Airlines and telecom companies are eerily same when it comes to dealing with customers - total indifference. There is a horrible story at this link on how United Airlines left a 10-year child who was traveling on their ‘unaccompanied minor’ program (costs $99 ) unattended for a long time.

United was flying Phoebe as an unaccompanied minor on June 30th, from San Francisco to Chicago, with a transfer to Grand Rapids.  No one showed-up in Chicago to help her transfer, so although her plane made it, she missed the connection. Most crucially, United employees consistently refused to take action to help assist or comfort Phoebe or to help her parents locate her despite their cries for help to numerous United employees.

This is not about fancy customer service names or outsourcing. Business is a human endeavor, and this incidence shows how companies like United have become totally inhuman. I am sure there will be a few employees at United who would have done the right thing but, the those involved here didn’t and there is not even an official apology till now.

The worrying part is how companies like United get away with things like these. A couple of years back, they had a lot of abd PR when they broke a passenger’s guitar. The guy made a video on it,which went viral.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

It shows how the average consumer doesn’t give that high priority to consumer service than to say saving a few dollars. I don’t understand what has led to this indifference in our minds towards customer service.

As an example, I always use Cleartrip for travel/hotel bookings. They are not the cheapest, but I have seen several incidents where the founders have taken it upon themselves to ensure that their customer doesn’t face a problem. Also, they don’t put you on hold for minutes when you make a call to their helpline.

I  hope more companies use better service as a selling point.