Rainy days

I went to Brazil earlier this year. First time I took my daughters to meet the grandparents. It was big thing. Everyone was really excited, especially my 7 and 5 year-olds.

When the day came, we packed our bags, dropped the dogs in the kennel and headed to the airport. For some reason, I couldn’t do the checkin online (blame perhaps my larger than usual full name - 34 characters in total, including spaces).

We stood in the queue, which wasn’t moving much. After a good hour, children starting to get a bit impatient, we finally got to the check-in desk. “The flights are canceled”, we were informed, “you have been assigned to new flights.” Damn!

“You are going to Melbourne, then Santiago and Rio”, the man behind the counter continued, “and your wife and daughters are going to London, then S?o Paulo and Rio”. It turns out that I bought my flights first so our tickets had different reservation codes and therefore he couldn’t put us together. “You need to go to the flight reservation desk if you want to change this arrangement”, he concludes.

We look across the departure hall to find the reservation desk. Another large queue. Kids are now fidgety and noisy - thanks God iPhones and ABC Kids exist. We were a bit anxious (same as the other 300 passengers) with the scenario ahead - going back home that day was out of question, travelling separately from the family was also out of question.

Then some extraordinary happened. We met Morgana, the lady behind the reservation desk. There was an enormous chaos around her, but Morgana was very calm and empathetic. She listened to our concerns and did what she could to sort it out. She put us together on a flight to Melbourne, where we would need to stay for two nights before the next flight to Chile. She arranged a driver to pick us up at the airport and two nights accommodation in a comfortable hotel with all meals included.

Because she couldn't print the hotel reservation, she gave us her mobile number and said “It is all sorted, but here is my number. Just call me if you need anything.” She also gave us the name of her peer at the Melbourne Airport.

A few other things went wrong when we got to Melbourne. We got the wrong driver (same company though), who was taking us to Richmond when the hotel we were supposed to stay was in the Southbank (polar opposite direction for those who don’t know Melbourne). Luckily, I know Melbourne enough so I could ask the driver to adjust course.

More, when we got to the hotel, the reservation was not ready and the hotel manager did not want to let us through until he had a confirmation from the airline. It was around 5pm, we had left home around 8am - you can imagine how the kids were by then. He called whatever number he had from the airline, no answer. So I messaged Morgana. She responded immediately (that was hours after we first met at the Sydney Airport) and once again sorted everything.

We had an amazing time in Melbourne - perfect time to unwind and start our holidays with a pleasant walk at the Albert Park, lunch by the lake and a visit to the incredible ACMI (the Australian Centre for the Moving Image).

Two days later, on the way to Melbourne Airport, Morgana sent me a message to check if everything was okay. A nice gesture. She also managed to change our seats and get our family sitting together. Another very simple and nice gesture. Thanks to Morgana, I (and I suspect many other customers she worked with that day) was converted from a detractor (long queues, flight delays, angry children) to a big advocate. And I honestly wish she gets the right, well-deserved recognition from the airline. Thank you, Morgana Riveiro de Lima !

Designing for rainy days

You see, in service design this is called a rainy day scenario. Most of the times companies (or designers I should say) only design for sunny days - that is, when everything goes as planned. Some companies do design for rainy days. But designing for rainy days is hard, extremely hard for a few reasons.

Firstly, even the most experienced, collaborative, creative, imaginative designers will struggle to anticipate everything (I mean, every single thing) that can go wrong. Secondly, rainy days are intrinsically rare so it will be expensive and inefficient for organisations to have internal capabilities to deliver adequate services during those situations (think about building software capabilities, training staff and providing services which are far from the organisation’s core). And thirdly, organisations must rely on partners to fill that capability gap (on this case, the airline partnered with a chauffeur company and a hotel network).

What should companies do to match or perhaps exceed customers’ expectations during those rainy days?

Designers should collaborate with internal stakeholders and leverage the collective experience within their company to brainstorm as many rainy days scenarios as possible and build comprehensive (desirable, viable and feasible) services using both internal and external capabilities.

Customer-facing staff should be provided with regular training and required support to deliver on those rainy day scenarios. They should be empowered to make decisions and act quickly within predefined limits. And, more importantly, they should have an environment in which they feel motivated and rewarded to go the extra mile and serve the most important stakeholder for every company - the customer.

Partners should be clear on the expectations on them. They should be treated fairly and feel that they are in an extended way part of the company.

A final thought for businesses, managers:

Simple gestures and kindness go a long way when it comes to delighting customers.