It’s the little things that count

 

I recently complained about a flight from Cyprus to Manchester. When I phoned, they kept saying “but that’s just a minor issue”. I had to explain it was the cumulative effect of some small issues that caused my complaint. I also said that, as a business, it was important to “sweat the small stuff”.

It all started with having to queue for 45 minutes at Paphos airport. Annoying as we had already checked in online and thought we could just drop the bags off. Only a small issue, but the staff weren’t concerned and didn’t apologise.

Then the plane waited on the runway for 30 minutes. There was no explanation or apology (see a theme emerging?).

Then at Manchester, 45 minutes delay before disembarking as they couldn’t find any steps. Again no apology. Finally they found one set of steps so we all had to use a single exit.

As we walked to the baggage collection we saw 5 sets of steps by an empty plane next to the one we had travelled in!

And the final nail in the coffin? A 30 minute wait for our bags which arrived wet through. They had been sitting out in the rain for most of that time! Again, no explanation or apology.

So some small issues created one large one and generated a complaint. This is why it’s important for a business to understand the full customer journey. It’s the only way to understand how even small issues become complaints. They cause lost sales, poor customer retention and customer complaints. When you can see that, then you can fix them!

 

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