Comments on: Next? http://www.stevecurtin.com/blog/2010/01/18/next/ Memorable customer service...mostly. Thu, 12 Jan 2012 05:43:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Shari http://www.stevecurtin.com/blog/2010/01/18/next/comment-page-1/#comment-1790 Shari Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:31:34 +0000 http://www.stevecurtin.com/blog/?p=455#comment-1790 Rob, my favorite part of your comment is this: "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." It is so important to empower employees to bend the "right" rules. Rigidity will kill a good customer service opportunity almost every time. Thanks for your story. Glad you had a good experience! Rob, my favorite part of your comment is this: “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.”

It is so important to empower employees to bend the “right” rules. Rigidity will kill a good customer service opportunity almost every time. Thanks for your story. Glad you had a good experience!

]]> By: Steve http://www.stevecurtin.com/blog/2010/01/18/next/comment-page-1/#comment-1632 Steve Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:23:01 +0000 http://www.stevecurtin.com/blog/?p=455#comment-1632 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. 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.

]]> By: Rob Sanchez http://www.stevecurtin.com/blog/2010/01/18/next/comment-page-1/#comment-1631 Rob Sanchez Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:07:34 +0000 http://www.stevecurtin.com/blog/?p=455#comment-1631 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. 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.

]]>