… customer focus … customer first … the customer is always right … been doing some thinking based on real experiences …
Virgin
Yes – I am pro Virgin – but here is the reason – customer centricity. And it isn’t taken lightly.
I flew with American Airlines last year …
they delayed a flight – so we would have missed a connection
i took another flight – at big cost – to make the second leg of the trip (still with American).
they lost my luggage andit did not arrive for over three days
as a result we had to buy clothes etc
in the end the bags only arrived because we went back to the airport and hunted the luggage down
when we found it – we removed it from the lockers – without any identification
we left the airport – without any identification – with our bags
we got calls up to nearly a month later asking if we had our bags – and i so – to let them know – and if we didn’t – let them know …. that is they had no idea where our bags were
when we added it all up – we were out of pocket to the tune of well over $1,000
all this seperate to the fact that our bags travelled independantly to ourselves on a plane in this post 911 world (which AA assure me is allowed. is it ? (how many of you have been delayed on flights while bags were removed because a passenger hadn’t rurned up … what are the rules ?)I wrote to complain – I got an offer of 10,000 airmiles – which was credited to my account. Which didn’t seem to me to be right – so I wrote a personal, physical letter (note that emails, contact info etc is not available for these people) to
G. J. Arpey – Chairman, President and CEO, AMR Corp. and American Airlines
P. M. Bowler – President and CEO, American Eagle Airlines
D. P. Garton – VP, Marketing, AMR Corp. and American Airlines
I. D. Goren – SVP, Customer Relationship Marketing & Reservations, American Airlines
C. S. Kreeger – SVP, International, American Airlines… suggesting that this was not reasonable.Two months, Four Months, Six Months … nearly a year later – not a single response. Nothing. Nada. From anyone.Compare and ContrastVirgin – earlier this year had an AV problem on their plane. Everybody in the cabin – everybody – was given a claim form where you got to choose how you would like to be compensated for the ‘inconvenience’ – I chose – get this – 10,000 airmiles – and I didn’t even ask !! (And even my viewing pleasure wasn’t an issue – I turned my head and watched another screen) !!
Customer Centricity ?
Guess who I fly with – a lot.
Guess who I will absolutely not fly with again if I have any say in the matter ?
Guess who I will never recommend – to anyone – ever ?
Guess who cares ?
Guess who doesn’t ?
Stop The Press : A CEO actually called a customer ? « Webservations
November 13, 2010 at 1:19 am
[...] Good Story – and a such a contrast to a customer complaint I made to a company at the other end of the spectrum of Customer Centricity (let’s call them American Airlines – post here) [...]