I had a customer experience Saturday morning while flying back to New York from SugarCon 2008 that highlighted the lessons of one our keynote speakers. Exhausted from lack of sleep and spending one too many a night out on the town with colleagues I only get to see on a quarterly basis, I awoke late. But thanks to the timely arrival of my cab (a fully-loaded Mercedes C240 no less…you’ve got to love California), I managed to make up for lost time, and arrived a full 30-minutes before boarding was to begin.
Confident I had accomplished my goal, I was disgusted upon arriving to the check-in counter, which had a line of nearly 30 people moving at a snail’s pace. Thoroughly annoyed that check-in was taking too long and concerned I might miss my flight, I finally made my way to the front and was greeted by U.S. Airways service representative Theresa, who instantly reassured me that my plane wouldn’t leave without me now that I had checked-in. Even better, she proceeded to book my seats in emergence rows (for both flights), which thanks to the plush seats and extra leg room, instantaneously achieved my flight objective of sleeping off a hangover at 30,000 feet. I said “Thank you” and proceeded to security.
Rewind a few days to Paul Greenberg’s presentation at Day 2 of SugarCon. In it, Greenberg spoke to the importance of how the power pendulum has shifted back in favor of the consumer, and how CRM, which was seen strictly as a means to store and manage customer data, has now become a two-way link between consumers and businesses. CRM is now as much about the customer experience, or what industry pundits are calling CRM 2.0. Greenberg underscored this message with an example he had the night before while flying Air Canada out of Toronto.
Theresa understood all this and more. By politely and confidently leveraging a touch screen monitor to book my flights and seats, she provided a positive experience that reassured my feelings that U.S. Airways is a solid carrier that I’ll more than happily conduct business with when I’m not flying Continental in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport.
It’s rare to hear of good customer service in the airline industry. Good to know it can still happen.