The Commercial Real Estate Revolution

Southwest Airlines provides consistently good and predictable service. I wish I could say that for many others. I’m including a video that shows that customers are no longer powerless when it comes to getting big companies to pay attention to their lack of service (if you want to skip the following rant go straight to the video).

My tale of woe with United pales when you see this video – but it was still a royal pain. I flew back to Dallas this week from Washington Dulles with what I thought would be plenty of time to connect on a United flight to Sioux Falls (connecting through Chicago). I should have arrived at 11:45AM and my next flight was at 2:31PM. American gets dinged on this story too. Shortly after pulling back the pilot announces that we have to go back to the gate because there was a problem with the reverse thruster. I think the reverse thruster helps the plane slow down and stop after you land. So fixing it was a good thing.

When we landed in Dallas I have less than 45 minutes to go from the American terminal to the United terminal to check-in. In my mind I thought, “Its tight but I have no luggage to check-in so I should make it.”

I walked up to the United self check-in thinking I’m in good shape. About 30 minutes to go and only a few people in security. Big mistake. I swiped my card and a message in a yellow box pops up, “Please see agent.”

I looked at the agent in front of me and said, “What’s up?”

She said, “What time is your flight?”

I replied, “2:31.”

“Oh, that’s too bad you missed the 30 minute cut off by two minutes.”

“Excuse me? I have no bags to check in. There are only a few people going through security. Your gate is two minutes away? American doesn’t close their gate until 10 minutes before the flight leaves and I’ve seen them hold it open longer. Is there any way you can ticket me on a later flight and let me go through security to see if I can catch it while they are still boarding?”

“Sorry, I can’t do that.”

“Why?”

“The agent at the end of the counter can do that.”

I walked over to the agent at the end with my bestest smile and tapping my foot. A lady just got ahead of me and wanted to check different options for stand-by. The lady on stand-by perceived my situation and apologized immediately. I nodded but was tapping my foot rapidly.

The agent was oblivious. When I did get to the counter I had to walk her through the scenario to issue me a stand-by ticket for a later flight. That was agonizingly remedial.” I got through security and believe it or not got to the gate 15 minutes before departure, along with another passenger in the same predicament.

We both stood droop shouldered. The door to the gate was closed and there was no United person in sight.  The other passenger was actually more put out than I was. So we both went back through security and got stand-by tickets for the next flight.

United is one of those airlines that nickel and dimes you. When I checked in returning the kiosk asks if I want to add 6 inches of leg room for $38. It then asks if I want to double my frequent flier miles for $24. It, of course, asks if I want to check my bag for $38. I decline all three and feel a little revenge by taking a bag I would normally check through security and then letting the agent at the gate tag it.

What does this have to do with Mindshift? I went through this obstacle course working with a firm in Sioux Falls on Mindshift and then traveled to Chicago for The World Future Symposium to speak on the book. The challenges companies like United have with declining service is partially due to their fragmented, linear, silo’d and adversarial system for delivering service. So – that is a foundational message behind the problems described in The Commercial Real Estate Revolution.

Also to the point, and the point of the video. Clients, including our clients, will no longer be satisfied with sitting back and tolerating indifference. If we become tone deaf they will put together videos like the one below.

This musician sat at the gate ready to deplane and watched in horror as the baggage handlers threw his guitar case around – breaking it. United airlines refused to do anything about it – for a year – until this video came out. When it reached 150,000 views the airline apologized and replaced the guitar. They issued a PR statement; “we’re using this as a learning opportunity.” We’ll its not at over 3 million views. I’d say it was an expensive lesson.