It has become fashionable to bash airlines and, by extension, airline employees. It seems that everyone has an airline story and delights in telling it to anyone who will listen. The subject matter ranges from the mildly inconvenient long wait at a baggage carousel, to cancelled flights, to the catastrophic events surrounding Heathrow’s opening of its ill-fated Terminal 5. The reaction is often “You think that’s bad, wait ‘til I tell you what happened to me last week.”
Employees of many of the world’s airlines today are probably bearing the brunt of their customers’ frustration as never before. I can’t imagine a more beleaguered lot. They are on the firing line every day, fielding questions and criticism about problems that are not of their making. It’s a wonder to me how many of them maintain any kind of positive outlook or demeanor.
But they do. Most of them not only soldier on, but rise to surprising heights of customer service on occasion. As I am penning this post, I am seated as I often am on an Air Canada flight, where I have just witnessed what can only be described as a touching customer experience.
A young family boarded the aircraft; mother, son aged maybe 5, father carrying an infant. The little boy was wearing a jaunty cap that bore some resemblance to the headgear of the airline’s pilots. As soon as she spotted the little guy, the flight attendant who was welcoming passengers aboard stopped the process and called out, “The captain’s here.” She then took the little fellow by the hand and walked him straight into the cockpit where she announced to the flight crew, “You guys can go home, the captain’s here. He’ll take over now.”
The little boy was beaming as he was welcomed by the real captain; his parents were delighted then and later in the flight when the flight attendant came back to their seats and took the little fellow back to the cockpit for a longer visit with his new-found colleagues. She certainly made that trip an event for that family. Do you think that 5-year-old passenger had some stories to tell his grandparents when he landed? Such events are not scripted; they depend entirely on the empathy, sensitivity and creativity of the employee involved.
This episode on one flight among the many thousands of flights every day made an impression that will, for that family and for those who witnessed it, last a long time. It caused me to reflect that some employees are amazingly resilient and able to cope exceedingly well with what’s happening around them. This particular Air Canada flight attendant seized an opportunity to make customers feel good about their experience. The incident also illustrates the power of an employee single-handedly to create memorable customer experiences.