Okay, I know we spend a lot of time on this blog telling companies how to behave toward their customers.  Well… I had an unpleasant travel experience this weekend (is there any other kind?)… and it made we want to say something to the people on the other end.  After all, if we are ALL Time Magazine’s Person of the Year… then perhaps we have some responsibility, eh?

So here goes:

I was in Memphis waiting for my flight and… it’s a long odd story that involves unloading an entire plane bound for Philadelphia and trading aircrafts… but we ended up very delayed and on a different plane.  And, as you might expect (even though we sat on said plane for about an hour), they managed to leave our luggage behind.  So I trudged into the NorthWest airlines baggage office to file my claim.  I was the first one in… followed by several others from my flight… many of whom were just plain disgruntled.  One woman kept saying (as loudly as she could) “This is unacceptable!”  (as if repeating that magical phrase a dozen or so times would cause the woman to make her bag materialize with a click of her ruby fingernails)  Well, I quietly filed my report, I thanked the woman behind the counter (who apologized several times) and left with, “Thank you.  And I know this isn’t your fault.”  Because I just knew what awaited her with the people behind me.
So here’s my message to you, customers, consumers and people everywhere: Negativity is loud.  We’ve all heard that.  We’ve all heard it takes X number of good comments to outweigh one bad.  So my challenge is to you, the silent satisfied.  When someone gives you great service or treats you well or just plain smiles at the right time (especially in a lousy situation), say thank you!  Say it loudly!  If individuals are the world’s greatest source of information, then we have a responsibility to spread it.  Don’t just speak out when you’re angry.  Speak up when you’re happy.  Give people the whole picture.

Not to mention - if you’re nice to the people serving you, don’t you think they’ll be more willing to go above and beyond for you.  These relationships are two-way… now more than ever.  And I can’t help but wonder if I got my bags sooner than the “unacceptable!” lady… just because I was friendly.

So here’s my thank you.  Thank you to the lady in the Atlanta Northwest Airlines baggage office at 10:30 at night for being so calm and helpful.  Thank you to the guy who called to get directions to my apartment to drop off my bag.

And thank you to any customer who makes the step from satisfied to advocate just by saying “thank you” a little louder than they had to.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 at 8:38 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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