Behind the Scenes: A Flight Delay Unveils the True Test of Leadership

I was on IndiGo flight 2187 on 05-Aug-23, it was terribly delayed due to an IT snag. The entire IT system of IndiGo had crashed, affecting all IndiGo flights across the globe. The ground staff had to manually prepare the flight documents to gain clearance to fly. The captain of our flight announced the delay and its cause only after all passengers were on board, leaving no options of cancelling, rescheduling, etc. As soon as the announcement was made, many passengers with onward connections obviously became restless. Many of us were flying international on other airlines that IndiGo had no control over. Some had trains to catch.

I was amazed to see how patiently a stewardess was handling the ire of the customers while she herself had little information about the exact issue and resolution times. She was the point of contact for the passengers who either had connecting flights or trains to catch. Passengers had no clue on how the alternate arrangements would be made for them. Whether they’d be given hotel accommodation??Whether they’d be given alternate flights if their onward journey was by train or another airline? The management apparently had thrown their frontline employees in the fire of customers’ ire without the safety gear of the right and satisfactory answers. To make things worse the plane was not loaded with sufficient food and beverages, not enough even for those with pre-booked meals.

While the problems can happen but it is important for an organization and it’s leadership to stand by their employees who have to face the ire of the customers. We talk big of employee well being. Supporting employees to support the customers works better than any freebies or office entertainment, games, rewards, etc. Employees are humans and it is most embarrassing for any human to appear clueless in front of so many people (customers). It was evident that the ‘Leading Lady’ of flight 2187 was holding her tears with great difficulty. Yet she did an amazing job in serving all customers and fulfilling her responsibilities to the best of her abilities. No employee engagement activity can compensate for that suffocating feeling that a sincere employee was forced into. It is noteworthy that, it is the frontline employees who are questioned the most for a poor rating on CSAT survey. Simplification of processes and ease of executing their duties is something that the employees value more than the HR entertainment in the name of ‘employee engagement’.

What IndiGo could have done here

1. Value the customers’ time: Call out the passengers with onward connections with other airlines or trains and put them on alternative airlines. Sharing the additional expense with their IT partner.

2. Value the customers’ convenience: by ensuring nothing else goes wrong?atleast F&B should have been sufficiently loaded.

3. Have a quick huddle with the cabin crew and empower them to take extra decisions (which might be usually beyond their purview) to help disturbed passengers with alternatives by offering them hotel stays, alternate flight (even non-IndiGo), road trips, etc. Yes such failures are painful and it is the management that has to bear the pain on their balance sheet before inflicting it on to front line employees and customers.

4. Have a CX executive step out of their office and support the frontline staff. Unfortunately, CX has become more of a tech term and an office affair. Quality and CX personnel, instead of their offices have to be on the ground with the customers during adversities. Ironically, Interglobe Aviation (IndiGo’s parent company) has outsourced the customer service. Customer service is the primary task for them, how can they consider it non-core?

The primary responsibility of a management team is to support their frontline and facilitate continuous improvement. Leaving them suffocated and helpless, and expecting them to handle the customers is just not done. It is easy to clap for employees later on, for handling the crisis well but the real mettle of the management is proven when they stand by their employees and take responsibility of failures, not just with apologetic words but with immediate corrections and corrective actions.

CX (Customer Experience) and EX (Employee Experience) are more important subjects that most managements think. It has become an office and tech subject, while it needs to be the one that gives the human psychology and emotion a due weightage. Ping me if you'd like to have a more detailed discussion on it. Follow me for more live audio sessions on the subject. I would love to have your feedback and views.