Business-Building Action from Terry Brock
I fly a lot. I’m a lifetime Gold Medallion Member with Delta Airlines. For the most part, I have been very impressed with their service, quality and performance. In my personal experience, they have been very good.
However, I also like to fly Southwest Airlines. It is like going to summer camp and I love it! Yes, they have a different style but I feel that once you learn the system, you’re in good shape.
I had a challenge when booking a flight the other day. I wanted a direct, non-stop to my destination as I always do. This is worth more to me. Again in my personal experience, Southwest has been on-time and usually ahead of time about 98% of the time. I can’t speak for others, but that is my estimation of flying SWA for many years.
However, something happened the other day that made me re-evaluate my priorities. Life happened. Yes, life is constantly changing. I had booked the only non-stop direct flight to my destination and it was with Delta. Once I had my flight booked with Delta, something came up near my destination that would have been really good to attend. My schedule allowed it, so I wanted to adjust my return trip to a couple of days later.
Well that’s when I found out about Delta and their current change fees. It seems that with Delta I would have to pay $200 to change my flight. If I had booked with Southwest, there would be no charge to change it. I would simply apply the amount I paid on the flight to a future SWA flight. That is very reasonable on the part of SWA.
I realize Delta, and other airlines who have similar cancellation fees, have to meet budgets, pay the bills, etc. Probably some cracker-jack accountant figured out that they would make $X (a very high $X, I’m sure!) if they charged $200 more for a flight change.
However, this is an annoyance for customers. I looked at the situation and realized that $200 extra was not worth it in this situation. I also made a decision to favor Southwest over Delta. If I had chosen SWA for this trip, I would have been able to make the change with no loss and applied the funds to a future flight (of which I plan to have many with SWA in the future!).
In life, little things matter—a lot! Making customers annoyed in one tiny area can be enough to destroy mounds of goodwill in another. It is your job to make sure that even those “little areas” are dealt with so the entire customer experience is a WOW!
See how customer loyalty can change quickly? Delta is a good airline. I love ’em! However, in the real world after I book a flight, schedules change, new opportunities come up and sometimes we need to adjust and change. SWA accommodates us better with that.
What are you doing that might make money in the short term but irritate customers for the long-term? Often we bemoan the idea that many companies focus only on this quarter’s stock price and forget the long-term ramifications of short-term action.
I’m sure the good people at Delta Airlines have some solid reasons for charging $200 extra if we have to make changes. However, I’ve got a sneaky feeling that I’m not the only one who will have some changes in their preference of airlines when considering the reality of changes and how that will impact their decisions.
Focus on long-term value for the customer. Don’t be held prisoner to the current earnings at the peril of long-term customer satisfaction.
What do you think? I’d love to hear from you on this one! Leave a message on YouTube or at my site, www.TerryBrock.com. Better yet, I’d really appreciate a Tweet on Twitter from you! I look forward to hearing from you!
Terry
