Delivering Friendly Customer Service at 38,000 Ft.

I am writing this blog while flying home from a wonderful vacation with my husband to Ireland and Scotland. At about 38,000ft, we are at the mercy of the pilots and the flight attendants for the eight-hour flight back to Atlanta. I have traveled all over the country and abroad, so I consider myself a seasoned traveler, and understand little glitches and inconveniences. Most of my travel in the past has been at the expense of employers and clients, but this trip is, as my mother would say, “…on my own nickel.” So, of course, things should go smoothly.

My husband and I like to relax in the evening and catch some of our favorite network shows or a movie. With an eight-hour stretch in this flying cigar, we were looking forward to a selection of free movies and other entertainment since we opted for Business Class seats. After about 10 minutes into our movie selections, the individual video screens at 4A and 4B mysteriously went blank. I pressed the “on” button a couple of times. My husband, however, started pressing all the buttons repeatedly, and I could see his “impatient meter” going straight up.

We flagged down a flight attendant, and she said she would have someone reset the screens, and continued the drink service. After about five minutes we still didn’t have any service, and flagged her down again. She said she would have someone take care of it, but went to the back of the cabin to continue serving drinks, and never did talk to anyone. After another ten minutes, we flagged her down again. With a very stern look on her face, she told me that it had only been a few minutes, and she was going to finish the drink service before she tended to our request to have the video screens reset. We never saw her again. Another flight attendant came by a few minutes later, explained that they had some problems with the video screens on the previous flight but were assured that the problem had been fixed. Obviously, it had not. She offered to find us other seats, and within a few minutes, we had been reseated watching our movies and having a lovely breakfast. She was gracious, apologized for the inconvenience, and checked back with us several times to be sure that everything was satisfactory.

The difference? The first flight attendant forgot that priority #1 was to solve the problem, not reprimand the customer. Letting your personal feelings take precedence is never the best course of action. Were we unreasonable? Maybe. Impatient? Yes. But we were the customer. We had paid a lot of money for those seats, and deserved to have full advantage of the services available. There was a solution. The first flight attendant felt it was more important to show who was in charge; the second one was gracious and made our needs, whether she felt they were important or not, her priority. As a Delta frequent flier, we appreciated her efforts, and will look forward to our next flight.


Mary Nestor-Harper, SPHR, is a freelance writer, blogger, and consultant. Based in Savannah, GA, her work has appeared in "Training" magazine, "Training & Development" magazine, "Supervision," "Pulse" and "The Savannah Morning News." You can read her blogs at www.skirt.com/savannahchick, www.workingsmartworks.blogspot.com/ and on the web at www.mjnhconsulting.com.