Follow Up to The Northworst Experience
A little while back, I wrote an entry about a bad experience I had flying on Northwest Airlines. What I didn’t mention in the article was that I had, at the request of the gate agent, filled out a feedback card detailing my complaint. I didn’t want to fill it out for one very good reason: they all go to the same address! 1 Garbage Can Drive!
But the gate agent told me that the CEO of Northwest reads and responds to every one of these, so I filled it out. You would think, after 21 years as a business traveler I would know better than to fall for that, but I am an eternal optimist.
I really want to believe that there are crappy companies out there who do want to get better. In fact, I’ve seen it happen. Citibank, Direct TV, Food Lion, and Verizon are just some of the companies who at one time or another, in my experiences as a customer with them, were awful, but managed to significantly improve their service to the point where I like doing business with them.
Unfortunately, Northwest Airlines continues to be Northworst. Naturally, I have never received a reply from my comment card and I sincerely doubt I ever will, since it’s been over 6 months from the time I sent it in. Oh well, I guess some things never change.
Warren;
Why not invest some time and make contact with the Northwest CEO. He needs to know how his apparent company policy has failed and how it impacted the companies credibility, people who work for him, you and everyone else who encounters the same experience, let alone those who read your article.
It is easy to be critical, it's more difficult to be helpful. None of us want to see someone else suffer or fail. If you find it hard to be helpful to the CEO (who should know better) think about the gate agent and his/her colleagues. After all, the gate agent was displaying empathy for your situation in the belief that he/she was helping you to escalate your concerns and improve customer service.
Hey Mike,
Are you serious? I already "invested" time by filling out the comment card and sending it to the CEO, who I was told answers every comment. If I have to invest any more time straightening out Northwest Airlines, I would like to be paid for it. Why should they get something for free that well-run companies actually pay me for my advice?
As for the empathetic employees; what planet did you just fly in from? There is one reason they gave me the comment card: To shut me up. And there is one reason I filled it out: because the "empathetic" (emphasis should be on the word "Pathetic") employees were so bad at their job and so APathetic that they had no idea where my flight or crew was and weren't the least bit interested in finding out.
Why is it always up to the customer to have to "invest" time in trying to straighten out lousy companies. As for Northwest's problems; I don't really care. I just choose never to fly with them again. That's what's so great about being a customer; you get to vote with your feet.