The Customer Experience

There is nothing more difficult to communicate to your customers what you want when their interactions are short.  You have such a limited window, it is easy to miss, right?  I would say no based on my experience this week!  This week I had the thrill of traveling to a client site.  I hit three airports on my way out – Cleveland Hopkins, Newark and Charlotte.  Here is what happened.

In Cleveland, every person greeted me and at the gate, the employee  cleaning struck up a conversation.  I felt very comfortable and liked the experience.  I then landed for a connection in Newark.  My airline had a “partner” that picked up the connection which meant I needed to get from Concourse C to Concourse A.  I had to ask two people for directions to a shuttle (the first person sent me to the air train outside of security) I arrived in a strange little room to wait for a bus.  The three people at the desk barely stopped their conversation to tell me to have a seat and wait.  When I arrived in the right concourse I then had to find the flight but found out I hadn’t been checked in properly and had to leave the security area.

I finally got on the plane to Charlotte.  The first person I saw after the gate in North Carolina welcomed me to Charlotte and asked how I was doing.  I could have asked her anything and I’m confident she would have done everything possible to help.

So, what’s the point?  Well, each of these airports wants travelers to book through them.  It is important they increase traffic and carriers see their facility as valuable.  Now, any time I travel I will route so that I don’t have to go to Newark ever again.  My experience was that frustrating.  On the other hand, if my choices include going through Charlotte, I will happily book that as it will be an easy option.  And while I am one person, I talk to many and one never knows how much travel those individuals will schedule.

Communicating your culture and giving customers a great experience happens in the trenches on the day to day – not in big ways, but hundreds of small things.  It is those that make all the difference.  Have you reviewed the little contact points in your company lately?