blogger profile

Rhi Bowman

Student/ Writer

Rhi (pronounced Ree) B. is short for Rhiannon Bowman. Rhi B. is me. I’m a young woman– a newly wed, mother of two spoiled rotten cats and student– working hard to get out of college and on with the business of freelance writing. Trading money for words is a lifelong dream. After allowing...

READ MORE

Customer Service

It has gone the way of free airline soda: bye, bye

Thursday we found out a friend of ours was leaving, immediately, for Italy. Not for a vacation, but because her brother was found dead there. Authorities aren’t sure if his death is due to suicide or murder. Many tears, lots of calls and $2,000 later, she had airline tickets for her family for the next day.

So, I was surprised when she called Friday afternoon saying, “Rhi, I don’t know what to do.”

Turns out, the flight was cancelled and U.S. Air was not only unhelpful, their counter-staff were incredibly rude.

Though it would have only taken a moment to contact passengers to let them know their flight was cancelled, that small act seems unreasonable to airlines. Though kindness was called for, my friend had to keep repeating her case-- for three hours-- to customer service representatives, while her two children (one of which is Autistic) and husband waited to find out if they were going to Italy, or not.

When my friend asked to speak to the manager, the customer service representative walked away and never came back. My friend now assumes her shift must have ended. In the time she waited for the manager to show up, she and her family could have driven to Raleigh or Greenville or Atlanta for another flight.

When a concierge asked if he could help them, she restated her story again and he told her he couldn’t help her after all. She stood there and cried. Three customer service representatives pointed at her and huddled in discussion, but no one helped her.

“Why are people so mean?” she asked. “I mean, if my brother was treated like this all of the time, I can almost understand why he would want to kill himself.”

I told her I would call everyone I could think of, and I did. I called U.S. Air, I called local television stations and the newspaper, I called the airport. I didn’t think I would make much progress because, as we all know, customer service died a quiet death a long time ago and, unless her brother’s corpse was at the airport with her, the news wouldn’t care. But, I called anyway. I called for hours.

My friend thanked me. She apologized, too.

“When I said ‘Call us if we can do anything for you,’ I mean anything,” I responded.

Though I didn’t think anyone else would act, I knew that listening to her story and taking up her cause would help her feel less alone during a terrible time in her family’s history. On a day that could have been eased by simple kindness, she needed a champion. I would do anything to ease her suffering, being her champion is easy.

Eventually a customer service representative clocked-in who was sweet and helpful. Eventually they found another flight. Eventually, after my calls and, I assume, a call from The Charlotte Observer journalist who covers the airline industry, my friend received an apology from U.S. Air's corporate office in Arizona. Eventually, my friend felt a little better-- she felt like someone cared.

Why, though, did it take so much effort to get someone-- a customer service representative, no less-- to offer my friend, their customer, their best efforts?

In my mind, customer service is one way we can bond as a community. In my mind, kindness and customer service go hand-in-hand. In my mind, a little kindness would do our world a whole lot of good.