By Leonard L. Berry
In the aftermath of the United Airlines fiasco when security personnel forcibly removed a paying customer from his plane seat to make room for one of the airline’s employees, here are some lessons that any service company should heed.
- Honor customers’ “perceived contract”, not the company’s legal contract. To the customer, a purchased service is a promise of performance. An airline passenger shouldn’t be expected to read an entire “contract of carriage” (United’s version is 46 pages long) to understand when the company can take away his seat.
- Identify decisions that only a senior manager can authorize. One such decision should concern circumstances under which customers are forcibly expelled, whether from an airplane cabin, a hotel lobby or a sports venue. Such calls should always be made by someone with the perspective to weigh the impact on a company’s reputation.
- Be generous with customers when you must break your service promise to them. Any compensation for a company’s mistake should be unequivocally fair.
- Include an explanation with an apology for a service failure. Apologies may be perceived as empty if the company doesn’t explain why the mistake was made. An honest explanation carries the weight of a forthright confession, making the subsequent “We’re truly sorry” more authentic.
- Use realistic slogans. Given the complexity of today’s airline operations, with challenges for passengers and employees alike, and limited competition (four airlines control about 70 percent of the US market), which discourages investments in improving service, a slogan like “Fly the Friendly Skies” feels disingenuous.
Leonard L. Berry is a professor of marketing at Texas A&M University.