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I’ve always believed that you learn more about a person (or a company) when things are bad than you ever learn about them when things are good.Like many others, I’ve complained about American Airlines in the past because of their poor treatment of their customers.
Tod ... Continue reading »
Tod ... Continue reading »
1 year ago
We had a family emergency in 1990, five of my family members were in an auto accident in Seattle on vacation, one of whom died. My cousin, who was around eight, was in a cast from his feet to his chest. We desperately needed to get him home to Dallas, in time for his father's funeral. The airlines were SO uncooperative with us - my dad was on the phone all day making magic happen - and that he did! John was home in time for the funeral.
Darn those airlines!
1 year ago
I also have to wonder at someone who would consider asking a company to waive a substantial, standard fee as providing the company is an "opportunity." My dog is sick. I am now going to provide you with the "opportunity" to send me cookies. Sound fair? No. Just because you didn't get what you asked for, it doesn't make it a customer service problem. What you asked for was unreasonable.
1 year ago
"They have to protect themselves from cranks." - completely understand and agree. I've updated the post to reflect, but yes, I was completely willing to provide the death certificate, and offered that option up. They told me that the issue was that this was their policy, it wasn't an issue of documentation.
"I also have to wonder at someone who would consider asking a company to waive a substantial, standard fee..."
OK, let's be clear - this isn't a "fee", it's a pricing difference. They charge a different price depending on the time of day.
"...as providing the company is an 'opportunity.'" There are opportunties around us all the time, every day. There's an opportunity to pull over and help an old man change a flat tire. There's an opportunity to pick up a piece of litter on the sidewalk. There's an opportunity to give a customer a larger coffee size than they ordered because you see them regularly. All of these things are good karma, business or otherwise. The core concept of Word of Mouth Marketing is that you take advantage of the times when your company can help someone live their life a little easier because the business karma is returned tenfold.
And you nailed it - your dog is sick and I DO have an opportunity to do something nice for you (and the dog). Maybe I take it, maybe I don't. But wouldn't you feel better about me as a person if I did?
"Just because you didn’t get what you asked for, it doesn’t make it a customer service problem."
Completely agree. But IMHO what makes it bad customer service is that they've completely forgotten that business is about the people, not about the policies. It's about empowering your employees to do good things, rather than requiring them to stick to policies that are written solely to protect the legal and short-term financial interests of the company.
"What you asked for was unreasonable."
I beg to differ. I think this is not only completely reasonable, it's Good Business. Between the email blasts, the free tickets I earn with miles, the ad campaigns, and other marketing promotions, how much do they spend on trying to get new customers and retain existing customers? Imagine if my audience was reading a great story about how AA had really come through and how impressed I was with their efforts. For skipping a $359 they're *not going to get anyway*, they could have earned that amount of money back and then some.
We aren't talking about an equally applied "fee", such as the $100 change fee (which gets applied in the exact same amount to every customer in a specific condition). We're talking about a variable pricing scheme that puts short-term profits above long-term health.
1 year ago
Patrick
1 year ago
1 year ago
Really sorry to hear about your grandmother and AA being evil. I can't believe how horrible people can be when it would be so easy for them to just help you out.
If you need airline help maybe MJ knows someone that can work some magic for you?
1 year ago
1 year ago
At first I wasn't going to comment--I mean, what do you say? But as I am sitting here working on chapter 5 of a book on social media (Jake is my Technical Editor) Dan's comment really got me thinking about the role of posts like this one in changing "policies." Companies like AA have them for all sorts of reasons, though I really hope that AA's rationale wasn't simply that since Funeral Homes don't discount...
In particular, this comment from Dan got to me: "My dog is sick. I am now going to provide you with the “opportunity” to send me cookies."
Well, Dan, YES! That is exactly right. If I know that your dog is sick, yes, that creates an opportunity for me to do something for you and your dog. In fact, I'll go one better: Your dog doesn't even have to be sick...I could just decide that since I was heading over to your place to watch the Super Bowl, and was stopping for beer anyway, that maybe I could grab a chew toy, too, since no doubt your dog will entertain us at least once in the 6 hours we'll all be watching TV.
What kind of world would that be?
