Turning an Error into an Opportunity

Murphy’s Law says that whatever can go wrong will go wrong. That might smack of pessimism, but we all know that even the most professional and well-planned act can sometimes blow up in our faces. You know, the 5,000 4/4 brochure somebody spell checked but didn’t proof read. (Just because write and rite are spelled correctly doesn’t mean they are the right words.) However, except in the most extreme cases, a good customer can be saved by a good save. I was reminded of this by our experience flying back from Philadelphia after the On Demand show. When Karen and I got to the airport in the late afternoon we found our flight had been cancelled due to mechanical problems. The two over-stressed Delta ticket agents booked us on an alternative US Airways flight to Atlanta to make our Delta connection home. Good intentions, but bad execution. Despite our Delta status, US Airways charged us for our bags and then only checked them to Atlanta. The Delta agent also didn’t tell us that we had automatically been rebooked on another Delta flight the next morning and would have gotten a free hotel that night. In Atlanta we told a Delta Sky Club employee what was up and she went out of channels and called a buddy who worked for US Airways who found our bags. It was too late to transfer them over to Delta that evening, but they were sent out the next morning. A day or two later I sent Delta an email about the foul-up and luggage fees. Shortly thereafter I got a personal email from a Delta customer service representative who apologized profusely, promised to send us a check to cover the luggage fees, and put 7,500 miles into each of our accounts. The $85 check arrived a week later. Oh, and the representative said that they would find out why the incident had happened so that it wouldn’t happen again. We will continue to give our business to Delta despite the occasional foul up because that was a good save.