When things don’t go exactly as planned.

I travelled from Sydney to Melbourne on the 6am flight last week. I checked myself in but had to line up to drop my bags off. A grumpy lady tagged my bag. I arrive in Melbourne – my bag does not….stuff happens. The woman in baggage claims was delightful. She let me know that I was in good company because they misplace 3-4 bags off this flight most days. She listened to my concerns and gave me her direct phone number in addition to the standard number. She let me know that she finished at midday and that she would chase it up for me and keep me informed. She did just that. But no bag…. By 5pm, with the BRW awards function starting at 6.30, I was beginning to think that it was not mishandled but lost. Problem was that the direct line she had given me now did not answer. So I called the general number (leaving the direct dial on redial on my mobile). I spoke with a competent woman who read from a screen. She said that there was no sign of my bag and that the Warsaw agreement (or some other agreement) only required airlines to provide $60 replacement. I was left feeling not only distressed, but clearly this faceless organisation did not care. At that moment my redial came through. I had Mike on the phone. He said he had the message from the woman in the morning and had tracked a bag meeting my bag’s description in Coolangatta – tagless. We had a laugh and a giggle – he did sound truly concerned about what I would wear in the evening to the event. He was just being himself. I hung up the phone thinking I had a real person on the case who had my interests at heart. One human looking out for another.

Lessons Learned

• How do you keep thousands of employees motivated and inspired to be with customer (remember some customers are not very pleasant)?
• Can training and CRM systems get in the way of really connecting with people…fulfilling on proceedures rather than looking a customer in the eye.
• What can we do to encourage our people to be themselves and bring their personality and uniqueness to work?