I just recently flew from the Bahamas to Miami on a small carrier. The plane was late, delayed in Miami, and putting me at risk to miss my continuing flights on to Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The airline personnel were simply unequipped to help me solve my problem and could only offer one final solution, "Sorry for the inconvenience caused." As I sat in the waiting room and announcements were made about the flight, every 10 minutes or so I was blasted in my ears by an announcement telling me what was happening with the flight. Each time the announcer said, "We apologize for any inconvenience caused."

I suspect that many of you have heard this phrase, perhaps so frequently that it has as much impact on you as the phrase, "Have a nice day."

Does anyone truly believe that saying the words, "We apologize for any inconvenience caused," actually satisfies customers? If the airlines in particular think that it is an adequate answer to the particularly poor state of travel in the United States this summer, then perhaps passengers should start to use it on airlines.

When we miss a flight, we could say to the airline, "I apologize for any inconvenience caused. Now please rebook me at no extra charge." When we are asked to move out of one line and into another, we could respond, "So sorry for the inconvenience caused," and remain where we are standing. Passengers who enter the airplane could seat themselves in first class, and then when asked to move could respond, "Sorry for any inconvenience caused." When our luggage is overweight, we could simply say, "Sorry for the inconvenience caused and refuse to pay overweight charges."

Of course, this wouldn't work, and the airlines wouldn't allow it. What's the solution? For starters, I think airlines or any service operation needs to stop using this phrase. When inconvenience has been caused, a pithy statement like this simply alienates customers.

When I checked into a hotel where I had a confirmed reservation in New York City this past month at 1:45 in the morning, and was told, "Sorry for the inconvenience caused, but we no longer have a room for you," the apology didn't exactly ease my troubled soul at that moment. And when they then put me in a taxi to another hotel and that hotel had no access to it because the streets in front of it were being paved, it wasn't adequate that I was told, "Sorry for the inconvenience caused." Toting heavy luggage on the streets of Manhattan at 2: in the morning is not about inconvenience. 

Serious situations demand more serious language than "inconvenience" language. Service personnel have to seriously ask themselves whether this language would satisfy them. It certainly doesn't satisfy me!
 
 

Janelle Barlow, Coauthor
A Complaint Is a Gift
Emotional Value
 
 
 

Previous "Complaint Is A Gift Corner" pages: 
 

#1	Overselling Service
#2	Not Listening to Complaints
#3	Plastic Chicken
#4	Complaints You Can Do Nothing About
#5	A+ Complaint Handling
#6	Beware! Others are Watching You
#7	At Least Keep Talking!
#8	Let Customers Know You'll Tell Someone
#9	If You're Going to Apologize, Then Mean It
#10	Keep Front-life Staff Well Informed
#11	Don't Set Goals to Reduce Complaints
#12	Products Used During Special Events
#13	Best Practices of Complaint-friendly Organizations
#14	Complaints About Mother Nature!
#15	Socially Offensive Situations
#16	A Complaint Is a Gift in Action
#17	Information Systems  Users' Complaints, I
#18	Information Systems  Users' Complaints, II
#19	Creating an Internal Service Culture
#20	When Your Customers are Industrial Buyers
#21	Customers Who are Poor Complainers
#22	Complaints That are Difficult to Talk About
#23	Do You Mistreat Your Customers?
#24	Fairness: Treatment of Staff
#25	Expectations and Complaints
#26	Successful Toll-free Experiences
#27	Small Companies and Service
#28	A Banking Customer Strikes Back
#29	Complaints in the Hospitality Business
#30	Customers Be More Cynical
#31	Above All, Communicate When Things Go Wrong!
_#32	Eliminating Blame
_#33	Friendliness Keeps Them Coming Back!
_#34	Seeking Out Complaints
_#35	If They Complain, Why Not Sue Them!

We invite you to submit your "best" examples by fax or e-mail. We won't print any company names with the "poor" examples, because we believe that every organization fails from time to time. We will give credit to companies delighting their customers. In the case of the "poor" examples, we'll comment on how we think this situation could have been handled better. If you want us to list your name, please tell us that is what you want to do.

A Complaint Is a Gift, The Training Program 

A Complaint Is a Gift, The Book

Note: We have been getting e-mail from our readers asking us to list the names of the companies who get complaints. Our policy is to never list names. The reason for this is because every company fails from time to time, and we wouldn't want to tar some company's name just because of one bad example. Furthermore, we are dependant upon the writer's side of the story. We don't know for sure what happened, and in the name of fairness, we will not post names. Furthermore, the purpose of this corner is not to pass complaints along to corporations. This Complaint Is a Gift corner is designed to look at examples of good and bad complaint handling so we can learn from these experiences. Please, if you have a direct complaint you want a company to learn about, contact them directly. In many cases, we have never heard of the company in question and have no idea how to reach them. Janelle Barlow

tel: 702 939-1800

fax: 702 939-1804

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