Archive for the ‘Features’ Category
Focus On Customer Service
The ability of service providers to make our job easier as a parent is no doubt of significant importance to all of us. It amazes me that in a market with 10% unemployment, record foreclosures and businesses struggling financially, quality customer service has hit an all time low. It hasn’t been confined to any particular industry, but rather seems to reflect a more general decline in the dedication and commitment to customers.
Receiving excellent customer service can make a lasting impression on us and further solidify our commitment to a particular brand or service. Finding that level of service is challenging as of late, so we’re starting a regular feature that will focus on companies or organizations that consistently provide excellent customer service, especially to families.
Employees that go out of their way to make a family vacation experience memorable or help us in a way that may seem insignificant to them, but makes all the difference to us, deserve recognition. We encourage families to report and reward excellent service as it reinforces positive behavior and those companies will continue to support the efforts of those employees.
Although our intent is to stay focused on the positive, we also realize that in order to help improve the level of service provided by companies and their employees, we need to provide constructive feedback when they are missing the mark. Even when we get answers that we may not agree with, being acknowledged and feeling that our feedback is being considered provides us with acknowledgment that a company understands the importance of its customers.
In this post, I’d like to acknowledge someone who was a shining light for her company. Her job as Vice President of Loyalty Programs at Northwest Airlines no doubt kept her busy. However, despite her busy schedule and undoubtedly a large volume of e-mail that she received, she consistently made an effort to respond to each and every frequent flyer who wrote to her. I had the pleasure of corresponding with her and although I didn’t always agree with her, she always provided thoughtful, personalized responses. I applaud Beth Shultis for her incredible dedication and commitment to customers. Unfortunately, Beth passed away several years ago, but I still remember her and have remained loyal to the brand she represented, in part because of her.
Unfortunately, post-merger dedication to frequent flyers has been lacking from the folks at Delta. I encourage the individuals running the Skymiles program to spend some time talking to the people who had the pleasure of working with Beth. The airline industry is a tough business and creating customer loyalty is key to survival. Beth Shultis knew exactly how to do that and Delta management could learn a great deal from the leadership example that she set.
If you have suggestions for people or companies that we can profile, please e-mail me. This is your chance to get involved.
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