My friend Tom Vander Well's been looking for a decent cup of coffee when he travels ... and I'll settle for customer care at the airport. Yesterday my Delta airline seat – slated for
A brain based approach to this disaster could have boosted Delta’s slumping sales and shone new lights on a special operation that flyers would support with future sales.
Frankly I watched the opposite … and it reduced my trust – while Delta manned a desk - as if customer service for lines that faced them - had not yet been invented. It didn’t need to be that way.
Any one of ten brain based words would have sold another ticket to my party for future flights on Delta. Have you met any listed here within their ranks?
1. Care – Instead stress rushed through sluggish lines while young women let people know one-at-a-time … that thunderstorms are not Delta’s problem and nothing could be done.
2. Effective – Delta left people standing around without facts or alternative plans – while other travelers snapped up remaining tickets to fly the following day.
3. Resourceful - Imagine brilliant solutions that could have flown had senior staff used any of their multiple intelligences to solve problems that surface with storms.
4. Understanding – Think of future sales that would have followed from our lines had Delta become even a small part of our traveling problems – or shared new plans for flights bound to
5. Communicative – People stood in endless lines trying in vain to get cell phone calls through to Delta staff - for help toward their next best move.
6. Reflective –Delta could have asked themselves in past … “Where to from here …?” with customers in mind - when weather problems strike. We left with clear impression that our welfare had likely never been discussed
7. Proud – We were open to see any sign of an airline that’s proud of service offered whenever planes go grounded for whatever reason. No sign came while I stood there.
8. Profitable – With money made on sales from other satisfied customers … Delta could have paid for some small service to show its loyalty to serve. I doubt those extra sales had ever come if past service looked like ours today.
9. Positive – What a chance to make a positive splash on flyers struck with every inconvenience the delay would cost. Instead – they closed their airport office and simply left the area where bags already booked - returned to us at carousel 4 in
10. Strengths – We were primed to spot an airline’s strengths that can surface to ease the cost for customers when trouble strikes. Instead it appeared to me that Delta had never faced these feelings – or wondered what it’s like to get left in lines that linger in front of unprepared staff -- more primed to report that there was nobody else to call for help -- and nothing could be done.
Thunderstorms in JFK opened an ideal segue to show Delta’s stripes. Instead of stripes– these storms stirred up sloppy service that added to our stress. You had to wonder though….
Could Delta airlines have increased its future sales or turned around their slumping productivity with future customers … had they shown strength in any one of the ten words listed here? Or do they know that lack of service creates loss in sales for them through stress that literally shrinks a customer's brain and shuts it down?
Could they win back trust from you or me ... in spite of storms?
» Eight Random Concerns and a Few Suggestions from BrainBasedBusiness
Thanks to Roger Anderson’s invitation to tell 8 random things about me, I’ve taken the liberty to share my deepest concerns for business at the moment. I’m particularly grateful for the chance to step back and lay out what&rsquo... [Read More]
Tracked on: July 6, 2007 4:43 PM | Permalink to Trackback