In The Dark

Posted on May 5, 2010 | 0 comments

One of the worst customer experiences often comes from a business that keeps its clients or customers in the dark.

My family and I were recently flying Delta airlines to return home on a beautiful sunny afternoon. No threat of storms or rain. No other apparent delays. We boarded the plane on time only to end up sitting for over ninety minutes (which is the equivalent of two days for our four children).

If you fly enough, the delay itself was not abnormal. The abnormality came as neither the pilot nor the co-pilot ever provided an explanation for the delay. The fact that the plane sat motionless for almost an hour and a half was never even acknowledged.

Now there are times that businesses should and do implement systems designed to protect the customer base. As an example, the nature of a severe threat at a major amusement park or sporting event may not be fully disclosed do to the risk of public hysteria. A better approach is to calmly and efficiently exit folks from the venue. Yet this type of situation is the exception and under most circumstances a full disclosure to customers is warranted.

The annoyance of a tardy flight was compounded when no explanation for the delay was ever communicated. How can a plane be so late without even a single word given to the passengers regarding the cause?

To make matters worse, the co-pilot in his only addressing of the passengers after take-off calmly and succinctly relayed an estimated arrival time 65 minutes past the scheduled arrival time. No apology. No explanation. Unhappy customers.

I strongly doubt that this is standard protocol for Delta as my experiences have proven otherwise. Pilots routinely provide explanations and apologies for delays. So what happened? There are two potential scenarios in which this situation could occur:

1) There is no system that covers this particular scenario (hard to believe)
2) The system failed due to human error

Whatever the cause in this particular situation, it is vital that human touch points of your business systems are explicitly analyzed. Where do humans interact in your business systems? Study those points closely as these are often the “weak links” that cause these less than satisfying customer experiences.

It is important to design your business systems in a manner that refrains from keeping your clients and customers in the dark. Every time that your customer is kept in the dark it makes it harder for them to become part of a fanatical customer movement around your products and services.