You see, United Airline broke his $3500 guitar then rejected his request that they pay for it. But after his video went viral United changed their corporate mind and offered to reimburse him.  (You can see the video below.)

I see several important lessons here for management.

1. Do the right thing first, not last.

Isn’t it funny how many big companies offer to do the right thing AFTER they get massive amounts of negative publicity they refused to do the right thing earlier? Do they not account for the value of this bad publicity? Or do they simply not care?

2. Do not ignore customer voice.

It’s growing every day. The power of the Internet has given customers a new confidence. More than ever, customers expect to heard. If the company won’t listen then other people will. And this sort of social proof will affect companies profoundly if they ignore it.

3. Treat everyone well all the time.

You could give United Airlines credit for treating a celebrity as badly as they treat everyone else. At least they don’t seem to discriminate based on a customer’s perceived status. But this is little to celebrate. Better they should treat all their customers well all the time.

4. There is a big opportunity here.

When your industry has become a cliche for lousy customer service, you have an opportunity. If most of your competitors deliver service at a horrendously low level, then you can grab more customer loyalty by beating their standards. It shouldn’t take much for an airline to stand out from the rest. Maybe now is the best time to try this strategy.

After United offered to pay for his guitar, Dave Carroll published this statement in response. He seems like a class act. I hope the leaders at United (and other companies) pay attention.

Other articles you might like:

• Airlines ranked for customer service; Continental dominates
• United Airlines provides today’s (unfortunate) customer service example
• Is your luggage getting treated better by airlines?
• Now is The Time to Innovate
• Do the right thing right away

United Airlines lost a customer’s bag that had medication in it. So the customer had to replace the medication for the duration of their stay, costing them $750. This was three times what United Airline’s policy allowed so they were only reimbursed $250. The airline clerk who handled this apparently showed little humanity, seeming content to quote airline policy and do little else.

But later, after an LA Times reporter called United and asked about the incident, the airline generously changed their corporate mind and fully reimbursed their customer.

We all know why this happens.

Partly it’s the fault of the front line employee for not escalating the issue, which he should have done. No matter what the policy is, if you have an ounce of humanity, you should try to help your customers, not stonewall them.

But in the end, this is a management problem.

It could be they have a corporate culture that says policy is more important than customers. Or maybe that they have a specific strategy of only giving as much as they need to each time a customer asks for something. They make customers fight for everything. They do this because statistics work in their favor. They know most customers will give up. Only a determined few will call in the big guns (like an LA Times reporter).

But if this is their strategy, they’re stupid. Because every time it happens, they lose credibility with their customers. If they think the only costs are what they have to pay to compensate upset customers, they’re wrong.

Here’s a customer service retention tip: If you’re going to compensate a customer, do it fast, do it friendly and do it well.

Don’t hesitate. Don’t hide behind policy. And don’t make your customers work for it. Every time you do these things you tell the customer they can’t trust you. You send a message that you will do what’s in the company’s best interest, not theirs. You’ll communicate that doing business with you is risky. If something goes wrong, the customer loses.

And that’s exactly what we don’t want as customers. If it’s risky to do business with you, we’ll go elsewhere if possible.  As customers we’d prefer the safe, warm and comfy feeling of doing business with companies that look out for us.

Companies that show us we can count on them will earn our loyalty over and over. And they deserve our loyalty.Other articles you might like:

• Social Media helps Dave Carroll tell his customer service story
• Airlines ranked for customer service; Continental dominates
• Minnesota Public Radio knows how to engage customers
• Stop Saying “It’s Our Policy”
• Now is The Time to Innovate

Get back to the basics

And here are some additional thoughts on this topic…

I read a news item recently that quoted well-known venture capitalist, Anthony Lee on the state of customer service in his industry. He compared them to United Airlines, which says plenty. More interesting was how Lee suggested they improve:

“…promptly return calls and emails, pay attention during company pitch meetings, be quicker at saying “no” to entrepreneurs, and be more accountable to entrepreneurs.”

Nowhere in his short list do I see anything difficult or complicated. They’re all basic things that should be done without thinking. They’re all common sense and common courtesy. Yet, for many companies, they’re not at all common.

What basics of customer service could you do better? Make a list of common courtesy customer service things you should do. Then ask your boss or a co-worker to help you by offering feedback using this list as a guide. Do this for at least two weeks and see how things change.Other articles you might like:

• Customer service basics are timeless
• Bad manners are bad for business
• Six Ways to Get Million-Dollar Feedback from Your Customers
• Get Out Of The Kitchen!
• Offer your customers solutions not dead-ends

These rankings are very similar to 2008.  NWA rose slightly in the rankings and US Airways dropped to last. Every airline had a lower score in 2009 than in 2008. And if you look back to 2008 and 2007, the rankings don’t change much. Continental Airlines is consistently on top, followed by Delta and American. NWA, United and US Airways trade places somewhat but always stay near the bottom.

And this parallels my experience over the last three years.

So even though the scores have been dropping, this tells me there is consistency in how the airlines are delivering customer service. Looking forward you might expect this pattern to continue. But it won’t. Things will actually get better over the next few years.

Delta CEO Richard Anderson has made a public commitment to delivering better customer service. He wants to win. And he’s acquired NWA so he has a much bigger airline now. A big improvement in customer service at Delta could be a game changer for the airline industry. And it will give Continental some competition in the customer service space. It could raise the bar for all big US airlines. Wouldn’t that be nice!

What are your thoughts? Is airline customer service improving or getting worse? And who will win the airline customer service wars?Other articles you might like:

• Continental Airlines boosts customer service by cutting free food. Huh?
• Social Media helps Dave Carroll tell his customer service story
• Some people just know how to serve
• United Airlines provides today’s (unfortunate) customer service example
• Now is The Time to Innovate