Recently I had to fly to New York on business and it was your typical '3 legger'.
Melbourne to Sydney, Sydney to Las Angeles and Los Angeles to New York.
Now from previous trips I know this equates to about a 30+ hour, door to door 'experience'. It's one of those things you have to just put your head down and deal with it.
Flying United really does mean 'cattle class' without even the choice of your own movies to help pass the time in a way you'd like.
But, as with any experience, the people you have to deal with can make or break that experience.
Enter Gary Strong, Flight attendant on the Melbourne to Sydney leg, as I had emergency row seats throughout the trip I got to sit face to face with the various attendants during take off and landings. Gary was at the end of a long leg where Sydney was his termination point and must have been weary but did it show?
Not in the slightest, he was happy, interested in his customers, careful to make sure the needs of those around him were met and wore a permanent smile.
Needless to say the short leg not only 'flew' past everyone walked off the plane with a smile on their face.
If anyone was to survey the customers at this point the airline would have received glowing reports. They may be budget but the service is terrific!
Enter our 'Turner'. In this case he was the main attendant for the long leg of Melbourne to Sydney - let's call him 'Mr Moodchanger'.
Here was an attendant that even before take off had turned his back on a customer while they were half way through a sentence to start a conversation with a staff member. This left the customer not only with a mouth hanging open with unfinished words but with a look of incredulity on their face.
This was to be the par for the course with this 'Turner'. EVERY interaction with customers was monosyllabic and with a look bordering between distaste and sheer boredom. However whenever in the proximity of another staff member he was all laughs and jokes with them, sharing personal information and having a wonderful time.
Needless to say this leg was long to start with and made much longer by this 'service' attendant.
How quickly a customers impression of an experience can turn. One link in the chain that does not live up to what is expected of them by management and people will vote with their feet.
This week I was related a 'Turner' incident by one of my Workshop customers. They had just spent $2500 on a DSLR and a day or two later, after realising that the 'instruction' book does little to actually instruct they returned to the store looking for assistance and guidance towards a course. The staff member who sold the gear was not, on so they got this stores 'Mr Moodchanger' equivalent. A disinterested, smug person who stated that their store didn't need to run courses as the staff knew everything they needed to know. Great, he even might have, but he showed no interest in passing on any of that knowledge.
It just shows how quickly we can lose a customer.
Do you have some 'Turners' in your store? Can you really afford to have even a part time 'Turner' in this day of tough retail?
It's time to look at your customer facing staff and see if you can head off these 'Turner' moments. A bit of retraining may be called for but you never know, those extra few points of retail business you have lost may be within your power to reclaim with just a bit more focus on your staff treating every customer with value and not giving them an excuse to turn to another retailer or website.
