I flew back from Vancouver to Ottawa with Air Canada. The flight itself was fine - punctual, friendly, comfortable - but the all round experience was a little frustrating. It was an example of how you have to try and control as much of the customer's total experience as possible.The minor inconveniences included: a long, slow-moving line up for security, a long, slow-moving line up for the coffee shop, and a very tall man sitting in front of me, blocking my view of the screen and rocking his chair back. The frustrating experiences after you've touched down 15 minutes early are: sitting on the plane waiting for someone to open the gate to let you all out, waiting another 10 minutes for the luggage to appear and waiting a further 10 minutes for the long-term parking bus to show. In themselves all minor irritants but something we all grow used to when we travel. Put them together and they take the shine off an otherwise perfectly pleasant flight.
No matter how good your service, the customer can still walk away from it with a bad feeling, simply because of the surroundings.
Tim
