Last week, I shared a beautiful experience my wife and I had with an airline representative. Unfortunately, having good customer service on airline carriers is not the norm. I travel a few times a year with US carriers, and I am consistently astounded by the subpar customer service of most of them. In this article, I want to explore why this must be and what we can learn about it as Christian leaders.
Why—in a market economy where competition is the heart of the economic engine—do airlines have terrible customer service? If a restaurant, print shop, or any other service industry demonstrates lackluster treatment of customers, they will go out of business.
What is happening? And what can we learn as leaders?
It seems so many airline employees are gloomy, miserable, not smiling, and have an attitude of entitlement. You walk up to the counter to talk to an airline agent and their countenance communicates: Why are you bothering me?
Why is this happening? I have heard the arguments, but I don’t believe them. They say: Poor customer service is due to the cost-cutting measures they’ve had to take in order to survive. They have a complex organizational structure. There are regulatory constraints. There is a unionized workforce. I do not believe for one second it is because the managements of these airlines don’t know how to, or because they cannot, surmount these challenges. I believe this is the reason: Profit is the goal, and as long as profit is not impacted, they have no motivation to tackle customer service. Limited competition may be the culprit. In each key market and region, there exists one dominant airline, who can lower their prices, making it difficult for other airlines to even compete. No real competition means no real incentive to improve.
This is wrong.
What can we learn? As Christian leaders, if your profits are unaffected, should you tend to customer service? Yes. There is an ethical, if not a spiritual, duty to attend to people with excellence. When there are no pressures from outside forces, like the competition, motivating us to focus on customer service, we can easily lapse into neglecting our customers. Think of your last visit to the DMV…
This is a call to all of us as leaders to honor our customers, our clients, our patients, our parishioners—not just because it is good for business, but because it is our professional and spiritual ethic as leaders, especially as Christian leaders. Just as you insist on having good character, just as you insist that your staff is treated with love and honor, you must insist that under your leadership, customers will be treated well. Period.
How can I support you more as a Christian leader and entrepreneur?
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