Customer Care on Rainy Days

At least two times a year, I fly to Istanbul, Turkey, due to both business and family reasons. There is not a direct flight from Toronto to Istanbul so I usually choose one of the few European carriers which are serving that route. I travel with my family, therefore my choice is dictated by the convenience factor rather than the price, frequent flyer miles or brand loyalty. Among British Airways, KLM, Air France, Alitalia and Lufthansa, I usually pay the premium price and fly with Lufthansa. Even though Lufthansa is at least 30 to 40% more expensive, it adds considerable comfort due to cleaner and newer aircrafts, larger seating space in economy class, shorter connection times at Frankfurt airport and straightforward booking and check-in procedures at their travel agents. All of these are worth the extra dollars spent especially when traveling with a baby. However, nobody is perfect and so is Lufthansa. To my surprise, I recently experienced the bitter side of Lufthansa Canada team’s notion of customer care and satisfaction. 

Our latest pilgrimage to Istanbul was scheduled on the afternoon flight of Lufthansa on March 1st. Around 2 pm, just half an hour before we left for airport, a major snow storm started to unleash its fury on to the city. What was a relatively beautiful day up to that point, turned into chaos and mayhem. While we were already in the airport taxi struggling through an incredible traffic jam, I checked the flight status of Lufthansa flight LH 471 through my BlackBerry, not suspecting any cancellation but anticipating some delay, and it was surprisingly on time. I remember saying to myself “Geez, these Germans, they seem to be on time even under these circumstances”. Thanks to our driver’s extraordinary maneuvering skills, we showed up at the check-in counter on time. Before I could say anything, the lady at the other side of the counter looked at me with a stone cold face and said “I cannot check-in anybody yet so please wait and we will let you know when we are ready”. No explanation, no timeline, no empathy. While most of the afternoon flights were starting to announce their cancellations, the airport’s departures screen and web site were still showing the Lufthansa flight on time. Half an hour later, the announcement came: “The flight is cancelled; you can book for another flight through our 800 number”. Funny part was, when we called the 800 number, we realized that call center agents were not yet informed about the cancellation and they were still referring us to the Lufthansa airport ticket counter. Another hour of struggle at the line of the airport ticket counter and we got ourselves a booking on the next day’s flight. Feeling lucky to be able to get a seat to the next day’s flight and we did not mind the two and a half hour taxi ride back home due to ongoing traffic jam. This day was simply a bad surprise from Mother Nature.

Next day, there was just occasional snow. Our flight was showing on time when we reached the check-in counter. Once checked in, we placed ourselves at a vantage point with a view of departures screen at the waiting lounge. One hour after the planned departure time of our flight, the first announcement from Lufthansa staff finally came; the plane coming from Germany to pick us up had to divert to Montreal and it was still there. It was expected soon to make it to Toronto. The departures screen got updated. After two more hours of waiting with no official announcement, we were told that the plane was still in Montreal and our flight’s fate will be decided within the next hour. We saw another late update on the departures screen. And finally, half an hour later, unexpectedly, first the departures screen flashed the bad news; our flight was, again, cancelled. Feeling frustrated and desperate, we rushed to the ticket counter. On our way, we heard the Lufthansa staff making the cancellation announcement, almost 10 minutes later than the departures screen update. Thanks to our fast reaction, we were at the beginning of a 200 people line. We quickly realized that the ticket counter team was understaffed, ineffective and their manager had absolutely no idea how to manage a crisis at that scale. He even did not seem to care. Our complaints did not change anything. An hour later, we got rebooked. For the people at the end of the line, it took up to 6 hours. The chaos at the luggage collection belt was even worse. There was no staff to coordinate the luggage handlers and for some reason these guys were simply throwing the luggage from the belt to the floor. After another hour spent at finding our stuff through the piles of bags, way past midnight, we were home.

On the third day, we got on the flight. It was still delayed for 4 hours due to a “mechanical problem”. Again, the Lufthansa team at the airport was not up to the task of customer care. We felt again out of the loop, unconfident that we would fly and more importantly not respected. When we finally took our seats, I was certain that I would never fly Lufthansa again. That feeling somehow waned through the flight since the in-flight teams and Frankfurt airport transfer staff caught up with good customer care. When we landed in Istanbul, we knew that Lufthansa overall was still OK, but their team in Toronto was the weak link.

The Mother Nature can be a force majeure, especially for airlines but it is not an excuse not to treat your customers with respect. What we experienced was a true example of how a weak customer care team could place a respected brand’s reputation in jeopardy. Toronto might be a small town, but world is also a smaller place now. I am sure Lufthansa management team will learn this lesson pretty soon; no matter how good your product, your technical team and your management team is, customer is the king and your customer care is your kingmaker against your competitors. Make sure that they are up to the task.

Written by Kaan Bora on March 31st, 2007 with no comments.
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