A memorable (and terrible) customer experience

The above photo is me on Friday night at LGA airport…Not actually but it mirrors my sentiment.

I consider myself a regular traveler, flying at least once a month. I have my go-to airline and somewhat of a travel routine. Recently I waited too long to book my flight and for price reasons I went with another airline. Let’s just say it will be the first and last time I fly with them.

A series of events unfolded (flight delay, forcing passengers to check baggage, plane maintenance) and by the time we departed we were two hours behind schedule. The entire staff was unapologetic and some of them were even borderline rude. As I was sitting in the terminal, I tweeted at the airline… but did not receive a response. I later went back and did a simple Google search for the airline. Sure enough the results that populated were almost all negative relating to flight delays, unhappy passengers and angry employees.

What are the lessons here?

1. Managing you social media community.  The great part about social media is it gives your customers an opportunity to discuss and promote (or in this case trash) your brand. Ignoring what people are saying is irresponsible marketing. 
2. Experiences start from the inside out. If you’re employees aren’t happy, they aren’t going to provide your customers with the right experience. This airline needs to build their internal brand before they can build their external brand.
3. Mistakes happen, be polite and apologetic. Most consumers are reasonable people and understand that issues are going to come up. We just want someone to acknowledge the error and be as pleasant about it as possible.

And if the airline reads this (you know who you are)…call us at Jack Morton we’ll be happy to help!