It’s no secret; customer service in the airline industry is a mess. Travelers are being stranded on the tarmac with nothing but chips and water. Guitars are being broken, and flights are being changed or canceled at a moment’s notice.

Airline execs and consumers alike know the challenges faced by the industry and we all know who or what to blame in each instance. This may come as a surprise to many but customer service challenges are not always the airline’s fault. You can blame hurricane force winds for the flight from hell, the price of travel on OPEC, the Kevin Smith issue on seat designers and security delays on the TSA. But the responsibility for overall traveler satisfaction lies firmly in the hands of the airlines. Faced with so many external issues and possible service failures, what can an airline do to keep passengers smiling?

Delta apparently starts with an apology.

On January 8th I received a letter from Delta Air Lines cordially apologizing for the delay of my December 27th (holiday weekend) flight and the inconvenience I experienced.

…“In light of the current state of the economy, and in today’s competitive airline industry, travelers expect the best value for their travel dollar.” … “We want to make travel on us a convenient and trouble-free experience for our passengers and I am truly sorry we failed to do so on this occasion.”…

They also credited my account with 1,000 bonus miles for my suffering. Not a bad start, Delta.

First let me say that my travel experience was not an inconvenience to me at all. Because of my knowledge of the industry and of the FAA, I always know what to expect and plan accordingly. This raises a big question about service in the industry. How many travelers have reduced their expectations so far that they actually expect things to go wrong on their flight? Customer satisfaction is a measure of expectation versus service delivered. If expectations are incredibly low it should be extremely easy to satisfy or even delight a customer. That’s a huge missed opportunity for the airlines.

Secondly, this letter of apology, while a nice touch, is not an effective means of recovering satisfaction. If I truly was upset, this gesture of air miles (what’s that worth, $5?) would be salt in a wound. It is not personal, it’s not meaningful and it’s a little self serving (the letter brags of their network and partners). The service recovery paradox suggests that successfully resolving a customer’s complaint can generate greater satisfaction and loyalty than if the service failure never even happened. With so many unhappy air travelers there are a lot of missed opportunities out there for turning a potential twitter-whiner into a product evangelist.

Here is a good simple example of service recovery. On a delayed 2009 flight on Jet Blue everyone on my flight was given a free drink for their troubles. The response was immediate, personal, and delivered with a smile.

So how can airlines take advantage of all the service failures that happen on any given flight?

Start by understanding what your customer is going through. Did your customer have to repack his bag in the lobby to avoid a fee? Did they get to third base with the TSA? Are they late for a funeral, wedding or Bar Mitzvah? Are they unfortunately large? Once you understand their particular problem you can address them personally, kindly and with a unique solution. This really isn’t that hard! Talk to your local waiter or visit Disney World for some advice on service recovery.

And if that doesn’t work, just tell me my flight will take 10 hours and see how happy I am when it only takes three.

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For an in-depth look at the current state of airline distribution and projections of future performance refer to PhoCusWright’s U.S. Online Travel Overview Ninth Edition: Airlines

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