A Tale of Two Ticket Agents

  
I just got back from a trip. I was delayed in Pittsburgh on the way back to Austin through Dallas. The delay was almost certainly going to blow my 2:35 P.M. connection in Dallas, so I approached the desk at the gate for options.
 
There were two agents:
 

1. The first one looked at me grumpily and said, “I cannot help you.  I can only work on tickets with connections up until 2:30 P.M. (Remember . . . mine was at 2:35 P.M.).”  I said . . . “Have you ever flown through Dallas? Their taxi time is long and the train loop is slow, there is no way I will make this connection.”  She looked right past me and said “2:30 P.M. cut off . . . NEXT.”

 

2. I then moved over two feet and engaged the second agent.  She rolled her eyes at the first one and said, “I know exactly what you mean about Dallas.  Let’s take a look.”  She proceeded to walk me through my options and made a well-advised change while her partner, obviously mad about it, fumed next to her.

 
This is a tale of two individuals doing their customer service jobs . . . one poorly, one beautifully . . . right next to each other!
  
This airline spends tens of millions of dollars each year on advertising trying to attract and keep customers. 
  
Maybe they should redeploy a bit of that mega-budget rewarding great customer service face-to-face and rooting out people who do them incalculable harm by simply “checking the boxes.”
  
Are you going above and beyond for your customers? Or are you just checking the boxes?
  
Evaluate your customer service approach this week. What can you improve upon to ensure you are providing great customer service?