At Knowledge Infusion, we frequently discuss and implement strategies to help organizations to deal with the Milenial population. Remember, this is the population that most call "Digital Natives" and live and die by their computer.
Tonight, in the Atlanta Hartsfield airport, a true example of someone who couldn't think outside of their computer. While checking in to a flight from Bermuda to Atlanta to Richmond, the gate agent said the following:
"Mr. Averbook, my computer shows that you are in Chicago. The only way you will be able to get on this plane is if you buy a ticket from Atlanta to Richmond." As you can imagine, a first reaction might be "well, I am not in Chicago, I am right here in front of you.", which is what I said. After another glance at the computer the gate agent said:
"I am sorry, we show you flew from Bermuda to Chicago, therefore unable to use this ticket. If you have further questions, please pick up the phone behind you and dial 1122." Deep breath. As I turned around to use the phone, slowly picked it up, dialing 1122 and I heard, "we are unable to help you since we are experiencing high call volume, you may hold or call back later."
What did I do, I held. 15 minutes till flight time. Finally an answer on the phone, it was someone in India. How did I know that, they told me they were in India after I was repremanded for not telling them that Richmond was in Virginia and Virginia was in the USA. The agent on the phone said "I am in India, I don't know which Richmond you were speaking of." After we got that straightened out, the agent in India told me again that I was in Chicago and I would have to find a way to get to Chicago to get my flight.
Clearly frustrated, I hung up the phone and walked back to customer service. I was stopped by a nice woman, Jasmine, who said "you look frustrated." She looked up my record, said "wow, someone made a real mistake" and she walked me on to the plane. She was someone in her mid 50's that had clearly earned her stripes at the airline.
Why am I rambling about this - message is simple. People, process and technology - a message we discuss continually at Knowledge Infusion. The technology is only as good as the deployment and the use of it. Without the knowledge and skills around customer service and a genuine care about others, technology is nothing.
Lets hope that this upcoming generation is truly more about togetherness than the generations past. Afterall, most futurists say that the Milenials are a generation with a focus on "we" and "team". Hopefully, that can be applied to customer service into the future.
I would love to hear your stories of dealing with someone who couldn't get away from their computer screen.
Another infusion of knowledge...
While I was not in an airport with someone telling me I was in a different location, I have another frustrating example of someone who could not get away from their computer screen.
While at a large home supply store, I needed and 6 foot long, half-inch round wooden dowel. I found it quite easily in the lumber department with a sign above that said it was $1.47. There was no tag on my dowel, but 6 numbers that were etched into the side. I walked what seemed a mile back to the check-out and when the numbers were punched in it rang up as some kind of tropical plant that was $24.99.
Clearly I did not have a tropical plant.
The cashier told me that maybe the numbers were entered wrong and again.. a tropical plant came up. I explained that it was $1.47 and was told.. sorry, I can only ring this up with the numbers that are on it. You can go ahead and buy it for $24.99.
Hmmm...You don't have an override #, a way to enter in a different price, a way to search for an item? No. No. No. I asked if someone else could go and look at the price and verify that it was $1.47 and was told that the price wasn't really the issue, it was the number--they couldn't do anything unless they had the right number.
Now, I really needed this dowel (to hang the softball banner on for the game in an hour) otherwise, I would have just left. Instead, I walked myself back a mile to where got it and sure enough, all the numbers on all the dowels were the same... obviously they were all tropical plants!
So back another mile to customer service, they were able to search for the right number, and finally I could purchase my $1.47 dowel. As Jason said above, "the technology is only as good as the deployment and the use of it. Without the knowledge and skills around customer service and a genuine care about others, technology is nothing."
Now, do they realize how much that $1.47 dowell is going to cost them? Count me in as a customer that will never return--I have other choices.