Worth every minute!
I just wanted to share a story which shows how to effectively manage customer service and that has a happy outcome. Maybe it will help you in your next trip to Dante’s customer service inferno!
I’m flying tomorrow on an economy Delta Skymiles award ticket Dulles to Madrid and was booked on Air France. I got an email from Flying Blue on Friday offering me an 349Euro ($438) buy-up to Business class. I know it’s a total splurge, but figured I could blog about it and have never flown trans-atlantic business class, so I signed up. The email said they would call me if it was available.
I missed a call from number 33712345678. Some googling showed this was Air France customer service in France. No message was left.
I called Air France in the US (reps 1 and 2), they had no idea what I was talking about and sent me to Flying Blue (Air France’s flyer program, rep 3) as it was an award ticket. Flying blue then sent me to Air France customer service (reps 4, 5, and 6 at two different phone numbers) because it was a purchase upgrade! I went around and around and FINALLY (rep 7) found someone who actually worked for Delta answering Air France web support phones.
The Delta supervisor took pity on me because she was literally the 7th person I’d spoken to and I faxed her the offer so she could train her team. She told me there was a switch 3 days ago to Delta reps taking Air France calls on the web support line. She was able to rebook me a Delta flight with the Business class upgrade at no charge!
In this case, I think the magic word might have been “Twitter” when she tried to transfer me yet again and I said “Wait, let me get this clear, you’re sending me to person #8? Just want to be sure I put the correct info on Twitter!” I was willing to pay the 349Euro, but at that point was just getting tired of being jerked around!
So again, the rule with customer service, is “if at first you don’t succeed, hang up and redial!” Most customer service reps WANT to help you, but are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of rules out there that change rapidly. If YOU know what you’re talking about, stick to your guns and eventually you might, just might, find someone who can help you!