Dear Delta Airlines: Delta’s customer service sucks, and therefore, nothing you do in social media, advertising, PR or marketing matters one bit. Here’s a hint: Instead of being concerned about your next M&Ms flavor, you need to be concerned about your customers.
Your customer service rep IS Delta Airlines
A little while ago, a Delta customer service rep hung up on me when I asked her name. That was after she told me “we don’t make seating arrangements over the phone.” And after she couldn’t answer a simple question about how to print a boarding pass on your website.
It doesn’t matter if corporate says it cares, or if your ads promise good customer service. What matters is that one hourly wage person who answers your phone screws up your company’s public face.
That customer service rep is Delta. And she is proof that your company doesn’t care about its customers.
Hourly employees create your bottom line results
When you come right down to it, it’s almost always the hourly employees who have actual contact with actual customers who create your bottom line results. It makes great economic sense to empower them to solve a problem with one phone call.
Yet day after day, poorly paid employees, who are not empowered to make even their own simple decisions, handle the most important thing any company has – customers. It’s really time for that policy to change.
Customers matter. Treat us like you know that.
Delta dear, in case you haven’t noticed, the airline industry is in crisis, and the country is in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
Customers count. Time to treat us like you know that.
Dear Delta Airlines: Nothing Else Matters if Your Customer Service Sucks
Categories: Alternative Marketing, B.L. Ochman, Business Communications, Corporate_Blogging, Customer Service Issues, Internet strategy, Reality Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Word of Mouth, Worst Practices
Tags: , BL Ochman, Customer Service Issues, Delta Airlines, Delta customer service sucks, Delta service sucks
Tags: , BL Ochman, Customer Service Issues, Delta Airlines, Delta customer service sucks, Delta service sucks
I have now flown Delta in a while but routinely avoided them because of poor customer service. How sad that the legacy continues. There is a lesson here for all companies, how you treat your people is reflected in how you live your messaging. Pretty ads, and nice words are great but as you noted if the people who carry out those messages are not living them none of it matters.
Fly Delta a log (Silver Medallion). For 3 days, have been unable to get through on the 800# to solve a problem. 3 days! When I finally reached customer service, she said, “Obviously, some people have been able to get through.” Wha?? I said “Apparently, some, but not all.” Delta Airlines Customer Service – servicing some of the people some of the time. Way to go.
Don’t bother with all the marketing from Delta regardin their SkyMiles Program. The service connected to it, is sad, very sad. I recently took a 10,000 mile plus trip on Delta and a “Code Share” partner. My travel agent made the reservations with me specifying Delta, with my SkyMiles number. I checked in with a Delta agent verifying that number. When I returned home the miles were credited to the “Code Share” partner’s program not Delta! Seeing the error, the “partner” released the miles so the error could be corrected by Delta. But no Delta’s robotic continued response is once they have been credited to another program they will not credit to theirs? There error in the first place, you would think that instead of sending me hundreds of invitations to TEAM UP WITH DELTA to gain miles, that they would just take care of the good customers they have, and resolve the issues they cause. They don’t have bad customer service, that would be an improvement over what I got.
Yep. I think customer service is the most important aspect that any company should prioritize. Otherwise, they will lose customers in the long run.
Great post BL. Have you heard from Delta at all? I imagine not since they probably don’t care enough to be listening online either.
I saw Gary Vaynerchuck for the third time at SXSW this week. It’s kind of funny, people came from all over and paid lots of money to take part in SXSW Interactive. Gary’s talk was probably the most popular as always. And what was the theme? The one take away? Customer Service. Doh!
Listen to your customers, care what they have to say and have manners. Say thank you and you’re welcome. Pretty basic stuff. But still very underrated and misunderstood by large corporations.
Perhaps it’s hard to train employees to care about the customer when the company doesn’t care about them.
I did hear from Delta after this post appeared. I Tweeted about that. They solved both problems and that was great.
However,, I can’t help but wonder – what about all the customers who have issues and DON’T have popular blogs or large following on Twitter.
That’s the real issue.
BL
the bear knows best, flying does suck!
never really had a problem with customer service though.
I’m a Platinum Flier with Delta and I don’t get any better service than anybody else. I’ve brought them thousands of dollars in business but they aren’t interested in making their mistakes right.
I won’t recount all my “transition” issues, just my latest frustration. The Delta market gurus promised former NWA Lifetime club members new DELTA SKY MILES CLUB cards in the first quarter 2010. Opps. And they posted it in their web FAQs. Now, their “special customer” front line people, after consulting with supervisors, are saying, “Go to the website and report it missing or stolen.” It says, “Expect 4 to 6 weeks to replace it.” Oh, yeah, Atlanta customer complaints goes home at 5:30 EDT. Round-the-clock, Round-the-world DELTA, the not-on-time-with-promises airline.
After our last flight, Delta no longer has our business. We were asked to check our bags because they were “oversized”. On this trip, we had come through 2- Continental legs and one leg with Delta with the same bags (with the same contents). They were acceptable. But on the last leg of the trip the bags were “oversized”. This alone was disconcerting, but then the gate staff were not helpful. Further, on board the staff were surly with their curt, “What’a want”.