I was at NTB (a tire store) the other day: I wanted to get the alignment checked on my car. I asked if they offered a "lifetime" alignment. The manager said, yes, but that for a Mercedes alignments were more expensive. I could tell by the lok on his face that he'd had to explain this before, and it pained him. The fact some cars are more expensive than others to maintain didn't shock me. What he said next did: With no prompting on my part, he looked at me and said "But if you'll buy the lifetime alignment, I'll waive the extra fees. Mr. Evans, I want your business."
Guess where I'm buying the new tires for the Mercedes? Oh, and the Land Rover, too.
The opportunity that AA has completely missed--and yes, it was an opportunity, and it has been missed--was waiving a fee that is actually less than what NTB waived for me without hesitation. And Jake is Platinum flyer! I was some guy who drove up and asked for an alignment. The NTB manager could have said "Your car is expensive, pal. You can afford it." In that case, I might have purchased one alignment that day. But I darn wouldn't be telling this story right now, would I? How many people are reading this? That is the opportunity that AA missed!
What goes around comes around, and nowhere is this more true than on the social web.
I saw the coolest (yes, silly, but still cool) new Facebook app: it let's you send good kharma's to your friends. The more more send, the better the kharma. Maybe we should all send AA some good kharma. Given the exchange that took place, they obviously need it. I mean that seriously, too: It has to be tough working in a place that is so open and honest about its absolute contempt for its customers. Maybe with enough good kharma AA will alter its policies, and make the daily routine of its emplyees just a little bit better. Not to mention the stories that get told about them.
1 year ago
1 year ago
I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother. My thoughts are with your family.
Melody
1 year ago
We had a different story for AA. They helped us out a lot. But I think it was because the emergency flight was delayed. It was mechanical I think so they bussed us and about 5 others from Orlando to Tampa, put us up for the night, and upgraded us to business class.
The situation is a bit different, but it was around a grandmother's death and it was AA doing a good job.
Just a different story.
1 year ago
1 year ago
I can very much relate to your point about good business. Let me tell you about what happened to me on a Disney trip a couple of years ago.
I had a close relative who was terminally ill with cancer. We had no idea how long he had left in this world, but we had previously had a week long trip booked at DisneyWorld. On the very day we were leaving, we got the news of his passing.
I was expecting to have to pay a heavy penalty for cancelling and re-booking, but they simply said, we're sorry about your loss. Please call us back when you can. We look forward to your visit when the time is better for you.
You can't imagine how much loyalty Disney won from me with their simple, sensitive handling of this. I was expecting to have to provide proof. I was expecting to lose money. I was greeted with kindness and sensitivity, instead.
They may or may not have lost any money in the deal. But they certainly won the loyalty of my whole extended family. And the good press every time I use this as an example of the kind of "opportunity" you've written about...
AA definitely missed out.
1 year ago
1 year ago
It was great meeting you and listening to your presentation this week. I am sorry to hear about your grandmother and I think this is truly a missed opportunity for AA. As Pete's story from above emphasizes, companies can leverage communication at these rough times in a much better way.
It is sad that it takes an event like this to put things in perspective but the silver lining may be how you view AA now and how\who you will do business with in the future.
I hope the comments and discussion this has generated have at least given you some relief from what I am sure is a rough time.
~Eric
1 year ago
I'd be the first one to validate your dissappointment with AA, and I totally support your efforts to disengage from them in response to their cold response to a loyal customer in need. Still, I can't help but feel compelled to make two points, not so much in AA's defense but to flesh out what's happening here.
1) From a pure business point of view, I don't think you're correct to characterize their "fare difference" as a "variable pricing scheme" that is merely there to get you to pay more for the exact same thing. From their point of view, the seat you wanted to change to was more expensive because if you didn't take it, they expected somebody else to pay them the extra $359 for it (plus whatever your original fare for the segment was). You note that they would only *potentially* be getting this extra money, but given how many flights leave the gates totally full nowadays, it is quite possible that giving you that seat would have actually caused them to leave someone else behind, and forego the extra $359 in real cash revenue that they otherwise would have received. In fact, given the airlines' bizarre pricing schemes, that other person would probably have been charged even more than the total of your original ticket plus $359 for their last minute "walk-up" reservation, and there are people (mainly biz travellers) who are actually willing to pay that. Still, we'll stick with just the $359, but I think it's only fair to recognize that this is likely real, not just potential, money to AA.
