March 30, 2009

The Art of Service Recovery… Westjet gets it

Lahaina, Maui.

My family enroute from Vancouver to Kapalua were inflicted by the classic traveller’s infection - a lost bag. Only in this case, in the bag were kids clothes for their 3 year old and 14 month old; critical for vacation survival.

The story goes like this:
- Westjet computers were down in Vancouver and required luggage tags to be manually prepared and applied to each bag
- As a result, the kid’s bad was not tagged in Vancouver; the 3 tags found themselves on the other 2 bags
- They arrived in Honolulu sans 1 bad and reported it to the Westjet agent who completed the required documentation to track and recover the missing bag
- Westjet were contacted from Maui to tell the story again, check the status of recovering the bag, and to impress on them the importance of getting the lost bag back as soon as possible as kids’ were involved
- Westjet apologized appropriately for the service breakdown, and presented two options:
  My family could travel 45 minutes to Kahalui and pick up the bag on the following day they would recieve $100 for their efforts, or
  Westjet would have the bag delivered direct to their room on the next flight out of Vancouver
- In addition, the agent told them that they could go out and buy $150 of whatever they needed for the kids to hold them over until the lost bag returned
- The bag was delivered to the room in the evening the following day.

Westjet clearly understands the power of Recovery.

BE DiFFERENT Learning Points:
First, Service recovery is more than fixing the problem (people expect that this will be done); its about fixing it and then doing the unexpected. My family did not expect the $150 to buy their kids clothes until the bag was recovered. It blew them away!
Second, give the customer options so feel they have some control in the situation. Westjet gave the option of going to Kahalui to pick up the bag and get $100 for the trouble OR wait until it was delivered to their room.
Third, the frontline agent made the decision to give the $150. They didn’t have to ‘check with a supervisor’ for authorization. This resulted in immediate gratification.
Fourth, the entire recovery process took less than 24 hours. Any longer and the ‘good feelings toward Westjet’ would have evaporated
Lastly, my family certainly recalls the pain of losing the bag. but they speak longer and more passionately about the Recovery experience.They were dazzled and I was as well.

Nicely done. Certainly a stellar model for others.
Cheers, Roy Osing

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Posted 3.30.09 at 08:40 am by Roy Osing | Read Comments (0) | Leave a Comment