Keyword: inflight entertainment

I had the privilege joy chore of taking the flight from Seoul to Seattle a couple of days ago.  If you haven’t had this fortune, it’s a 10 hour flight through 16 time zones where you arrive 6 hours before you left.  I’m not a good sleeper on planes so any of these long-haul, multi-timezone flights are hard.  This one was especially noteworthy, however.

We flew on Asiana Airlines, a Seoul based carrier that was a special treat.  Unlike their state-owned competitor, Korean Air Lines, they focus on the long-haul traveller and do it very well.  It is a formula that includes the latest planes (ours was a new Boeing 777-200), all the best amenities (like 110v and 220v outlets in each business-class seat), and very impressive service.  There were 13 attendants, plus a flight crew, on a flight I’m sure a US carrier would have had 6 people working.  At the start of the flight, the entire staff stands at the head of the aisle and bows to the passengers.  In business-class, they pampered us constantly with two three course meals, constant checking on our welfare, and genuine smiles.  You really got the impression they cared about you.

Which gets me around to the point of all this.  I really needed caring for on this flight.  Everything that could go wrong did.

While in Korea, I found I really enjoyed the food.  For some, kimchi and other native tastes require getting used to.  For me, I took to them immediately.  And Asiana offers two meal services: western and Korean.  So on the way back I tried the Korean fare.  Well my bibambop (sort of a rice and vegetable version of the Cold Stone “mix ins”) was stone cold.  Normally it is served quite hot, and my most recent experience at a fine Seoul eatery was served in an iron bowl that had to be 1100 degrees.  In this case it was not even warm.  But did I care?  How could I?  The service was so good, the attendants were there with more champagne, taking away empties, adding treats, etc. that I forgot it wasn’t perfect.

Then, within an hour of the start of the flight, my fancy 777 “wonder-chair”, the seat with a half-dozen motors, lumbar adjustments, and a “bed mode” simply stopped working.  Wouldn’t budge.  It had worked for a while, but suddenly there I was in my full upright and locked position.  Not the best way to spend 10 hours.  So I inquired of some assistance.

I was swarmed with help.  The head of cabin service eventually took my seat apart.  She was unable to get it to work as intended, but found all the manual controls, and adjusted it to my liking.  Throughout the balance of the flight I was checked on to be sure the seat was where I wanted it, and to apologize profusely for the failure.  At one point the assistant purser insisted that I get a nap, and graciously turned it into “bed mode”.  I actually slept on an airplane — a true feat for me.

My point in all this is that service really does matter.  And more to the point, outstanding service can make up for any number of problems in the product.  I’m sure that on a US carrier, I would have had someone who would have done something about my issues with the flight.  But I’m also sure they would have done it grudgingly, with a tone of “oh, great, now what’s your problem?”  On this flight, it was clear they really wanted to make me happy.  And it made all the difference.

Think about it.  Here I am, in a quite public forum, raving about an airline’s service.  But I had a terrible flight: cold food, a broken seat, and a video system that couldn’t have been more jumpy/flaky/noisy.  What do I remember?  The service.  The genuine kindness and concern of the employees.

I’m a customer of Asiana’s for life.  Next time I’m headed to Korea, or anywhere in Asia, I’m going to see if they fly there.

What does this say about your organization?  It says that service not only matters, is not only a good thing to have, but it may save you from a whole lot of other faults.  It may be the thing that makes that missed deadline, that faulty part, that little mistake go away.

And great service is about the only thing that makes customers-for-life.  People don’t become customers-for-life because of low prices.  If someone comes along with a lower price, they’re gone.  They don’t become customers-for-life because of a good product.  As soon as someone offers that same product, they’re vulnerable to switching.

People become customers-for-life because of other people.  They feel a connection, a relationship.  And they want to continue that relationship.  So do whatever it takes to make your organization care about its customers.  You may keep them forever.

While on a plane for hours a few days ago, I found myself drawn into the inflight “entertainment”.  Among some interesting fare (a classic Everybody Loves Raymond among other things) was the usual self-serving drivel from the airline, and a strange infomercial about a Marriott hotel in Florida.

It was a weird piece, several minutes long, devoid of any real information and filled with cliches.  I had seen it on the outbound flight, and it struck me as unusually sappy.  On the return I was overwhelmed.

As with any hotel propaganda, there were the required panning shots of the lobby, the pretty girl diving into the swimming pool, the enchanted couple gazing into each other’s eyes over plates of tiny morsels of food, and the family happier than any other you’ve ever seen after a long plane flight.  And the interview with the manager was insipid, with so much for me to love: “our outstanding personnel” and other ridiculous HR miscues.  But the thing that struck me the most was:

We pride ourselves in exceeding our customers’ expectations every day.

I’ve always had trouble with this whole concept of “exceeding your expectations”.  It was obviously created by marketing people from words that seem to sound good, but what does it mean?  Let’s examine it…

What are my expectations?  When I go to a nice hotel, I expect a clean room, a nice bed, no bedbugs, and quiet.  Hard to exceed those…  Hermedically clean?  Anechoically quiet?  Less than zero bedbugs?  OK, that’s simply being petty and splitting semantic hairs.

But, really, how do you consistently “exceed my expectations”?  Only by me expecting to be disappointed in the first place, or by having your market placement so far off base that you trick people.  Either of these are failures on the part of the company.

If I go to a Motel 6, I don’t expect Four Seasons level service.  So if I get it at a Motel 6, something’s wrong.  The Motel 6 is wasting money providing services to people who aren’t looking for them, and probably losing a boatload doing it.  And it’s impossible for the Four Seasons to exceed my expectations, because I expect them to be the best.  Anything less is a failure.

All of this plays hell with the employees.  It’s like saying: “set a really low bar for our customers then surprise the heck out of them by being competent.”  Expecting your employees to do daily slight of hand with their level service isn’t a good thing for business, it’s a sure path to frustrated and disgruntled people.

So, please, stop “exceeding my expectations”.  Just set a really high bar, and meet it every time.  Consistency is what matters, not the occasional random overshot.