Rude Efficiency Loses Customers

I've been on the road this week. My customer service experiences - the good, the bad and the ugly - are the inspiration for this blog. Read on for my story and a reminder of some basic customer service lessons for any business competing for customers.

The Good...

Last Saturday, my husband and I flew from LAX to Chicago on United Airlines with our 10-month-old son. It was a 6 AM flight and we woke up at 3 AM. Surprisingly, everything went smoothly.

The airport shuttle driver at Park Air Express was wide awake, friendly and helpful. We pulled into the parking garage and struggled to figure out the most convenient place to park - with about six bags, a stroller and a baby. Seeing us looking around, the lot attendant approached our car with a smile and asked if we needed help. He helped us into the shuttle, smiled and talked to our son as we loaded our bags, and got us to the airport right away. It was actually pleasant.

The Bad...

At the airport, we expected the usual long line at United's check-in, but we were happy to see about 30 self-service kiosks open. Better yet, a United employee with a portable microphone was directing traffic.

"What a great idea!" I said when I saw how quickly the line was moving. (One of my pet peeves is seeing open check-in kiosks at a busy airport and a long line of oblivious passengers waiting. I've often taken matters into my own hands and directed people to the open stations myself, since the airlines never seemed to care or notice.) I was so excited to see an airline being innovative and efficient (so early in the morning yet), I told my husband that I wanted to write a positive feedback letter to United.

My love affair with the airline was short lived.

We quickly realized why the line was moving so quickly. The United employee on the microphone was barking orders like a drill sergeant - albeit efficiently - to the harried passengers. No one dared disobey. Here are a few examples of what she blared over the microphone, for the whole room to hear:

• When someone in line didn't jump when she told them to move, she quipped, "HELLO?!" in an annoyed tone.

• When another person wasnt moving fast enough, she demanded, "Did you HEAR me?!!

• Another poor victim of Miss Biting Tongue was confused about which direction to go for the open kiosk. That passenger received a swift: "I said right! Go to the RIGHT!"

• To top it off, she kept referring to the long line of waiting passengers as "people". As in, "Keep it moving, people!"

I'd like to say that was the worst of our LAX experience. But it went downhill from there.

The Ugly...

As anyone who travels with a baby, a laptop and carry-ons knows, checking through airport security can be a daunting task filled with obstacles. Think - take baby out of stroller, remove laptop from rolling case and padded sleeve, fold up clunky baby stroller, place stroller on conveyor belt (with baby in your arms), put laptop in its own bin, take shoes off and put them in a bin (again with baby in tow)...you get the picture. I'm not making excuses or complaining, just painting the picture of me at airport security at 5:00 am on a Saturday. (Did I mention the long line of people watching impatiently as my husband and I struggled?)

Here comes the "ugly":

• As we approached the security gate, the agent yelled at the waiting line, "This is a metal detector. It detects METAL!" He wasn't being funny. His tone and expression were saying, "You passengers are idiots and I'm smarter than you."

• We were carrying a sippy cup with water for our baby. The TSA website says that you're allowed to bring supplies for your baby through security - and anyone with a baby knows you have to keep little ones hydrated. When we got to the front of the line, however, the agent told my husband that the sippy cup wasn't allowed. Rather than argue or hold up the line, my husband offered to drink the little bit of water in the sippy. The agent said, "No - you're not allowed to drink it." (Huh?) My husband had to leave the line to empty the sippy cup into a water fountain (holding up the line of course).

• In all of the commotion, I accidentally took out my driver's license instead of my boarding passes to show the TSA agent. The boarding passes for my son and I were in my purse, which had just gone through the x-ray scanner. I felt embarassed - especially since I've often impatiently glared at fellow passengers who've held up security lines because they've forgotten boarding passes. I pleaded to the TSA agent, "I'm so sorry, I left my boarding passes in my purse." Without even looking at me, he barked to the rest of the line, "BOARDING PASSES PEOPLE! We need your BOARDING PASSES!" I felt like a little kid being scolded.

• I got my boarding passes and thought I was home free. My baby and I walked through the security gate. But alas, the humiliation didn't end there. I didn't realize that our stroller had gotten stuck on the conveyor belt and hadn't gone through the scanning machine. The TSA agent scolded me: "Ma'am, go back. It's not my job to push your items through the machine." I took the walk of shame back through the x-ray machine, baby in tow, and pushed the stroller back on the conveyor belt. The woman behind be, in a sympathetic voice, whispered, "I'm sorry. I told the agent I was happy to do that for you. They wouldn't let me." (I'm sure she was whispering so she wouldn't be heard and hung by the TSA for treason.)

It was obvious that the TSA agent wanted to make me an example. "See this woman and her shame. Don't be like her and hold up the line! If you don't want to be publicly humiliated in front of a crowd of fellow passengers...follow my rules!"

Now I admit, I wasn't at my best in that security line. I fly several weeks a year for business, so I'm not a novice traveler. I know what to do at a security line. I was a bit frazzled, but certainly the TSA agent's behavior didn't make the line go any quicker - and didn't help me be more efficient.

The Lessons...

If you're a business that relies on customers (who doesn't?), there are some basic but powerful customer service lessons in this tale.

• If you're a service provider, scolding or being sarcastic with frustrating customers may make you feel better - but at what cost? It doesn't make customers move faster or respond the way you want them to. It just makes difficult situations worse.

