Over the weekend I was having a conversation with a good friend of mine about great customer service. She told me about her amazing fish guy at her local market who seeks out great opportunities to find new fishes and always greets her with a smile. I ended up talking about a random experience on a flight I took just over a week ago. I meant to blog about it immediately, but the internet connection at my site was a bit slow.
On February 18th, I flew on a United flight from Phoenix to Chicago on my way to a convention in Georgia. I’ve already described some of the events from that trip: the funny boy in security and the nice Canadian man I visited with throughout the flight. I neglected to mention one key moment.
After the Canadian man and I had chatted for quite some time, he got up to walk around for a moment or two and stretch his legs. I took that time to put on my Bose headphones again and zone out from the loud airplane sounds. I closed my eyes for a moment or two, but opened them just in time to see the flight attendant. She saw I was actually awake and came back quickly
“The captain wanted to give you this.”
I was a bit surprised and had to doublecheck.
“Yes, the captain wanted to give you this.”
It was his business card. On the back he had jotted down a few short sentences thanking me for being a customer and allowing him the chance to continue to serve.
Yes, I’m definitely aware that my Premier Executive status with United probably triggered this note, but it still meant something that he wrote it. He didn’t have to. I’ve never received anything like this on any flight I’ve ever taken. That day was different. The captain, after leveling off the plane and making sure we weren’t going to hit any turbulence for a bit, used some of his “free” time to appreciate me as a customer.
I’m surprised more airlines haven’t made this into a more regular practice. Pick 3-4 customers each flight and send them a note. It would definitely surprise them and they’d totally share that pleasant surprise with friends.
Can we do the same? I know that as much as I talk about appreciation, I’ve been bad of late on some of those surprise moments. I need to work on it.
What do you need to work on?
Who could you send that random note to?
Is there someone in your school, organization, workplace that could use that pleasant surprise?
Make it happen today!