FROM THE PUBLISHER OPPORTUNITIES LOST I was walking around one of my local X-marts
last week, hastily collecting a few items that I needed into my shopping cart. As I approached the checkout area, I noticed some long lines (typi- cal of a sunny summer weekend in my home- town). I picked a line where I thought the cashier
looked “quick.” Murphy’s Law prevailed as usu- ally happens when I try to pick fast lines — I ended up picking the slowest line. My cashier was lethargic and as slow as a clam in the mud. As I approached the register, I noticed I was running late for an event I had to attend. I needed to break a $20 so I could have some cash for the event. I figured I’d ask the cashier to break a $20 for me. That would save me some time! After my cashier moved through my items like
a turtle at the races, she finished my transaction and popped the cash drawer open to give me my $1.20 of change. I pounced! “Say, can you please break a $20 for me?” I asked. The stare I received was piercing. “You will
have to go to the courtesy counter,” she firmly replied. I looked over my shoulder to the courtesy counter. Much to my chagrin there was another line about 10 deep! “Why?” I asked. “It’s policy,” she said. “We can’t make change for customers.” As I walked from the store, I began to wonder what it would have hurt this cashier, or the store itself, to take the opportunity to provide customer service and to make a customer happy. I realized the cashier was perhaps defensive because she was being asked to break a policy that didn’t make sense. The store policy simply didn’t allow cashiers to provide this simple customer service! The cashier and the store could have come away
“heroes” (or at least reasonable people) in my book for the simple act of breaking a $20 bill for me. It was so simple, yet it was an opportunity lost. In another experience during the same week
— I applied for an insurance policy from an agent for my daughter that just graduated from college. I had actually started about 3 days prior — going through the hoops of asking the agent to calculate the total cost for a three-month policy.
The process involved filling out paperwork, getting my daughter to sign them, scheduling an appoint- ment to complete the application, reviewing the paperwork with the agent and making the proper payment to the agent. Two days later I received an e-mail from the agent saying that the amount I wrote the check for was $6 short — further stating that she had “miscalculated” the amount. As a result, the policy would be for 2 months! A check for the third month (minus the $6) would be mailed back to me — and I would have to “reapply” for a third month of coverage (with the additional $6 in- cluded, of course)! I would have been more than happy to drop off the additional $6 if the agent would just have re-filed the application with the additional $6 and asked me to drop a check off when I had a chance. The last thing I wanted to do was to take more of my time to go “re-apply” for a policy for an additional month. It was so simple, yet it was an opportunity lost. Unfortunately there are probably hundreds of
opportunities lost to provide customer service each and every day. I’m sure that I’m not the only one that has experienced this as they go about their day-do-day business. What about your maintenance operation? Have
GREG NAPERT PUBLISHER
you examined your operation from your custom- ers’ viewpoint? Have you ever had a meeting to share ideas with your employees to discuss things you can do to better service your customers? It could be something as simple as recommendations for complying with service bulletins that will save them money while your company has their aircraft or engine disassembled. Or how about providing them with food and/or making hotel reservations for them while they are waiting for their aircraft? I was told once that the cost of obtaining a new customer was five times the cost of keeping an ex- isting customer. You never want to hear a customer say, “I’m not coming back!” Don’t let opportunities get lost in your maintenance organization.
Greg Napert Proud to be an A&P
09.10 2009
70
DOMmagazine
gnapert@DOMmagazine.com
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