Couple of months back, I had travelled to Mumbai (from Chennai) by Jet Airways. Generally the in-flight comfort and service in Jet has been good.
In this trip, the in-flight experience was bad with the cabin temperature very hot, Air Conditioner mal-functioning. Even in World-leading airlines like in British Airways sometimes the Air Conditioners don’t work when the flight is in Tarmac, but works when on sky. But in this trip, throughout the flight the Air conditioner was not working correctly, it was unbearable inside.
When I landed in Mumbai I had also landed up with a bad headache; Inspite of that I approached Jet customer counter, waited for their complaints form to come (they didn’t have one in that counter!), completed it and gave it to the assistant in the counter. I never expected them to write to me about this, or for that matter even read it. But to my surprise, within few weeks, I received an email from Jet Customer Care. In the email they apologised for the inconvenience and their deficiency in service. On top, they awarded me “500” Jet Privilege points in their Frequent Flier programme.
For people in service industry this brings in an interesting point to thing about. While offering a consumer service, it is very important to plan, have backups and do everything possible to deliver consistent quality to customers. Even with all the precautions, at times there may be slips. When the inevitable slip happens, it is very important to first identify it, then accept it and explain it to customer. Above all, without delay compensate for the loss to the customer.