“Hurry Up and Wait!”
This morning I was traveling. It was a long flight, but the flight crew made great time. In fact, the pilot announced that we would be in a half hour early, at the gate. Great news! I could feel those around me perk up at the news. We landed smoothly and proceeded to taxi to our gate, when we stopped. Yes, our gate was still occupied. Other gates were open, but ours still had a yet-to-depart flight. The airline knew we would land earlier as did the air traffic controllers. I’m glad for that part. Yet, we had to wait 20 plus minutes. In fact we did not “arrive” on time. Been there? It gets better.
I had to check my bag, so I waited at baggage claim, and waited some more. The video screen indicated that all the bags from my flight were delivered, but no bag. The friendly and very helpful agent at the baggage claim office indicated that my bag had been unloaded from the plane, so it was at the airport. I followed her as she went through several checks, then I waited while she tried to sort out my mess. As I waited, five other people asked if she was checking on the same flight as their bags had not arrived … while we shared frowns, one bag showed up, then a few more started showing up. It turns out that our flight had two loads to deliver, but cleared the video as complete after the first. Been there? It gets better.
I exited the terminal and crossed to where the car rental bus picks up the renters to shuttle us to a central hub. The line was about a half city block long! I had not seen a queue that long since the long security lines of 2001. I asked another individual in line about the cue when the person in front of me said, “Oh, it’s Monday. It’s like this every Monday.” I responded, “There’s a Monday every week! Why haven’t they figured this out by now?” So, we waited. Then two buses showed up together. Once we boarded our bus, the driver was burning calories helping folks get on, taking their luggage and endeavoring to get us going, with a great attitude and demeanor.
Three in a row. Coincidence? Luck? Memorable? I was glad that I did not have a meeting to run to. All three were examples of great people doing their job with energy and focused on their customers, but in virtual isolation from one another. By now, this stuff is not supposed to happen. I am certain that these organizations all have, by now, invested millions of dollars in process improvement strategies, , and lots of mapping up, down and across their individual enterprises. So why do still see disconnects and short circuits?
Who is accountable for my end to end travel experience? Who knows about what happened today? Was this captured in a record, metric or log? Do the car rental companies that rent space at the hub know what was going on at the pick-up end? Who was the process owner responsible for wait queue length and time? Did anyone follow up with the baggage handlers about how to clear a delivery posting?
How about our enterprises? What would our customers say about us? Do we execute as a coordinated relay race without dropping the batons? Are we getting better or slipping?
If we are finding out about our disappointing service from reading blogs, what’s in store for us?
How many times am I likely to tell this story?
