Customer service. It matters more now than ever because it’s so easy for us to switch, and so easy to complain to the world on social media. Getting it right is crucial to not being put in the Snapchat stocks, tarred on Twitter, and feathered on Facebook. And yet, I’ve just spent TWO HOURS on hold, waiting for Swiss airlines to answer my call. Read that again: two whole hours. The answer never came.
Swissair, owned by Lufthansa, have handled a spell of bad Winter weather very badly.
Let’s face it, weather is unpredictable. But that bad weather will happen is guaranteed. And, meteorologists around the world assure me it’s mildly predictable that bad weather is coming. If I was an airline, I might pay attention to these things. And I might put on more call centre staff to deal with the surge in customers wanting to know what the next steps are if their flight has been cancelled. I might also take advantage of all that data my marketing team use so effectively such as an email address or a mobile phone number to, quite easily, let my customers know that a) their flight had been delayed and, b) what my plan B was for revooking them.
In my case, Swiss did nothing. I have still not been informed that my flight is cancelled despite having checked in, given them my mobile number so I could get a boarding pass from them, and my being a long time frequent flying passenger about whom they must know an awful lot. I have pretty much flown in Swiss twice a week for the last five months. They know more about me than my mother!
Despite this, I will go to sleep tonight with no idea if I am on the 7am tomorrow and will, therefore, miss it. I am not particularly concerned about Plan B as my flight is an hour long and my schedule can be rearranged. But I am agog and aghast at how badly the customer service has been. A quick review of Twitter suggests I am not alone. How is it possible to get this so wrong? The brand and reputational impact is worth considerably more than the cost of putting on more call agents.
I have the choice ZRH to AMS between KLM and Swiss and deliberately chose the latter. Their response in what should have been a standard weather situation in December, which is when snow storms traditionally occur, has me questioning that decision. I have no issue with cancellations due to weather but how a company deals with their customer base when things go wrong is, for me, a leading indicator of what’s happening within the guts of the company. I fear there may be tummy troubles at Swiss.