Was it poor customer service or rote responses that threw a wrench in one couple’s vacation?  In a post titled Boise Airport Didn’t Get the Memo at the Idaho Business Review’s BizBlog, Lora Volkert describes an airline’s desk agent’s snafu and how it ruined a couple’s Cancun vacation.

In the post, Lora tells how the US Passport law for travel to Mexico and Canada has been suspended because the huge backlog of new applicants has bottlenecked passports being issued in a timely manner.

The backlogged passports threatened to throw  a wrench into this couple’s Cancun vacation, but then they learned the passport requirement had be suspended. So they went forth with their trip — only to be denied travel by an airline robot desk agent who was clueless about the suspended policy.

I can see it happening . . . The travelers trying to tell the desk robot agent about the passport requirement being suspended, who in turn seeks input from the supervisor, who, in turn, is equally clueless.

LIKELY PROBLEM: The supervisor thinks he’s gotta be macho and decisive. 

Maybe even invincible.

Now I don’t suppose the couple heading to Cancun gave up lightly. So you’d think with a customer being so confident the rules had been relaxed, somebody would check with a supervisor from another airline (a whopping fifteen feet away, at best) whether or not he or she’s heard of such a thing. Or — heaven forbid, call an even higher-ranked supervisor.

But NOoooooo.

This is a perfect example of [insert favorite descriptor here] customer service, and a company that can’t seem to realize what is important for it’s customers …. you know; the people who BUY their services so they can have a job?

Sure, this is a bit of a rant– but this example is a tragedy that all managers should learn from.  We gotta take care of the people who really supply the paycheck.

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PS.  It’s also another example of front line supervisors making key decisions without the training to do so, as described in yesterday’s post.

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Filed in Work, Business, Opinion, Motivation, Management, Customer Service, Workplace, Corporate Culture