British Airways just signed a huge deal with the luggage manufacturer, Antler. The agreement will allow BA staff to replace damaged luggage on the spot at Britain's 10 busiest airports.

British Airways, after listening carefully to their customers, decided to fix the messy problem of damaged luggage. After all, why do so many people carry their luggage on airplanes with them, delaying take off times, and loading overhead bins so numerous people are hit on the heads from falling luggage. Passengers are, in part, attempting to  protect their property.  A lot of luggage gets damaged or destroyed in transit.

Here's how the operation works. When luggage is fixable, the passenger's luggage is taken to Antler's headquarters, fixed, and returned in 48 hours maximum. 

If the luggage is beyond fixing, then BA staff have a catalogue of 40 types of luggage in a variety of sizes and colors in a range of qualities. Passengers can choose the luggage that matches theirs, they transfer the contents of their luggage, and hopefully leave satisfied with brand new luggage.

Damaged luggage is a very small number in terms of percentages. Only .2 percent are damaged in transit, but because of the huge number of pieces of luggage handled each year, this translates to approximately 100,000 bags each year destroyed or damaged—at BA alone.

Think of it. 100,000 dissatisfied customers. The 1.2 million pounds that BA will spend on this program definitely gives them a competitive advantage that other major airlines will probably have to match and that smaller airlines will simply be unable to duplicate.

It reinforces the notion that effective complaint handling is a competitive edge. Now if they can make it quicker and easier for us to retrieve our luggage, we wouldn't have so many passengers boarding airplanes with everything they own!

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!
_#36	"Sorry for Any Inconvenience Caused"
_#37	Don't Back Away When Someone Complains To You
_#38	The Right Person
_#39	Complaining is Becoming Popular in Japan
_#40	Complaining Over the Holidays
_#41	Can Tracking Your Complaints Help Reduce Them?
_#42	Are the British Getting Better at Complaining?
_#43	The Danger of Being a Monopoloy
_#44	Complaints Within Complaint Call Centers
_#45	Why Not Take Complaints From Everyone?

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

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