Leadership in the Age of the Silver Tsunami: Customer Care Failures by Lufthansa
Lora Kratchounova
CEO/ Principal at Scratch Marketing + Media, Mentor at TechStars Boston, Intel Ignite, and Bulgarian Innovation Hub
How do we assess leadership in this murky, volatile world? Perhaps judging my how your employees interact with your customers. If your frontlines don't act according to your stated company values, then it surely is a failure of leadership.
So let's look at Lufthansa and their stated values: respect for human rights is one of them, while their mission: "?to become a leading name in the world of air travel by being the top preference of customers and shareholders all over the world."
I am sure Jens Ritter would appreciate this exceptional (NOT) customer experience anecdote:
I booked my 82-old mom on a flight from Sofia to Boston, where we live. Ordered wheelchair assistance for the entire journey as she can easily get disoriented. Our family helped her board the first leg. Low and behold, I get a call from my mom she missed her connection in Munich. A Lufthansa agent is passed the phone who tells me that I need to call United to rebook her for the next day as this is a code-shared flight. I tried to explain to him that I need local, on-the-ground help. He refused to help and refused to give me his name and just leave my mom standing. Not even an attempt to call the Munich Airport International for emergency help.
I finally get through to United Airlines and got help from a kind stranger. The first one so far. I rebooked her.
Then I proceeded to find her on-the-ground help. Found the Munich airport number and get to their Munich Airport Meet & Assist service, which is supposed to help passengers, including in cases of emergency. I got a voicemail that the service is not available, and that if someone needs assistance, they need to book 2-3 days in advance. Let's leave the irony aside. They provided an email - and I sent an email with a subject line: Need urgent help. No response 24 hours later. I did not check the corporate values of the Munich Airport, though.
Then I reconnected with my mom, who for hours, was left standing next to Lufthansa's Service Center L. She passes the receiver to the next unhelpful Lufthansa agent, who proceeds to lecture me about my lack of daughterly responsibilities, persistently asking for my mom's US address, and refusing to help her, or provide her name. Now I see a pattern forming - if two agents proceed with zero empathy and care, you have to start looking somewhere else on how such conduct is tolerated. Maybe that is Tamur Goudarzi Pour ?
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Then I proceeded to post on Facebook asking friends if they are in Munich or know people in Munich who can help. To say I am grateful to all my friends would be an understatement. Multiple people jumped in to help - and a close friend connected with me a close friend who went to meet my mom a the airport and help you through the night. Meanwhile, no one from Lufthansa helped my mom navigate the airport and find the exit. I had to talk to two kind strangers who helped her and waited with her until my friend's friend was able to locate her. My friend's friend took my mom to his house, fed her, provided a warm shoulder to lean on, and a safe bed to sleep in.
Today, my friend's friend took her to the airport; had to write down instructions for her to get through security and find the place where my mom would be met. I had to ask my mom to find a Lufthansa agent to give her further instructions. We found one agent who said she needs to wait there, then she needed to line up for the queue to Boston where someone may meet her with a wheelchair - or someone may not show up as the airport is busy.
I talked to another stranger who was on the same flight to Boston to help her out. And she did.
You have to wonder if Lufthansa has started to prepare for the Silver Tsunami. My guess would be - if they are preparing, they are not doing enough. #accessibility should not be a premium but a given. Genuine human care for others, especially the elderly, should be a core human and corporate value. After all, we may all end up being disoriented if we make it to 82. And while I may not deserve the best daughter medal, leaving my mom to travel solo, I, like many of us, count on the social structures and the care and services provided by companies like Lufthansa to function. Mich Haupt
Strategic Partner | Vision Wheel
1 个月Ouch - thank you for sharing this story, Lora Kratchounova. You captured a perfect teachable moment. Here's to hoping Lufthansa is listening!
Strategy & Revenue Growth Consultant for Industrial Manufacturers | Veteran | Independent Director | Podcast Host
1 个月One of the few good things to come from COVID was a recognition that our hyper-efficient systems needed some resilience. When things work well, they work well. But when there's a hiccup, the "systems", guidelines, authority, and all the other structures that help it work work normally, seem to work against the agility necessary to recover. The bottom line, though, is that people have to care regardless of their empowerment. Certainly culture (corporate, national, etc.) is reflected in caring, but so is individual bias. It seems that fewer people care about outcomes and others these days. The more rhetoric there is about caring, the less it's shown. There's lots of chitter chatter, but little pitter patter. I'm sure you could go on Instagram and tik tok and see many videos of people caring for injured birds or wildlife, but relatively few of someone helping an elderly, confused, understandably scared and overwhelmed person. Interestingly, I find that the flight crews on Lufthansa are generally much more willing to help the elderly stow their luggage and find their seats than on United, for instance, where I've witnessed multiple instances of them just mumbling something. We need to design systems that can repair themselves.