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The travel industry has finally woken up and realized something: Their customers are at their worst when they have to deal face to face with their employees. Think about it, you just got off the worst flight of your life, and the airline’s lost your luggage, and you get out to the rental car lot to find that they are completely sold out of cars.

Doesn’t that just make your day?

Fortunately, the travel industry is starting to embrace “service recovery” whereby the give their frontline employees the power to try to make it right for the customer. Instead of waiting for a manager to approve it and lengthen the travellers already lengthy wait, they just allow their front line employees to make the decision to comp a room, give a upgrade, or just generally solve a problem and give something of value to the inconveinienced customer.

“It can take a customer from hell to heaven in 60 seconds or less” says John Tschohl, an authority on service recovery.

Traditionally, companies are slow to adopt this way of thinking, as they feel customers will scam them. I’m sure there is a certain element of truth to it, but, as a manager, would you rather save the $50 dollars you give to a scammer and lose the thousands a previously loyal customer would have spent at your facility, or vice versa?

I think this “service recovery” concept is great. Nothing is more frustrating than having to write the central office or wait for a manager to help solve my problem. If the employee standing right in front of me is capable of fixing problems as they arise, I’m more likely to stick with those companies, because as a frequent traveller, I expect there to be problems with my reservations in anything from my car rentals to my airline tickets.

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