Managing Expectations

I seem to be picking on airlines again when it comes to discussing customer service. I recently returned from a multi-leg itinerary for which I used reward miles to get an upgrade. Each time I checked in, the airlines dutifully added a priority tag to the baggage tag. And each time I picked up my bag (on all four segments), the bag came off the conveyor in random order - often near the end. It wasn't just my bag. I was watching the other bags come down the belt and found that there were "priority" bags peppered throughout the distribution.

Now I'm not saying that getting my bag early is a big deal for me. But what I am saying is that if the airline has created a service plan that promises priority delivery - and doesn't deliver - that's a customer service problem. In studying customer service, there's a concept called SERVQUAL that helps companies identify potential lapses in service delivery. This one is a classic: good intentions gone wrong.

Really excellent companies take a different approach. Disney theme parks famously overstate the estimated waiting time in lines. When you stand in a line that suggests a thirty minute wait time - and the time is actually twenty minutes, you feel pretty good. When an airline promises priority bag handling and you don't get it, you feel pretty bad.

Customer service is really pretty simple. You just have to do it.