2009.07.13
In October I wrote about a terrible experience I had with United Airlines (see United Airlines nightmare). The post was less about an emergency landing and more about a culture of company-first, lack of cooperation within the company and public fighting between the customer service department and the people working the gates for the airline. My experience was that the employees took pleasure in speaking ill of other employees, departments and the company itself, and management happily dispensed the phrase “we’re sorry, there’s nothing we can do”.
I wrote a second time to say that United Airlines was withholding $1800 of my money, some of it from expenses incurred after they cancelled a flight I was on and refused to provide me with accommodations, transportation and meal vouchers. A majority of that money relates to a second incident when UA lost my luggage and my family and I were forced to go shopping during a vacation to buy clothes, toiletries and a new suitcase. UA has reimbursed me for my emergency landing fiasco. I’m STILL waiting for the money from the luggage fiasco (now going on 8 months). I was assured in March that the money was on its way.
While I’d very much like to recover my money, I’d at least appreciate it if United Airlines pretended to care how inconvenient and expensive the situation is and how unfairly they’ve treated me. That is to say, I’d like to recover my losses though I’ll never recover the amount of time I’ve had to sit on hold and re-explain the situation only to be told there’s nothing they can do.
Like many people I took pleasure in seeing musician Dave Carroll‘s song United Breaks Guitars posted on YouTube. After seven days it’s been watched over two-and-a-half million times. Dave’s posted a follow up video in which he notes that United Airlines has agreed to compensate him for his damaged guitar (see STATEMENT). That’s not the point of the video, though. Like me, Dave was trying to give United’s management a head shake because they obviously have no idea how badly they treat their clients.
I’ve seen that United enjoys the video and told Dave they plan to use it internally for customer service training. The question is, will it be used to create a culture of customer first?
2009.02.13
Later today, I’ll pick up my daughters from day care for the last time. We’ve been part of the care community for nearly ten years and decided that the circumstances are right to have our daughters home later in the morning and earlier in the afternoon.
A day care is a parent’s boldest move into a trust relationship. You put the trust in the staff to make the best decisions for you and your child, your child puts their trust in you that you will return at the end of the day and you put your trust in the child for forgiveness. Like any relationship, it takes time to build that trust.
But it’s a different type of trust than the kind that exists between friends and partners. It’s the kind of trust that affects a child, and the child-parent bond. It’s the kind of trust that depends on the staff’s capability to to the needs of a wide variety of people (personalities, energy levels and ages — in both the children and parents). It’s the kind of trust that helps independent consultants understand it when a client entrusts their business to them and says “this is my baby; take care of it”.
Leaving “our” day care will be hard because of two people in particular. When we dropped off our daughters in the morning, we always felt that there was a real hand-off and that our daughters were in their care. On the odd occasion when we’d had a rough morning or that one of our daughters was upset, they knew what to say and how to say it; sometimes all they had to do was share a smile or empathetic look, other times they gave us each a hug and said nothing. These two people just know. It’s intuitive and in many cases they can’t even explain how they do what they do. Regardless, it worked. And it changed our day.
I’ll miss the day care and its community. Most of all, though, I’ll miss interacting with these two people on a daily basis.
If you’re looking for case studies in trust relationships and the people who exemplify customer care under complex conditions, seek out the elite in day care staff and take them out for a coffee.
2007.11.04
Try as I might, I have not been able to sync my Blackberry’s calendar with my computer for over a week. I’ve even wiped my Blackberry clean and started fresh.
Accepting defeat, I decided it was time to call Rogers Wireless for some help and just like it was seven and eight months ago (see here and here) Rogers is experiencing higher than normal call volumes. This time the wait is reportedly in excess of thirty-five minutes so customer service has actually continued its disintegration.
Perhaps the delay in bringing the iPhone to the Rogers network has to do with Apple’s concern about the inadequate customer service.
Photo: watz
