Late flights…
15 Oct 2011 2 Comments
in Observations Tags: Empathy
You have had a long day travelling in a city and just come to the airport to take the last flight home and you find it delayed. Passengers hate this situation and struggle with this helpless situation. The airlines have good reasons but not enough to make a passenger forget his disappointment. It is fascinating to watch what different people do under this scenario. Some get busy with their mobile phones, some open their pc for those pending , some eat,drink, Some start making friends all of these is good for other businesses. Businesses become happy with delays. Some become angry, become sad, rant away to the first airline staff they see.. What is amazing is while the airline staff is trying to manage all this in the best possible manner, no one seems to have any concern about their delays, their disappointments, their plans as they are the most affected by these delays and have to still sport a warm smile to fray tempers around.
Balbir
Oct 15, 2011 @ 11:23:00
Indeed a tough situation for airline staff when such a situation arises. However, one thing that we miss out on is proper communication to passengers. Airline staff and many others, Internet serice providers, mobile phone sales staff, and others, are all so poorly trained that they think their job is done when an order form is signed. No one bothers to find out thereafter. If a flight is delayed further aside from making a public announcement, if only they try meeting up with passengers one-to-one and explain the situation, things can get better. Make the passenger feel important, ask for their needs and in what way they can help. Airtel for instance is, in my opinion, in terms of customer relationship is pathetic. And I say this with personal experience. In any service situation, organisations may have the best in technology, but if they lack the skills in communication and customer relations, then they are ‘zilch’.
Roshni
Oct 18, 2011 @ 14:03:44
Wonderful thought. Complaining and ranting at the airline staff at the desk is pointless – they are neither responsible for the delay nor are they empowered do anything about it. All of us expect to wait at some point during every day. Do we carry with us something to do while waiting? Do we know HOW to wait? As you mentioned in an earlier blog, what kind of person do we become in moments of stress? Moments of collective stress… do we worsen the situation or do we calm others down by being circumspect.