While travelling home to Cape Town from my recent performance in Zimbabwe, I travelled on South African Airways & walked through the ‘new look’ OR Tambo Airport. Due to a change in flight times, I needed to visit the SAA ticket counter. I noticed this sign at the front of the queue:
I was amused by this: how often have the airline staff been abused, both verbally & psychologically, that someone felt the need to make a sign? I can just imagine what the the staff must go through every day: it’s not surprising then that the customer service representatives at the desk are not as friendly as we’d expect them to be.
But at the same time, this sign also shows SAA’s attitude towards it’s customers … & it’s not great. Firstly, it doesn’t address WHY travelling can be so stressful; I firmly believe it’s partly because of the substandard service that the customers’ experience that they are stressed. Now I will agree that you can get the occasional customer who is unreasonable, but often the airlines don’t make the biggest effort in the customer service department. What this sign is effectively saying is “We understand you’re stressed, but it’s not our fault, so don’t blame us”.
Are they ‘passing the buck’? Do you think that this sign addresses the ‘symptom’ & not the ‘cure’?
What if they trained the staff to be friendlier, to smile more often?
What if they made an effort to listen to their customers & help them as much as they can?
What if the ground staff were as friendly & helpful as the cabin crew?
I suggest that the airline starts by assuming that their customers are going to be stressed & then train their staff to be able to treat them with respect & patience.
The result? The customers will be less likely to abuse the staff & far more likely to talk about the great service they received! And then they wouldn’t need this sign.
Those type of “don’t take your stress out on our staff” signs are quite common overseas. But yes, SAA staff do sometimes have to deal with irate customers – they are unfortuanately not always a shining example of good customer service.
@SAA: I really thought this was unique & now I’m really surprised – that’s for letting me know.
I keep thinking that this sign shows that they’re aware of the problem & not taking the opportunity to do something different.
That is a crazy sign to have up in an airport! I agree with you that it does not say much for SAA and its relationship to customer service. It got me thinking of something else aswell…we South Africans are often not the most respsonsible consumers either. What I mean is, we are either way too passive and don’t speak up when service is poor – or we go to the other extreme and abuse people when we don’t get everything just the way we want. The high frequency of the latter probably has a lot to do with the creation of such an absurd sign.
Why not graciously inform the sales person, or the guy at the call centre, or the waitress of your disatisfaction…request the service you desire and if that doesn’t get the results you are after take it to a higher power.
I bet that as comsumers we may be pleasantly surprised by how we will be received if we communicate responsibly.
@Adin: Precisely, I totally agree with you!
I agree with this article. I was in business college and the main thing that we where taught was customer service. While I was in England I really could see the difference. South Africa used to be very good at this but in recent years people just stopped caring and the saying ‘the customer is always right’ doesn’t apply for here. I hate being ignored or being talked over but remain silent. That is probably the problem as Adin pointed out.
I have to agree with SAA here (the comment poster). It is just a way for them to try and prevent issues that are going to arise due to their incompetence