Customer service – or the lack of it. The airlines have been giving me lots to talk about lately. First, there was the incident on the United Flight that I wrote about in my last blog posting where Dr. David Dao was unceremoniously dragged off his flight because he refused to give up his seat to a United employee who needed to get to another city. Now we see a near brawl break out on an American flight when a gate agent challenged a passenger to a fist fight after the passenger objected to the way the agent had removed an oversized baby stroller from a hysterical mother.
In both cases, it appears that the employees in question behaved inappropriately. On one hand, I feel for the employees. They must deal with overcrowded flights, cranky customers, and pressure to get the flights off on time. It has to be stressful. On the other hand, as a frequent customer of the airlines, and a passionate advocate for giving and receiving great customer service, I certainly can’t condone the employees’ behaviors in either case.
It seems that the airlines could have done a better job training the employees to handle these situations by first, inculcating in them the value that the reason they have a job is the customer and that the customer is NEVER THE ENEMY. Second, based on those values, a simple technique called verbal aikido might have avoided the incidents.
>>>Verbal Aikido – An Essential Tool For Customer Service
You’ve probably heard of the martial art of aikido. Typically, you try to never meet your opponents force with an opposing force. Rather, you redirect the force of his blow so it doesn’t strike you, and its energy is dissipated. In other words, when an opponent swings his fist at you, instead of blocking it with your forearm the way you would in boxing or karate, you step aside, grab the opponent’s arm and pull him past you, letting his momentum harmlessly dissipate the energy of his blow.
Verbal aikido uses the same principle of not meeting force with force by agreeing with the opponent’s verbal assault or some aspect of it. You acknowledge that he has a point, and then, empathizing with how he feels, tell him what you plan to do about it.
For example, I am very forgetful – always have been. In college, my fraternity brothers nicknamed me foggy. Consequently, I often frustrate my wife by forgetting something I told her I would do. When, in her frustration, she yells at me about being so forgetful, instead of arguing with her, I say, “You are right. I’m so sorry I screwed up. Here’s what I’ll do to fix the situation.” That’s verbal aikido.
Now, don’t get me wrong. This response doesn’t reduce her frustration, but it does interrupt her attack and keep the situation from escalating into a knockdown, marital disagreement. And, of course, it helps if I do make an effort to not forget what she asks me to do next time.
American Airline’s Customer Service Situation
If you saw the American Airlines video, you saw and heard the passenger try to pick a fight with the gate agent because he was incensed about how the gate agent had treated another passenger:
Passenger: “Hey Bud, you do that to me and I’ll knock you flat.”
Gate agent: (shaking his finger at the passenger) “You stay out of this.
Passenger: Gets up and says something unintelligible in a challenging tone.
Gate agent, with chest puffed out: “Come on – come on – hit me.”
Obviously, the passenger had no business threatening the gate agent, but the gate agent escalated the situation by daring the passenger to hit him.
Verbal aikido would prescribe this response:
Passenger: “Hey Bud, you do that to me and I’ll knock you flat.”
Gate agent (not shaking finger) “Yikes, you’re right. I did come off a bit gruff.” (He could then turn to the lady and apologize to her for causing her discomfort.)
My guess is that if the gate agent had responded thusly, the aggressive passenger would have backed off and the incident could have been avoided.
Of course, this requires self-control on the part of the gate agent so he doesn’t let his testosterone get the best of him. It also helps if he’s been trained to respond this way. Most importantly, however, it requires that the gate agent buys into the philosophy that a customer may not always be right, but the customer is always the customer, so showing him utmost respect and empathy is crucial. That all comes from training, which is why I love to provide that kind of training to my clients.