So therefore, what you are really saying is that if AA were a more customer-oriented airline, they would have recognized this as an opportunity to spend $359 (at least) to reward the loyalty of your half million miles and many tens of thousands of dollars of business. I personally think they should have done this--you are a good person and a great and loyal customer. But let's be fair--$359 isn't chump change, and it's not unreasonable that they would take pause before handing it out. After all, they did already wave their $100 change fee, which clearly was an amount that they *were* willing to pay to reward your loyalty. So, my point is that for AA, this may be less a question of whether you are worthy of being rewarded than of how much they can justify paying to do so. If they did agree to $359, should they have still agreed if the amount were $1,000? More? Is it not reasonable for them to put a limit on what they'll invest to maintain your loyalty?
2) Let's not forget the overall context that this sad response from AA occurred within. The airlines are waging all-out war on their customers because they feel that their customers have taken advantage of every one of their weaknesses to suck the life out of them. Jake, you are very much the exception as a customer who has repeatedly chosen to pay more to retain his loyalty to his airline when other options are cheaper. Most fliers nowadays scrutinize the web to find the absolute lowest fare for a trip, and will change airlines and accept weird routings just to save $10. (In fact, I think the web detrimentally entices people to act out irrationally compulsive behaviors when planning a trip, but that's a different discussion....). When the airlines are being hammered by high fuel prices and numbing financial losses and try to raise their fares by $15/ticket, just one of their competitors will keep the original (money-losing) price, the business will all shift to them, and all the others have to rescind their increases just to keep butts in their seats. So, after years of feeling that their customers don't give two hoots about which airline they fly on as long as they get the absolute lowest price offered by anybody, the airlines finally decided to push back. They've concluded that there's no margin in trying to be seen as being better than the next guy, they only want to fill as many planes as they can given that at the fare levels they've been forced to accept, their only shot at making any money is to fly totally full. The more money they spend on providing "amenities" (such as peanuts, pillows, and fare accomodations to the bereaved), the more seats they need to fill to breakeven. We'd like to argue that if they provided better service they'd fill more seats, but sadly, their experience tells them otherwise.
As perhaps you can tell, I'm ambivalent about this circumstance. I'm no friend of the airlines--I think their behavior is often wretched (such as what happened to you), and the industry has a sad history of screwing everybody who touches it (including its employees, customers, and investors). Still, the flying public is ruthless and unreasonable, and seems to believe that they are owed the right to fly anywhere they want for a fantasy fare that is well under both the airline's cost of providing the service as well as any reasonable assessment of the value of the transportation service to the user. Frankly, I see this as the inevitable result of airline deregulation, which I always saw as a mistake, but we Americans love our unfettered free market, so this is where we are--a very sick domestic airline industry, and all-out war between it and its customers. In this light, AA's response to you was not a mistake, and shouldn't come as a surprise to us.
My condolences on the loss of your grandmother.
Steve Tulsky (linked via Doc Searls)
1 year ago
(Sorry about your grandmother).
1 year ago
My condolences on your grandmother's passing and cheers to your consideration of her wishes and removing the photo lest you be smacked upside the head. Sounds like she and my grandmother went to the same grandmothering school.
On that note, I was speaking to my 83 yo grandmother today and let her know that I'd be making airline reservations this weekend for my family of four (Memphis to Phoenix and we might be able to meet her there). Anyhow, resultant of how they treated you, my reservations will not be with them. I'll be sure to follow up with whoever we go with. It won't be American Airlines, or is it AA.
Dugg and Stumbled (via @CBrogan 's tweet).
1 year ago
In reality, there is no such thing as a "pure business transaction" People - somehow, some way, are involved in even the simplest transaction.
There's doing things right (AA and other company "protect us from the customers") and then there's doing the right thing.
As for the $359 - the whole pricing scheme is an artificial construct - so they aren't actually "shelling out" anything. They set the price and they can choose to sell the seat, let it go empty, or use it for special consideration of a customer.
AA valued my measly $50 luggage fee more than they did my business - so I will not be flying with them again unless absolutely forced to . So, let's see $50 plus $359 - versus say just one roundtrip ticket Chicago/NYC of $550.00. Hmmm...too bad they can't do math.
As for sick dogs, certainly that's a great opportunity to show some care. Anyone see how Zappos responded to a woman's Mom dieing? Now, that's doing the right thing.