Differing ideas of customer service...

We are mid-way through a month-long trip in the United States and it's been interesting spending extended time soaking up all that customer service has to offer here.

I've been blown away by the service, unfortunately, I’ve been blown away by both ends of the spectrum and experienced examples of incredible service and witness plain horrible service too.

It's having a number of these strong examples that triggered me writing this, particularly - a great example of poor service on an American Airlines flight, from Los Angeles to Miami today. I was shocked at how abrasive a crew member was...but, I'll get to that. I'd much rather reverse the menu and begin with dessert (those that know me would expect no different) and I'll finish with the aperitif, so to speak...

A sweet experience (dessert- ha!) I had to share first comes from Zappos, the online store for shoes and other apparel. 

I left it too late to book a place on the Zappos Campus Tour around our family plans taking us through Las Vegas. When I found that the earliest tour available to book was now going to be after we left town, I was devastated! No exaggeration...

On the morning of our last day in town, I figured, with any luck, there might be a cancellation and I could fill an opening some time across the day. At 8:22am, I called Zappos Insights to test my luck.

Rachel answered my call (I hope I have recalled your name correctly, Rachel!) and 30 minutes later I was standing on Campus about to join the 9am tour. 

I soon found that I wasn’t added to the existing 9am tour to make a larger than usual group, or that I was filling a place that had became available. In fact, there was no 9am tour scheduled that day. 

Rachel had sent out a message in their Slack group and the lovely Ryo offered to take me on the 90 minutes+ tour, last minute, one on one. 

Now, that’s a commitment to service!

As shown below, I was a pig in mud!

A more bitter sample of service was, as I mentioned, from our American Airlines flight today. Food was for purchase on this flight and the passenger to my left, who had first declined food service, decided they would like to order something, after all and so called out to let the crew member know, who was now serving the people in the row behind us.

The response was short and sharp- "Yeah, well, I’m serving someone else so you’re going to have to wait’... perhaps ‘Great! I will come back for you in just a moment’ would have better met the need to thank and assure a customer?

The crew member returned to our row, almost immediately (Note, no wait) and said just “You wanted to buy something. What is it?”

This kicked off a medley of talking at one another - the crew member correcting the passenger when they misspoke and the passenger getting more frustrated and pushing back - this just wound up in contention.

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Now, a passenger becoming argumentative, sure. We’ve all seen it and most of us have even been it ourselves before, which is always for seemingly good reason at that time. But a member of staff stirring up and driving this abrasive communication - what are you thinking?!

Sound advice from the world of Disney to exercise in your own organisation:

Never win an argument with the customer.

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The cherry on top was after the crew member declined the use of a Nordstrom credit card for the purchase, presuming the passenger had offered a loyalty card for payment. Now that she had been corrected by the passenger, her tone changed completely, jarringly so with a flurry of jokes about the silliness of the mistake and laying on the charm. 

To be clear, the crew member's mistake to not recognise the card is not poor service - the response and redirection of attention showed, however, captured the ingenuine and inauthentic response as the 'customer service smile' was wiped out, only to disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

What’s to note here;

• I purchased nothing that flight. That poor interaction shaped my experience indirectly - I wonder how many other people felt the effects of the second-hand service as well?
• Saying "You will have to wait" was nothing more than using role power. There was no need to wait so saying so was just unnecessary and an example of frustration. This response the crew member, given in its sharp tone, was simply to exercise power - ie. I’ll come back but on my terms. 
• They failed to meet the passenger where they were. I mean they expected too much of the passenger; which menu options are available and not; how the breakfast/lunch menu times are affected by departure time, rather than current time etc. - the stuff you know because it's your job. Even if you needed to tell the last 60 people the same thing, it's no less important to tell person 61 without your frustration. It's your job to meet them when they are!
• If a customer is a goose, that’s no excuse for bad service. While this passenger became a major ‘goose’ (Aussie for fool/idiot), that doesn’t excuse the poor service being given and it wasn’t the cause of it either (if anything, the other way around).
• I still haven't purchased anything from Zappos.com, yet I feel I can recommend their service with absolute confidence. Likewise, I may shrug my shoulders when someone asks about American Airlines. Brand advocacy in a nutshell!

These experiences were individual and cannot represent service across each brand on their own, however, they have already shaped my personal brand awareness. Have you shared similar or differing experiences with these businesses or others? 

ZAPPOS INSIGHTS

If you want to take a tour of the Zappos Campus because you're a Leadership & Culture Nerd like me, do yourself a favour and use it as an excuse to visit Las Vegas, just like I did.

www.zapposinsights.com/tours

*I have no affiliation with Zappos - just a fan ;)