• I don't have a choice of whether or not to deal with the TSA when I fly. I can't take my business elsewhere just because an agent is obnoxious. But I do have a choice of which airport to use (we have two others within driving distance from my office). And I certainly have a choice of which airline to fly. I'll think twice about LAX and United in the future.

• Efficiency, safety and courtesy aren't mutually exclusive. Customers do want efficiency and safety, when it comes to traveling, eating in a restaurant, buying business equipment or upgrading their company's software. But we also want courteous, respectful service. Businesses that can do it all are the ones that will keep customers in the long run.

Delta's New Customer Service?

It looks like the threat of a hostile bid from US Air has scared some customer service into Delta. Last week I flew Delta from Los Angeles, to Charlotte, to Altanta, then back home. Thursday night, trying to get to Altanta, I got stuck in the Charlotte airport for about eight hours (at least I wasn't sitting on a plane for hours like those poor JetBlue passengers). My first flight at 4:30 was canceled due to mechanical problems, then weather delays in Atlanta kept inching back our takeoff time.

What made the whole thing bearable was the Delta employees customer service.

• At the gate, agents gave us regular, candid updates on where our inbound plane was and what the expected delay should be. No horsing around, no game playing, and with a sympathetic smile. It's hard to get mad at a gate agent who appears genuinely sympathetic and is patient enough to listen to everyone's complaints.
• On the plane, the pilot came on the speaker and apologized sincerely for the delays, and acknowledged that we'd all been sitting in the airport for hours.
• Before we landed, flight attendents walked through the aisles with customer feedback surveys. They actually encouraged us to fill them out. One attendant said, "I know you've been delayed and that you've had a rough night. We want to know how we handled it. Please give us some feedback."

I hope that this type of customer service commitment doesn't wear off after the sting of an acquisition threat fades!

Managing Customer Loyalty

About a month ago, I was promoted from Marketing Coordinator at The Loyalty Group (TLG) to the Manager of Customer Loyalty. Since it was a new position at the company, I was asked to help define the role and responsibilities…and decided to write on what Customer Loyalty means in today’s business world as well as here at TLG.

First, I opted to Google “customer loyalty” — and 0.27 seconds later I came up with 28 million definitions.

Next, I thought about my past role as a Consumer Market Knowledge Manager for Procter & Gamble and what I’ve learned about Loyalty in my personal experiences — Here are some of my insights, lessons learned, and some questions that I’ll be thinking about in my new role as Manager of Customer Loyalty.

• Customer Loyalty often starts internally with Employee Loyalty. According to Deloitte Consulting there is a strong correlation between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction and, in turn, between employee loyalty and customer loyalty. On my first day in this role, my manager made it a point to really define my goals, show me how they link to company goals and even wanted to know about my work style. Showing me where I fit in made me a loyal internal customer…and set the stage for on how I should communicate to our clients. Ask Yourself: What can I do to first create loyal employees?

• Customer Loyalty begins before the sale. Loyalty starts way at the beginning of the business cycle, when people start looking for a particular product or service. They may see your ad, hear about your company from a friend, or find your website while researching the Internet. After implementing a system to track visitors on our newly revamped website at TLG, I’ve learned the value of knowing who really is looking at what we offer. Where are they from? How long do they stay? Where do they click? These valuable numbers help me understand what seems interesting to website visitors and what keeps them coming back. Ask Yourself: What can I do to create loyalty from that initial point of contact?

• Customer Loyalty is not just about getting positive feedback, but about being open to all kinds of feedback. To really get the valuable insight, you need to ensure that the customer is comfortable enough to tell you the good, the bad and the ugly. My family is in the restaurant business and they are constantly encouraging managers to get feedback from their patrons on a daily basis. One thing they teach is a role playing activity where the manager approaches a table and asks “How is everything going?” The standard answer from customers is usually an enthusiastic “Great!” Nothing more, nothing less. Next, we ask the manager to rephrase the question by saying, “It looks like everything is going well tonight. What ELSE could we have done to make your visit with us even better?” By showing customers that you are sincerely open to all feedback, you earn their respect — and are much more likely to get useful, honest data. Ask Yourself: Am I making it easy for the customer to give me all their feedback, or am I encouraging just the feedback I want to hear?

• You build loyal customers by actually TALKING to customers. In the age of voice prompted customer service lines and web contact forms, I’ve learned that most clients still yearn for an actual person. The other day a client had an emergency and couldn’t find training materials that had been shipped to them. You can bet that our voicemail system didn’t have an option to press 7 “for when you can’t find your materials and the meeting starts in 10 minutes!” People still appreciate that human touch sometimes. Ask Yourself: Am I really providing wanted customer service…or just making things more efficient for me?

• You can earn the Loyalty of your suppliers by treating them like partners. At TLG we work with a Network of Associates, independent contractors with varying roles who choose how involved they want to be with our company. Because as independent contractors they are “free agents,” we must earn their loyalty or they’ll work for someone else. One of our latest initiatives has been to host complimentary Webinars for our Associates so they really understand what the company is about, and how to market us. We also developed a secure login section on our website to make their jobs more efficient while working remotely. Keeping our Associates loyal first, in turn helps keep our ultimate customer loyal. Ask Yourself: How can I earn the Loyalty of others who work with me?

The definition of Customer Loyalty is broader than I originally thought, and it looks like none of the 28 million Google answers really fit—but one thing I know for sure is that it already has had a big impact on me…and our business.

*To learn where the name The Loyalty Group came from, click here.

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