CFM Member
Joined: 19 Feb 2010 Posts: 12 Location: Smyrna, TN, USA
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Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 9:49 pm Post subject: How ONE Person Can Make a Difference |
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We at Plane Conversations sometimes pick on the airlines because we hear all too often about the bad experiences people have when flying commercially. But sometimes we hear stories, like the one below, which lets us know that the airlines still have some great employees who get it right!
On a recent flight back to Montreal, a client and friend of ours, Serge Charron, of Pascan Aviation in Canada, had the following airline experience, and wanted us to share it on this site. This is how one person can make a difference to many.
I want to share an experience I recently had while traveling from the United States to Canada, which demonstrated how the proactive quality of an employee, versus a reactive attitude, can make a significant difference to a customer experience. This is an example where each and every employee – from a cleaner, to pilot, and even a CEO, must be dedicated to customer service to ensure a successful and healthy company.
This particular employee did her best to correct a problematic situation, when the cause was clearly out of her control. A reactive employee would have done their duty as usual (a normal turnaround within the normal turnaround time). This would have done nothing to resolve the delay to all subsequent flights.
Her initiative was safe, efficient and cost saving to the company. Her dedication to customer service is invaluable and she is clearly a person with a strong worth ethic and who is looking out for the company.
This is what happened:
We arrived at the terminal in Nashville for our flight back to Montreal. After checking the board, we saw that our flight had been announced 45 minutes late. We were concerned about our connecting flight, since this delay led to us having only 5 minutes to catch our connection in Philadelphia. As most people would, we just sat there.
There’s nothing much we can do!
An airline employee came to the small counter at our gate and took the microphone. She announced the delay and explained that she will do her best to shorten the delay for those who have a connecting flight in Philadelphia. She then called for all passengers who had a tight connection to visit her; there were about 10 in total. She upgraded each passenger to the first rows in entrance of the plane, to enable us to exit the plane as quickly as possible in Philadelphia. That was smart!
When the plane arrived, she made another improvement. She called for boarding and made it per row, commencing with the last row in the back of plane. This made it so we were not stuck at the door waiting until everybody had finished stuffing their luggage in the overhead compartment, tightening belts etc before others can continue to the next seat. This was very smart! It facilitated a very quick turnaround. I wonder why it is not always like this?
The professionalism the woman demonstrated and her initiative and customer service skills made the situation bearable, and made my day. I said to my colleague “I wish all of my employees were like her”.
The time she saved in this turnaround gave us 20 minutes for a smooth connection in Philadelphia, and on home to Montreal.
Thanks to Serge Charron, President of Pascan Aviaion in Montreal for sharing this story. One person can make a difference!
www.pascan.com
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