It's The Customer Experience Stupid

Peter : On Rad's Radar?

It's The Customer Experience Stupid

I'm flying today on AA. They will charge your credit card for everything -- even the unfiltered, warm, smelly air if we could - airline. You can speak to a human at the airport gate who will tell you to call the 800 number, who will tell you to do it online. 

This same airline will charge you for snacks (no free peanuts, but $4 for a bad cookie <-- who makes a bad cookie?!) and for checked baggage. And they still lost $359 million - while pissing off their customer base.
I watched as they told a passenger he was going to have to check his bag at the gate for $20 because his wheels put it 4 inches outside the box. You should be charging people for Carry-on, you idiots! You want fast turn-around of planes. You want quick on and off-boarding. I know. You are trying to save on labor costs of union baggage handlers. But you are making anyone happy -- and you are not making money. Could that be related?

In short, most airlines suck. Frequent travellers pick the direct carrier with the most reasonable price. But today with all the hidden costs you would think former Bell-heads ran the airlines. Stop being bean counters and give the customers an experience, you clowns!

Why do you think JetBlue is back on top after its Feb., 2007 debacle? Because TV and nice snacks and wide seats for even a few dollars more are what we want!!!

These same bean counters are wiping out innovation in America. It's not about unique or customers or best of class, it's about quarterly profit and ARPU, other metrics for the Street and cutting costs. You wouldn't have to cut costs if you were better.  The same with the telcos. Why do you think cable was able to charge more for Internet? They give you 7MBx1MB for $58 (via BHN in Tampa).but it works! Why would I want $29 3MB x 768k? 

You corporate beanies have gotten so fat and lazy over the monopoly years, you have no idea what to do with competition in this Inflection Economy.

You think it is about cost cutting. It's about innovation and customer focus. I get the union salaries, benefits and pension debt. (You should have controlled that earilier instead of becoming the next GMAC!) But given all that, couldn't you partner with your wholesale customers to expand the marketplace? Why won't you embrace the channel? Agents just want to sell your services to make a living. It's a win-win (if you let it be).

No one has all the capital to build out. If the industry worked together, it could be done though. We need an FCC BB CEO Summit.  If you look beyond the dollars and have some sense of customer experience, there's gold there. It's what the music, movie, newspaper, book publishing industries are fighting against in this upheaval. When you think about it - telco/cable/cellular, airlines, auto, banks, music, movies, newspapers, books -- all the industries are experiencing change -- but they are all fighting it. Embrace it. Talk to your customers. Give them the experience they want (and will pay for). Stop being short sighted.

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