How $208 Can Cost You $250,000!

Here's a true customer dis-service story that happened to me a number of years ago and highlights the value of making sure each of your employees know how to take care of customers. The airline's name has been changed to Bungle Airline to protect the not so innocent.

The day after the big earthquake here in Seattle about 5 years ago, I had a trip planned with another person to the east coast. It was an important trip that I didn't want to cancel so I looked on the web and found that due to damage at the airport, my flight had been canceled.

I called the airline to see if they could get me on another flight. They couldn't. But, as I was on line holding, I was also on the internet and found that I could fly America West (name not changed - their service throughout was great) and make it to my meetings.

I told the agent at Bungle that I was going to book on America West and keep the second part of my ticket open with Bungle to come home. This last minute ticket on America West was much more expensive but it was important, so I made the trip anyhow.

I confirmed with the agent at Bungle that I would be able to get a credit on the first part of my ticket. She offered to transfer me to someone who could do it right then, but I was in a hurry to book my other flight and get some things done before I left. She assured me I could get the credit later.

The next night, while in my hotel room in Massachusetts, I called Bungle to get my credit for the canceled flight. I was informed that I had no reservation for the return flight. Since I had not used the first part of my ticket the return reservation had been canceled.

I assured the agent that I was indeed in Massachusetts, that an agent the previous day had told me that I could use the return portion of the ticket and that I needed to go home on the flight that I was reserved on. The agent would need to talk to her supervisor...

Ten minutes later, we found that luckily I had the credit card that the flight was charged on so they could see that I had not fabricated this story. Again, luckily, there was room on the flight, and yes they would break the rules and accommodate me. Not bad. A bit of a hasel, but I'm going to get home!

I asked them about the credit on the unused canceled flight - $208. I was told, "That's a nonrefundable ticket." Even though the flight never took off they told me it was nonrefundable! You can image where it went from there. I was told that the supervisor had already gone out of her way to get me on the return flight and that I should be grateful.

I was told that they would gladly refund my entire unused ticket for the full price of $416 and I could then book a one way back to Seattle for $1800!

I asked to talk to the supervisor. I just as soon could have talked to a brick wall. She pointed out that they could not control earthquakes, but seemed appalled when I told her I couldn't either.

I asked to talk with her supervisor. She was the top person there at 9:00pm eastern time. When I asked for a supervisors name to talk to in the morning I was told, just talk to anyone.

As I got ready to hang up I mentioned to this supervisor that I owned a company that took about 50 round trip flights a year and Bungle Airlines was probably not going to see any more of our business. I was told, "Well, we can't have special rules for everyone." I replied that I didn't want anything special, just a refund on a flight that was canceled by them!

To make a long story short, I decided not to call until I got back to Seattle. When I called I decided to act like I had never talked to anyone about the refund. I really didn't want to get into a long drawn out discussion again. I simply wanted a $208 refund on a flight that had been canceled.

I called Bungle and told them my story. Within two minutes I had my refund applied to my credit card.

What Customer Service Lessons Can We Learn From This?

• Be sure your front line customer service people (that's basically everyone in a retail store) are trained to truly take care of customers. Review common problems and complaints and be sure they are trained to handle them quickly and efficiently. Remember, Only happy customers come back!

• Supervisors and managers must be able to think, act and do. Maybe Bungle Airlines couldn't get the message to all of their customer service people to take care of people whose flights were canceled due to the earthquake. (I haven't got the foggiest idea why they couldn't, but who knows?). Regardless, if they couldn't get the word to all the customer service people, at least the supervisors should have been trained to understand that the customers can't control earthquakes either, and that "nonrefundable" doesn't apply to canceled flights.

• Be sure everyone in your company understands the "Lifetime Value" of a customer. In this case, Bungle was looking at losing the opportunity to compete for at least $250,000 of business.

Our company takes about 50 round trip flights per year. At the time this happened I planned to be around here for at least 15 more years. I would have very likely told everyone here to use Bungle only as a last resort if I had not received my refund. They would have missed out on the opportunity to get their share of at least $250,000 in airline travel
over a $208 refund.

What is the lifetime value of your customers?

• Be sure everyone in your company knows that "Word-of-Mouth" can be your best advertising or your worst advertising. The cumulative effect of Word-of-Mouth is absolutely amazing. Do your people know that happy customers tell 1-2 people about your great service? Do they know that dissatisfied customers tell an average of 16 people about your poor service?! And what about Word-of-Mouth in this instance? I send my newsletter to about 25,000 customers. If I had not received my refund I would have not changed Bungle's name. I would have told every one of you about their incredibly poor service.

• Check yourself out. Do your policies, procedures and practices allow your people to use their good judgement to take care of customers? Remember, Only Happy Customers Come Back.

Keith Lee is the creator of the "Don't Let Your Business Ruin your Life - Yes, You Can Have It All, Make-You-Happy Management System." Keith developed the system in 1991 when he was burnt out from all of the stresses and time issues involved with running his business. system creates happy customers, happy employees, but most of all gives you back you life. For more information and articles visit http://www.top-performance-teams.com