In my free time, what little of it there is, I have been slowly reading “Do You Matter? How Great Design Will Make People Love Your Company”. (If you don’t have a copy I would recommend it, or at least have a look
Anyhow the point is that I had some spare time this morning and decided to spend a few minutes reading. The particular section I read through was title “Portals to Experience”. To save you my definition, here’s the jist of it:
“That’s how really well-designed products or services work: The product becomes an icon and a venue, a doorway or a portal for a specific community to a unique experience, and that’s where you start to create equity.”
The book went on to reference airlines and how even in time of unfortunate circumstance, cancellations, weather etc., the difference between a good experience and a bad experience is all in how the airline (or employees) handle it. “keep you moving with a smile on your face…”.
For someone who spent the better part of two years in and out of airports experiencing just about every airline the continental US has to offer, this struck me. Because lets face it, anyone who travels frequently will undoubtably see differences in how airlines handle these type of situations. More than likely you will begin to narrow down your favorites and all together avoid certain airlines.
Then I started thinking about how even airlines I enjoyed and for the most part always had an excellent experience while flying seemed to have certain hubs where the customer service was altogether lacking. It seemed that the more these airlines spread out the more likely it was for that “mission statement” or customer service message got lost.
So I started thinking back to some of the jobs I have held in the past. For the most part they begin with some sort of “training” session, an intro course so to speak. You watch a video or two, learn how your company handles customer interaction, basic policy and procedures etc. That’s it you are ready to go. Sure some jobs require refresher courses but for the most part you “learn” everything through that first intro and the actual interaction with the job to follow.
You can start to see how people might become complacent and lose a little bit of that “training” along the way. But, those that are closer or more attached to the original corporate culture established by the company are probably reminded more often of “how we deal with clients”. This could be the home office, the original offshoots etc.
However, as the company starts to spread it’s wings by establishing more remote locations, hubs, retail outlets etc, I think that they start to loose that connection with the “home office” and thus loose some of that original culture or mission statement that has been established.
An Example
I flew an airline, one that is quite well known for service. The service at the original hubs was simply amazing. You never had to walk more than a few feet to get your questions answered and for the most part they kept you smiling and on the move. Then they started to spread their wings a bit, suddenly I could fly with them to places I normally would have had to choose another airline to get to. Upon arriving at some of these places you see the usually big bright logo and head off to the desk because your plans have changed and now you need assistance. You expect to be greeted by that welcoming smile that you would normally receive, but instead the man in airline uniform tells you “sorry but we are closed right now come back in an hour and I can answer your question”. HUH? That’s not the service I am used to. Can I maybe see a supervisor? “Actually I am the supervisor”. Perfect.
The “mission statement” has been lost. The care is no longer there because this person is not quite as vested in the corporate identity as those back home. To him this is just another job, he is not reminded on a daily basis of what it means to be an Airline X employee.
Enter Social Media
So in todays world how can we fix this just a little bit? Here’s where I had a thought. Today it should be easier than ever to bridge this gap in communication. Think about the possibilities that things like YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook etc open up for your average company (going beyond marketing). Would it be so terrible if upon clocking in for the afternoon shift that an employee be required to watch a brief inspirational message in the form of a YouTube video? If nothing else to subtly refresh them of that message that was conveyed in that two hour training session they went through ten months ago.
There are a lot of possibilities out there for keeping your company message alive and avoiding this disconnect that I have seen happen all to often. What ideas do you have?
