I recently came across a Facebook post about a woman and her daughter ordered off a plane in the US. The woman was arrested eventually, and locked up for 12 hours. All because she refused to sit with her daughter on a seat with vomit. Not hers or her daughter’s vomit. They boarded the plane and were assigned a seat with puke on it. Can you imagine that? When she complained about this to the flight attendant, she was told there was nothing she (the flight attendant) could do about it as it was not her job to clean the seats. So whose job is it? Should the lady clean the vomit off the seat she paid hundreds of dollars to get on? What happened to customer service? Has everyone gone mad?
American Customer Service
I have visited many countries and some of the worst service I have ever received happened while visiting America. We visited New York last year and the service we received from the hotel we stayed in and the restaurants we ate in were very bad. The staff members are usually very disgruntled. You can tell by just looking at them, that they do not want to be there. The service improved when we left New York. We had a road trip from New York to Maryland and as soon as we got to New Jersey, I noticed people looked more relaxed and happy. Some of the staff we came across in a fast food joint even had a smile on their face while attending to customers.
I won’t say customer service is non-existent in the US, but it feels like that in many places. Sometimes, it feels like all they care about is their tip and they don’t bother to go above and beyond for their customers. Which is why I wasn’t too surprised when I read this woman’s story. I also watched the video and saw how this woman was treated by the airline. It was horrible and I now know not to ever fly with that airline. All the flight attendant should have done was to move their seat and or get the seats cleaned properly asap, with plenty apologies. Instead, she came back to her customer with an attitude and got her and her daughter off the plane.
The customer in question got arrested because she refused to get off the plane, which is well within her right. She had every right to refuse to sit on a seat with vomit. I would have done the exact same thing.
What Ever Happened to Customer Service
In this situation, there was no customer service. This is not the way you treat a paying customer. That flight attendant would not have a job if the planes were not filled with customers. The airline needs to get that flight attendant sacked and they also need to train the rest of their staff on how to treat their customers. I think companies need to ensure all their staff members get up to date training on customer service.
I know sometimes customers can be impossible. Customer service is not the easiest job to do with difficult customers. I know all about that because I worked in customer service for many years, and I have dealt with my own fair share of horrible customers. Having said that, providing excellent customer service is always required no matter how terrible a customer is.
Have you had your fair share of horrible customer service? How did you handle it? Please sound off in the comments section below. Let’s chat.
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