On my soapbox-- Thoughts on customer service and Frontier Airlines...

Several years ago I ventured out of my comfort zone and allegiance to Delta and tried Frontier since they have cheaper and more convenient flights to Denver.  I typically fly to Denver at least twice a year, plus would consider them when I fly to Orlando later this Spring.  In short, I consider myself a fairly good customer... I like Frontier because they seem to have more comfortable chairs, more space between rows, and I love the TV screens in front of every seat (although I rarely use that since the flight to Denver is so short).   

If I was to choose my favorite airline, it would be Frontier so I was more than disappointed at the way they handled my flight back from Denver this year.  I had to cancel my initial return flight since I was in the hospital and didn't know exactly when I would be able to fly.  One of my doctors wrote a note asking the airlines to be flexible with return times because of the medical problems.  The day before my return flight, I called customer service from the hospital to see about changing the ticket or getting a credit/refund or something and the representative said that the change fee would actually be more than the remaining value of my ticket.  He also said that a one-way back would only cost about $64 so I felt ok about that... after all, I know about change fees and buying trip insurance and generally don't do it and so I didn't feel too bad about eating an additional $64.  Since I didn't know exactly when I was getting released, I canceled the one ticket and wasn't able to book a ticket at that time. 

I was released from the hospital on Thursday and waited until Saturday to book a ticket home just to make sure everything would be ok.  When I logged on to buy the ticket, the cost of a one-way ticket (and a round trip ticket incidentally) was $256 !  That's a lot more than $64...!  I booked the flight anyway since I had to go home eventually but planned on talking to customer service to see if they would do anything to help.  While at the airport, I stopped at the service desk to see if there was anything they could do and they recommended calling their customer care representatives at the corporate office.  That's exactly what I did after I got home.

The response was disappointing...  Basically, the representative said that they wouldn't do anything and that she had enough authority to make a decision so calling someone above her wouldn't be very helpful either (I don't necessarily believe that but didn't have time to sit on hold and talk to people up the chain).  Prices are what they are at the time of booking and they don't make adjustments.  I can understand why that would be policy but was still hoping that they might have a little compassion and make an exception with the medical note and because I'm a good customer and maybe they care a little about their customers...  Not so!

I wish I could say that I am angry enough that I won't fly Frontier Airlines ever again.. but that probably isn't true.  As far as airlines go (and I'm not sure that any are that great anymore... flying seems more and more like traveling in a cattle car), I still prefer Frontier over the others and will likely choose them several times a year when I fly to Denver.  It's a little like shopping at Walmart-- you go there because it is convenient and maybe a little bit cheaper-- but you don't enjoy it and spend a lot of time wishing that there was a Target that was closer to home so you never had to go to Walmart again...

Got me thinking though about customer service in general...Rather than focusing on the screaming, angry, difficult-to-please customers, what would happen if companies took the time to try and keep their basically good customers happy?  It wouldn't have taken much for me to really be impressed with Frontier... even some frequent flyer miles would have done it!  And a happy customer can tell their friends who can tell their friends and so on.. just like the old commercial. And a disappointed customer can tell their friends and post it on their blog and... well, you get the idea.  Would any other airlines have handled it differently-- who knows...-- but it seems like "customer service" is becoming quite a misnomer for many companies. 

The whole incident caused me to pause and think about the way customer service is handled at my own business. Efforts spent resolving legitimate concerns of fairly good clients takes a lot less effort than dealing with the completely disgruntled customer and probably has a better outcome.  Seems like that would be important in a struggling economy.  This would have been a great opportunity for Frontier to demonstrate customer service and they failed... maybe they will do better next time.