Front-line Empowerment Can Makes All the Difference

This story is sad, but a little funny at the same time.

Continental Airlines Flight 47 kept about 50 passengers on this regional Jet on the tarmac overnight.
Fifty people in a regional Jet with babies and backed up bathrooms can be a pretty scary thing.

The airplane was diverted and landed in Rochester about 12:30 am.  Passengers were not let off of the plane because the security officers had already left for the day.  The airport reports that it told the crew they could deplane, but the crew disagrees. (full story on USA TODAY.)

Of course, we can expect confusion when a flight is diverted after hours to a small airport that is not serviced by the airline.
But what a difference a little front-line EMPOWERMENT would have made !

A crew member calling the police on their cell phone saying – It seems very unreasonable for us to keep 50 people in here all night.  Can you help us reach some authorities that could give us options? – Instant emotion, Instant Loyalty.

Take a chance on Empowerment, it works !

(I wonder what a SouthWest Airlines crew member would have done)

Rudy Vidal
Committed to Extreme Customer Loyalty

Copyright 2009 – Rudy VidalFron

United Breaks Guitars

For my friends that are not aware of the incident with United Airlines breaking guitars, I am posting the video link below.

It goes without saying that we need to be careful how we treat our customers.  Three million views in less than a week is a lot of negative press!

I’m sure during the development of this issue, the United representative(s) felt the customer should have received consideration outside the policy, but did not feel appropriately empowered.

Although generalized policies are necessary in any large company, these should always be backed up by employee empowerment.

Individual customers never like to be shown they are being treated impersonally by “broad brush” policies that leave them without identity or options.  ”I’m sorry Mr. Jones, there is nothing I can do, this is our policy”, is a good way out for the representative, but could be the worst thing to say to customer.

(Before you upset a customer, ask them if they own a video camera)

here is the link: United Breaks Guitars

Rudy Vidal
Creating Profitable Loyalty

If You’re Going to Do It . . . Do It Now.

While discussing XCS and the importance of timing with Mr. Paul Jarman/CEO of UCN, a simple thought arose which encompasses 3 important tenets of the XCS philosophy:

• Speed
• Power of Recovery
• Empowerment

I thought I would share.

A customer looking for recovery from a challenging situation offers a limited window of opportunity in which our action will be considered honest and forthcoming.  It is during this window that the customer will associate your actions to XCS and deposit the resulting emotion in their Loyalty account.

If we wait too long, making the customer jump through hoops while we deliberate on our decision, the customer will not see our efforts and accomodations as the result of our XCS culture, but as the result of their persistence and tenacity.  In this case, our considerations and accommodations will yield nothing, except costs in time and money.

As management, we must learn to assess a situation and quickly see if we are likely to end up accommodating the customer.  If the answer is yes, then we must act quickly ensuring we receive the credit and benefit of our consideration.

Waiting too long will cause a degradation of the XCS effect over time;  ultimately leaving us with nothing except an unrecovered customer on whom we have spent much time and money.

By the way, teach your staff to do this as well and push it as close to the customer as possible.  Empowerment, brings with it two large benefits.  Speed and Customer Perspective.

Committed to XCS ! 

Being Right Can Hurt You.

One of my life guides is a guy called Wayne Dyer.  He is one of those people that tries to keep a holistic view of the human experience and its relationships.

In one of his talks he brought up the idea of being Right vs. Kind and the thought that the inflexibility of rightousness often strains relationships with those dear to us.  I think this may also apply to customers.

It is not unusual for the customers to be wrong, unreasonable or otherwise simply off their rocker.  This makes us (the company, the agent), RIGHT, and it feels so good, doesn’t it?

I have found in speaking with agents, that they have a tough time letting the customer off-the-hook when they are wrong, and inspite of this, doing their best to assist.  Sometimes we simply get stuck on “customer is wrong”. 

A clarification that usually helps me is:

Customer Service is not meant to be fair.  There is no right or wrong.  The goal is to help the customer with their issue to the greatest extent that we can.  If we find ourselves being Right, let our rightful position empower us to express Kindness.  Our mission is to serve, provide understanding and a gesture of a caring attitude.

Of course, as a philosophical point of view, this is easy to understand.  But in a practical world, how Kind can we be?  What is allowed by policy and our bottom line? 

Answering this question and providing the appropriate guidelines is the responsibility of management.  It is up to us to train our organizations to take action in different situations.  It is also our responsibility to empower our front lines to look for the best way they can serve the customers and take action on behalf of both, the company and the customer. 

Customer Service cultures can, at times, reach an adversarial point of “Us vs. Them”.  This should be avoided at all costs.  To the extent the culture begins to defend itself from customers, things are only going to get worse.  (The first symptoms are usually found in defensive policies that affect all customers, in an effort to defend against a small group – see a previous post)

When agents have a difficult time letting go of “Being Right” for the benefit of the customer relationship, it usually means management is more interested in being right than in serving their customers.

Between Right and Kind, we should always choose Kind.  It doesn’t mean we need to stop being right.  It means the customer should always feel the effort and gesture of a caring attitude.