Free prize customer service

In a last ditch effort to get to Salt Lake City for the Outdoor Retailer show, I recently spent most of my Saturday online trying to find an relatively inexpensive way to fly there. I had two key criteria — low cost and short travel time. With multiple web browsers open, I searched Aeroplan, Expedia and Travelocity for several hours before I was finally able to say: “Mission accomplished!”

The result was a flight on points to Chicago and then a low(ish)-priced flight from Chicago to Salt Lake City. The only hitch was a very tight connection in Chicago. Since I was exchanging an existing points flight, I made the arrangements over the phone with an Aeroplan agent. When speaking with the agent, I asked if I could select my seat — to try for a seat at the front on the plane. The agent told me I would have to call United directly. Okay, but wasn’t I booking my flight through Air Canada?

So I called United. After a few minutes of picking my way through a variety of prompts and selections, I was able to select my seats (in the back half of the plane). The process was completely automated — which was kind of cool – but I never had the opportunity to speak with a real person — to explain that I wanted to be as close to the front as possible. Hmmm, not very satisfying, but it would do for the time being — at least I had a seat. I figured I would try to change it later when I checked in.

Since I was traveling on two different tickets, I thought it would be a good idea to call Delta to see if I could ask them to put a note on my file to say I would be arriving on another flight, one not connected to my ticket I purchased through Expedia, with a tight connection.

When I called Delta, it rang a few times before it was answered — by a live person! I had expected to go through a number of prompts, then wait on hold — potentially for many minutes — before being able to speak with an agent. It was quite a shock to immediately reach a real person.

I explained my situation, but she was unable to make such a notation. But it didn’t really matter, I was still basking in the warmth of being able to quickly have a conversation with someone to get an answer to my question, even if it wasn’t the answer I was hoping for. It gave me warm and fuzzy thoughts towards Delta.

Often, it’s the little things that make a big difference. This small experience with Delta customer service made a big impression on me. It was so completely different from the experience I was expecting. It’s also a good example of a concept discussed in “Free Prize Inside” by Seth Godin — that something remarkable and unexpected will get people talking about your business or product.

These days, telephone customer service continues to be one area where most companies could make serious improvements. Smart companies might consider following in Delta’s footsteps and start reducing the barriers to communicating directly with customers — barriers that were created in the name of cost-cutting or efficiency, but which have seriously impacted the quality of customer service.