Originally Posted by
gglave
I think part of it is it's a unique service environment where the front-line staff aren't actually empowered to *do* anything about complaints.
If you buy a cheeseburger and it's cold or tastes bad, if you complain you'll likely an apology and a new cheesburger, or your money back pretty fast.
If you buy a shirt and the buttons fall off and you return it reasonably you'll get a new shirt or a store credit.
If you rent a car and there's no car, they'll upgrade you
If there's a problem on your bill at a hotel upon check-out, the counter staff will correct it.
- etc. etc.
These are all functions handled by front-line low-level service staff, not 'customer care' 25 weeks later in the head office.
I think airline staff are unique in that they're no longer empowered to do any of this stuff - Which leads to hostility.
Cheers,
Geoff Glave
Vancouver, Canada
Although you raise some correct examples, I also think that airline staff is not necessarily unique in terms of the lack of empowerment of front-line employees. There are so many other businesses where front-line staff basically "lives in fear for their jobs" if they dare to even THINK of going outside the tightly-defined procedures for which they've been trained. That's also why you never can get the first and last name of any CS rep you deal with (in most any industry)..."I'm the only Jane here"...utter lack/fear of accountability.