CASE STUDY

Delightfu$/$ Customer Experience When Least Expected

I am normally quite vocal about negative customer experiences. However, a delightful

experience last week with South African Airways, compels me to acknowledge this exceptional

experience I had as a customer with the airline crew!

I am actually surprised by my fond memory of this flight from Windhoek to Johannesburg

$($SA$77)!$ Flights are at best of times mostly functional $($except of course, when it is a disaster$).$

However, in the midst of the uncertainty most SAA flight crew staff must feel, this crew had

something that impressed me$.$ They had a tangible$,$ visible passion, they engaged with the

passengers, they showed respect and one had the feeling they truly wanted to sewe... and

enjoyed it$.$ Our needs were really their priority. Everything was done with a smile, light

conversations were struck with passengers, afew jokes were shared, and all in all, it was just

a great people experience.

This stood out for me as a customer experience professional, because I expected the

opposite. One assumes that employees working for organisations, where "Rome is burning",

will experience high levels of stress and uncertainty, which typically translates into disengaged

behaviour. People generally respond to uncertainty with typical flight, fight orfreeze behaviour.

These responses are adopted to armour and protect oneself. On top of that, it is reported that

globally only $15\%$ of employees are engaged, so my expectations are set at a fairly low base.

I totally expected a disengaged team and was therefore even more overwhelmed by the

opposite delightful interaction.

Only $15\%$ of the world's workers are engaged and reaching their full potential at work $($Gallup$.$

Businessoluedo.

I must also confess that I had little faith that we would even be able to fly back to Johannesburg

with SAA, expecting a cancellation or delay $($even packed another set of clothes for in case$),$

but the series of little "surprises" in my end$-$to$-$end journey, added to an amazing emotional

memory.

We so often talk about the magical moments in customers' journey with a brand. One of the

elements that catapulted the experience, was the obvious low base of expectations. Yet,

despite this, the experience was even more delightful, because each individual of the crew

was exceptionally HUMAN. And yes, the skills to engage with customers on this level can be

le arned, but when it comes from the he art, and the employees act from the ir authentic self, in spite

of the ir uncertain work context, and they still CONNECT with customers as people... it is a recipe for

success... and great experiences.