We finally made it to Manchester ready for tomorrow's conference - after a fine display of how genuine attention to customer service can (just about) retrieve the worst situations. Our train started from Southampton at 10 am bit was an hour late by the time we joined it and finally gave up the ghost at Birmingham New Street at 3pm.
What was a fairly difficult situation that could have resulted in some very grumpy travellers was relieved by the tone of voice of the train customer service assistant whose final announcement (after 10-15 apologies for earlier delays) - started with 'I've got some bad news, I'm really sorry but this train is terminating'.
Her honesty and genuine appreciation of the difficulties that the problems presented was really refreshing!
None of us like delivering bad news to our clients, but I know from experience that however complex the situation it's best to be direct and honest as that leaves the customer respecting what you've done - even if they are still inwardly fuming!
We hope none of the people attending tomorrow's conference will get stuck on a train, but if you do, or you just can't make it to Manchester please remember to follow #sfair to keep up with what's being discussed and we'll give you a full run down on Friday!
2 comments:
A human voice apologising? At last! One of my frequent rants is about those automatic, disembodied announcements made at train stations. When a machine announces "I am sorry for the delay to this service", I know that machines don't have emotions and therefore admission of sorrow is meaningless.
It makes such a difference - a simple sorry in a human voice defuses so many situations.
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