 minutes to the Milwaukee airport to pick me up? What if I'd arranged a rental car or shuttle? Midwest could have created a further mess of my travel plans.
2. They never called my cell phone, e-mailed, or sent me a text message, all of which were available to them. At least try to contact me. 
3. The staff at the gate didn't bother to tell me they'd re-booked me. I was at the gate for over an hour. How hard would it be to call me to the desk?
4. The staff didn't follow the proper protocol for boarding the plane. In an effort to be speedy, they skipped an important step designed to keep incidents like this (and worse ones) from happening.
5. The staff on the plane was too lazy to walk to the back of the plane to talk to me quietly and instead chose to announce my name over the loudspeaker, not just once, but twice, and required that I walk the gauntlet among my fellow passengers. A less thick-skinned person would have been humiliated.

As the old maxim goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Midwest had a great start on providing me top-tier customer service, but over and over again they faltered. They failed in their use of technology (how about sending me an SMS?), face-to-face service (don't call me out with a loudspeaker), and finding out what the customer really needed (ask a question, people!). In customer service, halfway doesn't count. If you do the right thing the wrong way, you may actually make a worse impression on your customer than if you'd left things alone.

Midwest Airlines, clean planes aren't enough. How about showing off some of that service you're known for? Oh, and bring back the fresh-baked cookies. 

Comments

[Morriss Partee]

To avoid things like this is partly the reason I always book through Orbitz. On my way to Fort Wayne IN for the EverythingCU Little-B Pokagon last week, my commuter plane flight was delayed for a couple hours while they tried to fix some issues with the fuel line system. I actually got a text message from Orbitz with a new gate assignment a minute *before* the pilot announced we'd be changing planes entirely. Wow! I love Orbitz for their text messaging features.

And I select my flights through Kayak.com for their superior selection interface. I can easily weigh price versus time options on flights there.

[Christopher]

Thanks for your comments, Morriss. Believe it or not, I did use Orbitz. I love the updates I get from them regarding my flights. Somehow, though, Midwest managed to switch me to another airline and leave Orbitz out of the loop.

I'll have to check out Kayak.com. I haven't seen it before.

[Lisa Hochgraf]

How is it that so many service stories come out of airline travel experiences?

Here are two more!
http://cuesskybox.typepad.com/nexus_connection/2008/10/please-partner.html

http://cuesskybox.typepad.com/nexus_connection/2008/10/fee-delivery.html

[Bryan Clagett]

Most folks expect a lousy airline experience, so I would not think it would take too much to leverage that expectation and delight a passenger/customer. That is how South West made their mark.

I too have used Kayak. Pretty slick!