Next?
When was the last time you checked yourself into a flight and checked a piece of luggage at a self-service kiosk at the airport?
Like supermarket self-service checkout stations or ATMs, I find these kiosks helpful. Once they become familiar, they’re easy to navigate and usually end up saving me time.
Last week, I was flying out of the Denver International Airport and checked myself in using one of these kiosks. Because I checked a bag, I needed to wait for an airline representative to verify my ID, affix the luggage tag to my bag, and give me a receipt for my checked bag.
While the flight check-in only took about a minute before the machine issued my boarding pass, the wait for an airline representative to accept my luggage and issue a baggage receipt took much longer.
After checking my email and social media accounts on my BlackBerry to pass the time, I finally walked over to a pair of employees who were managing the line and asked one of them if she could help me to collect my baggage receipt so that I could be on my way.
Without acknowledging me in any meaningful way, the employee walked over to another bank of kiosks where a number of airline employees were clustered serving passengers and said something. A minute later, after finishing up with her current passenger, a female employee made her way down to my kiosk and mechanically said, “Checking a bag?”
I answered “Yes” and she said, “You need to check your bag in here (motioning to the kiosk), before I can accept it.”
I told her that I had already checked the bag in at the kiosk and was simply awaiting my receipt.
She then said, “I don’t see a receipt. Are you sure you checked your bag in?”
About this time, a male employee who was working behind the kiosk to my right handed her a luggage tag and receipt that apparently had printed from his station.
She then robotically asked for my ID, examined my drivers license, and handed me my receipt. Her farewell and gratitude for my business were bundled in the word, “Next?” as she motioned towards the line of passengers awaiting check-in.
Reflecting back on this customer service experience, I would describe it as routine, transactional, process-focused, and uninspiring (it certainly doesn’t inspire loyalty, future spending, or recommendations). And, unfortunately, it happens all the time.
Experiences like this one lead me to the primary question of my work: Why is it that we expect for those who serve us in person or over the phone to be attentive and engaged yet, on most occasions, encounter employees who are aloof and indifferent?
Your thoughts human reader?
Tags: aloof, Customer Service, Employee Engagement, indifferent, mechanical, monotony, robot, robotic, routine
January 19th, 2010 at 5:07 pm
One of the major issues with aloof and indifferent employees is that so many people are not doing what they want in their jobs. When we (as consumers) go to purchase a product or use a service we are passionate about, we are making an active choice to engage with the product or brand. If the employees came into the position passively, instead of looking for a job/career/product they could be passionate about, there will often be that stale feel to the interaction. We are too sensitive to body language to not realize when an employee would rather be somewhere else. It really puts a damper on the interactions. Good customer service and interactions require hiring people who want to work for you, not just who want to get paid.
I did want to share one of the most positive experiences I’ve had with a major airline (and the reason that I only fly with JetBlue if at all possible). This Thanksgiving I was flying out of JFK in the evening. I had to go from mid-town to the airport and the subway I was on broke down. We were stuck in the tunnel for an hour and a half. When I finally arrived at the JetBlue terminal, my flight had already been boarding and doors would close in ten minutes. The automatic terminal check rejected my boarding pass, so I asked an attendant to help and explained my situation. She grabbed my bag and brought it to another employee so that he could process it while she took care of my boarding pass. She stayed with me until the bag was on the conveyor belt (I had to sign a Voluntary Separation tag since it was so close to flight departure).
Once that was completed, I went to the security check line. The TSA attendant told me that I couldn’t make the flight and pointed out the nearest JetBlue manager. He took me through the Flight Attendant security check and got me into the terminal. I ran the whole way to the terminal to find that the crew had held the door for me. They knew that there was a slight delay on the tarmac, so instead of closing the doors on time they used the delay to ensure that I was on board.
It took me 15 minutes to get from the bag check and onto the plane. Amazingly, the bag arrived on the other coast. Despite the holiday stress, all of the crew members where well-trained, professional, and knew exactly which rules they could bend to help me out. While no one person stood out as being amazingly helpful, the culture was one of doing whatever possible to help out.
If you know you have a company/product that doesn’t always inspire passion in your employees, at the very least give them all the tools they need to help customers. A culture of helpfulness makes an impact as much as a single bright star.
January 19th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Rob, thank you for your thoughtful reply. Great story illustrating an exceptional service culture. I think I’ll pass the post/comments along to JetBlue via Twitter. Agree with your final comment: A culture of helpfulness makes an impact as much as a single bright star. Well said.