There Really is No Excuse for This: Practices that Foster Dis-Engagement
Last Friday morning around 6:15AM as I was waiting to check in for my flight in Rochester, New York the lines for boarding passes were moving very slowly for what is normally the busiest time of each day. As I looked at the people standing in front of the self-service kiosks I noticed several who appeared to be frozen in front of the terminal screens.
If you’ve flown in the past couple of years you know that almost all check-in service at most airports is now done without the assistance of airline personnel.
There were at least ten kiosks and two airline attendants shuttling back and forth behind the 
machines grabbing baggage tags and calling out names. No doubt you’ve seen this show more than once. The airline attendants didn’t seem to notice the four people stuck in front of the terminals or the lines of folks backing up and starting to grumble at how slow things were moving. I stepped up to one of the “frozen” people and asked if I could help. My assistance was welcomed and within a couple of minutes I had helped three other people and the lines started moving again and those folks were on their way. (I am no urban hero, I was stuck behind these people myself so my actions were very self-serving.)
You can probably imagine that if you don’t travel very frequently the routine we now go through at the airports, while necessary, might also be confronting and almost overwhelming for some people. If you are a operating an airline why have a minimum number of people on hand at what is known to be the busiest time of the day and why have those that are there doing the same thing rather than attending to what is needed? No doubt you know the answer, attempts to reduce operating expense. If you’ve flown recently you have also no doubt heard the little speech each airline I fly gives at the end of each flight about how they know we have a choice of who we fly with and they appreciate our businesses, blah, blah, blah. This speech comes of course after having been short changed on the front end of the flying experience and now you are telling me how much you appreciate my business. How does the saying go, “Actions speak louder than words?”
For the infrequent traveler that front end experience can be more than confounding, it can be humiliating. I wonder if the recognition of what people might be going through crosses the minds of the cost cutters at airlines headquarters?
Have you had a frustrating IVR experience recently, you know, Interactive Voice Response limbo, one of those calls where you suddenly realize that if you hit two yet one more time you may arrive at the fifth level of Dante’s Inferno? The thought crosses your mind that maybe the website is a better idea, after all they mentioned the website at the beginning of your call, maybe this cul-de-sac approach is their way of encouraging you to use it?
How about entering a lobby on your first visit to a new or potential client and finding yourself in a locked enclosure? You are greeted by a written message next to a house phone indicating that you need to dial the party you are there to visit and they will come to the lobby to meet you.
I know why all of these things are done and I cannot excuse the absence of leadership behind each action of this type. Somewhere along the line someone I will never meet has decided I am not going to be made to feel welcome or maybe worse, even discouraged from participating with this company, all in the interest of some savings in operating expense. And no one with a customer facing responsibility has stepped up and said there could be a cost to this approach to saving money. Well congratulations, you have saved the money, now figure out how you are going to replace my business! Does this sound harsh? It should, this is the age of choices and I will exercise mine and so will those people who were humiliated while standing confused in front of your kiosk or feeling unwanted while they stumbled through your IVR maze or thumbed through your employee directory looking for the name of their “host.”
- What expense reduction practices does your organizations employ that may well be driving customers away?
- What practices does your organization employ that might suggest to employees that they are expendable or taken for granted?
