The $7,000 Snafu
H. James Harrington
What does quality cost? In the airline industry, it costs
a lot. I just returned from a trip to the World Quality
Congress held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The lowest
cost of a roundtrip ticket by class was:
 Economy:
$1,024
Business:
$8,100 (7.9 times more expensive than economy)
First
class: $12,000 (11.7 times more expensive than economy)
Well, I’m a big man, so I decided to pay the extra
700 percent (i.e., $7,076) to fly business class. For that
much money I was expecting very high-quality service because
most other aspects of airline travel are the same. For
example:
You go to and from the same place.
It takes the same amount of time to get there.
Your luggage is unloaded at the same time as other classes.
The same soft drinks are served in all classes.
Plastic dinnerware is used throughout.
Granted, the food on British Airways is a little better
in business class, but the biggest difference is that the
seats recline so that you get a good night’s rest.
That was important to me because I was traveling for 46
hours, arriving at nine in the morning and scheduled to
begin work at noon.
As luck would have it, my seat wouldn’t recline
at all, although the flight attendants worked on it diligently.
One pushed buttons while another pushed on the seat’s
back, and still another attendant pulled on the seat itself--all
to no avail. After more than 30 minutes of trying, the
purser told me that the seat couldn’t be fixed and
that no others were available in either business or first
class.
To make me feel better, he told me to pick out something
from the airline’s “Shopping the World” folder,
and he would give it to me to make up for the inconvenience.
After looking through the folder, I selected a Sony CLIE
handheld PDA. I figured if I couldn’t sleep, at least
I’d have a new toy to learn how to operate and help
pass the time. I turned in my choice to a flight attendant,
and about 45 minutes later, another flight attendant returned
to inform me that I couldn’t have the PDA because
it cost about $600. I had to limit my selection to no more
than $75. There was very little in the folder for less
than $75--some perfume, toys and candy but not much more.
Even a woman’s scarf cost more than $80.
I’d paid more than a $7,000 premium for the convenience
of a reclining seat, but when the airline failed to provide
that service, it was unwilling to give me a $600 gift to
make up for the problem. Thus, the gift that was intended
to make me happy became a negative factor.
I was then asked to provide information about my return
flight: day, time and flight number. I thought the company
was planning on doing something to make up for this inconvenience
on my return flight. Perhaps I’d be upgraded to first
class, or at least some special services would be provided.
Though my expectations were high, in the end I was disappointed
again. I received no special consideration.
When I picked up my luggage in Dubai, my suitcase was
open and my clothes and PC were jumbled in a large plastic
sack. I took the sack to the complaint office and was told
that my luggage must have been unlatched when I checked
it. We stuffed the clothes back into the suitcase, and
I snapped it shut. I put my PC in my briefcase. When I
got to my hotel room, I received a call from the bell captain
informing me that my bag had come apart and my clothes
had fallen out. When I closely examined the suitcase, I
could see that it had been hit on the side, breaking the
latches.
Before returning home, I taped the suitcase together
and explained the problem to the counter attendant in Dubai.
She told me to talk to the complaint department in San
Francisco. In San Francisco, I was told to take the bag
back to where I’d bought it and ask the store to
replace it. If that business was unwilling to replace the
suitcase, I should bring it back to San Francisco airport,
and they’d see if they could have it fixed. (Note:
It’s 120 miles roundtrip to the San Francisco airport
from my house.)
When I took the suitcase to the store I’d bought it from, the shop clerk looked at it
and said it had been mishandled and therefore the store
wasn’t responsible for repairing it.
You can see that British Airways met my requirements:
It got me and my luggage to Dubai and back, but it fell
far short of meeting my expectations. The airline industry,
and many other service
organizations, could learn from this example. When a customer
is dissatisfied, don’t promise something you can’t
deliver, don’t set expectations in his or her mind
that you can’t fulfill and don’t push a dissatisfied
customer’s problems off onto someone else. Once a
customer’s problem is defined, you must stay with
it until it has been solved.
H. James Harrington is CEO of the Harrington Institute
Inc. and chairman of the board of Harrington Group. He
has more than 45 years of experience as a quality professional
and is the author of 22 books. Visit his Web site at www.harrington-institute.com.
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