In 1979, more than thirty years ago, I visited the United States of America for the first time. At seventeen, it was the first time ever out of my small Middle Eastern country.
In Israel, in 1979, the term “Customer Service” was not even phrased. I remember clearly that if bought something and it broke, you could throw it away, it would never be replaced. If you needed a public official to help you with something, you should have gotten ready to be yelled at, given the run around, or simply ignored. Going to the Department of Motor Vehicle was a nightmare. You would wait in line for an entire day only to realize that you don’t have some ridiculous document that nobody needs and nobody looked at. The national airline, El Al, employed arrogant pilots and beautiful but fresh flight attendants. It was not uncommon that coffee accidentally spilled on travellers who “didn’t behave”.
In the US, however, the difference was unbelievable. “The customer is always right” was phrased, and followed. Flight attendants were smiling, pleasant, willing and wanting to help. Return policies were in place, and even government officials were actually polite. I thought it was heaven. So much so, that when I finished my military service at twenty two, I chose to go to school in the US. I stayed for ten years and came back to Israel.
To my amazement, Israel had changed completely. It appeared that many people who travelled to Europe and the US came back home and demanded service. Economic boom brought in the competition. Companies were now competing on market share. Service was part of a product. El Al pilots had learned some humility, and indeed the flight attendants were not as pretty, but sure as hell they became more polite and service oriented. A real revolution.
There was another issue. The US was making and enforcing laws for “Truth in Advertising”. Israel followed. It was decided that a customer must know, ahead of time, what he was paying for. Makes sense, doesn’t it?
A couple of years ago I was travelling with a well know American airline (not AA), and with my own eyes I have seen a flight attendant getting so mad at a passenger that pissed her off. Screaming, yelling, calling names. I thought it was an isolated case. I am travelling in the US now, and I can clearly say: the level of customer service in the US these days is far worse than customer service in Israel in the seventies. But what really got me is that truth in advertising was completely forgotten.
Let me explain. I was staying at a business hotel, reasonably expensive, at the heart of San Jose California. The rate per night was roughly $100.00. As it turns out, the $20.00 for parking the rental car, the $15.00 breakfast, the $20.00 Internet service, were not mentioned in the order. The flight from San Jose to Tucson was outstandingly bad, and the Phoenix-Tucson leg was cancelled. Not at once, but twenty minutes at a time. But what really got me was the $25.00 they charged me for checking in a bag. A bag! So security tells me not to take toiletries because some nut boarded an airplane with flammables. And the airline tells me to pay $25.00 for checking the toiletries in? Is that outrageous or what?
And then someone explained it to me. Priceline. Competition is about price. If the hotel would add the parking, internet, food to the rate per night, it would come behind in the Priceline searches. If the flight ticket included the bags, and the crappy sandwich (at best), the airline would go chapter 11. I wouldn’t be completely surprised if ultimately, the price of hotel rooms would go down to nothing. When you would check in they would ask if you need a bed, a shower, some towels, “can we offer you a large screen TV for $23.95 a night?”, and “if you choose to flush the toilet, that would be $0.99 per flush”. The airline would simply ask you if you need to actually take off, and charge you for that…
We are all in computers. We have given them the technology and by proxy the power to make our travelling life unbearable. Where will this end?
Business travel has become segregated into the haves and the have nots. If you are a frequent traveler, you get great service, but if not then you are treated as cattle. I think the Bay Area is particularly bad for this. But travel to New Orleans and you have a noticeably different experience, because they know how dependent they are on tourism post Katrina.
In PRC, the level of customer service for most business I find is often poor, but ironically for business travelers, it tends to be high. It just depends.
If you want to rediscover an American company that still gets customer service, check out Disney World.