How Do You Feel When You Are the Customer?
A few years ago, I was watching my favorite hockey team, The New Jersey Devils, play in game six of the Stanley Cup finals. Two of the Devils were coming in on a two-on-one breakout when suddenly my cable went out! Needless to say, I was not amused. I called the cable company and, after being placed on hold for 20 minutes (Why do their messages always say your call is important to them when clearly if it was, they would answer it faster?), a “representative” asked about my problem. It was very clear after a few moments that this person was highly unmotivated and could not care less about my issue. To me, at that moment my problem felt like the most important thing in the world (which, clearly, it wasn't).
Conversely, I had a very different experience flying on Virgin Atlantic Airlines. After a brutal week on business in the United Kingdom, all I wanted to do was plop in my seat and watch some movies. The personal video system on my seat was working but I had no audio. The flight attendant replaced my headphones, crawled under my seat to try to tweak some wires, but to no avail. I resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't be able to watch a movie. He came back in about a minute with a Sony Watchman and a list of movies available on that format, stating that he was sorry for the inconvenience but hoped that I would be able to find movies on this format that I would enjoy! See the difference?
Always remember how you feel when you are the ...
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