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Northwest Airlines Rating - Horrible Flight Attendant Experience
John Vachalek - 6.2.2009 12:00 AM
Case Study - On February 11th, 2009 I had the misfortune of boarding Northwest Airlines flight 563 from Minneapolis, MN to Denver, CO. This is where I met Sandy, the Northwest Airlines flight attendant who is the star of this blog post.
This was a very full flight and despite showing up 2 hours early to the airport, I had not been assigned my seat until most of the other passengers had finished boarding. When I entered the plane, my seat was in the first row, just past first class. I had a carry-on bag but after a quick assessment, it was easy to see that all the overhead compartments were already full. I looked back a good 15 rows. However, looking one row forward, I saw that there was plenty of room in the closest first class overhead storage area and that all the people in this section were already seated. So, I put my bag in the only logical place and took my seat.
About 30 seconds later I encountered Sandy. She stormed onto the scene. Without even addressing me, looking at me or engaging in any dialogue, Sandy opened the now closed overhead storage area, pulled my bag out and plunked it into the aisle way. As she walked back towards the front of the plane, still without any eye contact whatsoever, she stated, “You will have to find someplace else for that!”
After making my way past a larger gentleman who was in the aisle seat next to me, I quickly followed Sandy a few paces and stated, “All the compartment space is full.” In reply she put up her hand, shook her head and walked off the plane. Needless to say, this behavior was well beyond rude and completely lacking of someone who cares in the least about the experience they are providing as a representative of Northwest Airlines.
Outraged and beginning to plan my letter to the airline, I asked one of the other flight attendants at the front of the plane, “Excuse me, what is her name?” He replied that he could not tell me this due to airline regulations. Interesting reply, since it is right there on their nametags.
I asked if he would please gate-check my bag and he did this with no problem. Later I snuck a peek at Sandy’s name tag in order to make sure I gave her full credit for my experience.
Here is the topper. In the jet way, as everyone was leaving the flight, there were two other groups of people who did not know each other laughing and comparing Sandy to the flight attending from movie ‘Meet the Parents’ (see video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW6VxkoGOg0). These passengers were all seated in the back of plane. This means that Sandy continued to spread her unique brand of customer service to all the passengers throughout the flight that day.
In today’s world where competition is fierce and anyone’s opinion gets equal consideration on the search engines, no company can afford to employ individuals who do not embody the company’s overall brand experience. Hopefully, Northwest Airlines has a very different idea of how their “Alliance Team” is supposed to behave.
On average, a poor customer experience will be told to 14 people and a superior customer experience will be shared with only two people. So, if six other people and I had the same type of experience that means that about 84 people are going to hear negative comments about Northwest Airlines. But when you add in social media, blog post, burst email and all the other forms of communication available today, the number can reach well into the 10,000s.
Evaluate who is providing your customer experience, make sure it is amazing, and people will share this with the world. This is the basis for experience marketing.
Posted in Experience Marketing »
4 Responses to "Northwest Airlines Rating - Horrible Flight Attendant Experience"
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05/30/2010 7:01:41 AM
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05/30/2010 7:01:41 AM
One again, your articles is very good.thank you!very much.
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