Earlier this year an article appeared in the Washington Post by Joe Brancatelli about 10 tips for resolving a travel complaint.

Even though I’m in the biz, I picked up a few tips that I didn’t know. While Mr. Brancatelli didn’t single out Delta from the rest of the travel pack, I’m sure it was guilt by association when he said that travel providers are “spectacularly inept at service recovery”.

He also feels that our mission is “…to treat everyone poorly and make amends only to the select few who go to the extraordinary effort of complaining about how they are treated.”

Those are pretty harsh words, but hey, I’ve read worse from some of our customers. I work in Delta Customer Care and will give you the behind-the-scenes take on his 10 tips as they pertain to how we handle passenger concerns at Delta.

Over the next couple weeks, I’d like to take a deeper look at each of the areas he mentions in his article, and today I’ll start with the first two:

1. Go for Immediate Gratification

Can’t argue with that. If you have time before you catch your next flight or leave the airport, ask the airport agent if you can resolve the situation on the spot. Be realistic in your expectations. While you may be upset about the circumstances, don’t take your frustrations out on the agent over a situation that may have been out of his control. Tell him calmly what happened, and how you would like to resolve the problem. Chances are you will be able to come to terms. From having worked at the airport, I know that agents are routinely abused verbally by passengers, and a calm customer will be a welcome relief.

2. Take Good Notes

This is also great advice. Employee names, places, dates, boarding passes, and receipts are all helpful in determining where the service failure occurred, so managers can take corrective action with either the employee or a process that may not be working as planned. And rest assured, these complaints do get routed and read by managers — at least at Delta.

Stay tuned for the rest of my tips on this article coming weekly.

Nancy

Customer Care

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