In February of this year, I was scheduled to fly back with Delta from
a vacation in Florida. Although they had my cell number, they never notified me and when I arrived at the airport to check in, was told my flight was cancelled. They never offered me any compensation—and I could not get a flight out until the next morning, resulting in an over $200 bill for hotel, meals etc. When I asked them for compensation, they refused, saying they were not obligated since an storm at their hub caused the delay. They also removed 22,500 Mileage Plus miles with very little notice—not enough time for me to retrieve them. They basically told me too bad on both counts.
Customer service? What customer service? I WON’T BE FLYING DELTA AGAIN! This is not the first time they’ve screwed me over
Here’s my experience with just trying BOOK a frigging flight with this brain dead airline. I was using points from a credit card that had to be transferred over to my Delta frequent flyer account so my family and me could fly on my miles. I called a month ahead of time to do so.
The first nimrod I got was overseas with a thick accent and a fake American name. After numerous attempts to make myself understood he told me I would need 80,000 miles total to qualify for seats. Made the reservation and called my Credit card company and they immediately transferred the miles over. Simple yes? Wrong. The genius in Delhi, Calcutta or whatever third world backwater was wrong. It was 80,000 miles PER SEAT. Luckily, I called Delta just before I lost my seats and found this out. The next agent I spoke to Jason was a rocket scientist in OHIO. He reassured me that he would extend the deadline on my reservation for two more days until the additional miles came in.
Jumpy now, I called the next day, a day BEFORE the new deadline, and got Jenny in the US who told me that my reservation had been canceled because it was past the deadline. Smoke coming out of my ears I said, “Your agent assured me that he would extend the deadline and you’re telling me now that my reservation GONE? I called a MONTH in advance for these flights. These times and dates are non-negotiable. We have to be in Atlanta on a certain day for a certain event. ” “Well let me see what I can do for you, click, click, click, okay I found your itinerary and I’ve re-booked those flights. You can go on Delta.com and see them there.” She promises to send me an email confirming this. Problem solved, right? WRONG! I never get an email confirming this conversation. Not trusting anything this pathetic excuse for a company tells me, I check my reservation on their website and, sure enough, Jenny screwed up my return flight booking it A MONTH LATER than my original one.
Head… about… to…. explode, I call Delta and get Carol who sounds like a dude. Either that or she’s smoked so much that she’s got a voice that could strip paint. I make my frustration and displeasure with Delta plain to Carol who is — how should I put it — an unsympathetic cunt with the listening skills of Glenn Beck. She starts stonewalling, tells me I’m being unreasonable and that it’s not a big deal. “NOT A BIG DEAL?” I’ve had to make four, count ‘em; four phone calls to make a simple fight reservation and each time YOU GUYS have nearly fucked me. How is that not a big deal? Finally, I get my return flight sorted out with yet another reservation, and ask her to send me an email confirming this. She refuses, telling me they don’t send emails unless the ticket is paid for. I point out that the first guy in outsourced hell already sent me one and Jenny said she would (Although she never did) Carol still refuses and then has the nerve to tell me I’m acting unreasonable. So, I make her stay on the line while I go their website to confirm she did what she said. She had. After promises to stay in touch, we say our tearful goodbyes.
As of now, I’m holding a reservation on the dates I want but Delta has not processed the miles my credit card company has transferred over. I still may lose this reservation and again, bear in mind, this is me planning a trip A MONTH in advance. Does it really have to this hard?
WOW
Delta Sucks…
They dropped my daughter off In Africa…but no bags and four days later…Still no one at Delta cares
Now that’s customer service at it’s finest..
DELTA YOU SUCK AND I HOPE ALL THE PAIN YOU HAVE CAUSED OTHERS COMES BACK TO YOU TEN FOLD…
AS A FORMER GROUND EMPLOYEE OF DELTA WHO WAS LET GO IN THE BEGINNG OF THIS YEAR FOR NO OTHER REASON THAN’ YOUR NO LONGER AN EMPLOYEE, THERE IS NO CUSTOMER SERVICE FOR DELTA, AS FAR AS BAGGAGE THERE IS AN i DON’T CARE RESPONSE FROM UPPER MANAGEMENT , DELTA HAS CUT GROUND PERSONAL TO THE POINT THAT IT HAS BECOME DANGEROUS TO WORK, WORKMAN’S COMP CASES ARE AT ALL TIME HIGH AND FORGET ABOUT OVERTIME..LAST YEAR ONE STATION PAID OUT OVER FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND IN OVERTIME RATHER THAN BRING MORE PERSONAL ON.
AS FAR WAITING FOR YOUR BAGGAGE THINKING YOUR 1ST CLASS OR DIAMOND MEMBER..LOTS OF LUCK YOUR BAGS MAY BE LAST SENT UP DUE TO THE LACK OF CONCERN BY GROUND EMPLOYEE’S OR THE FACT A NUMBER OF AIRCRAFT ARRIVED AT SAME TIME.