A reprint from MY OTHER BLOG (Synergy Thoughts)
I was able to post a mini-rant by way of email the other day, but tonite I have a bit of time to finish that thought.
On New Years Eve, my wife and kids and I went to South Bend Regional Airport. We were pretty excited to pick up a puppy that we ordered for the kids as a Christmas present. We had the dog shipped by airliner from the Texas breeder by way of Dela Airlines.
When the breeder showed up at the airport at 5:30 a.m. they were told that the flight they orginally booked from Texas to Cincinnati was cancelled. (No phone call of course) So they drove another hour to another airport to put the dog on an airplane to go to Atlanta and then hit a connection to come to South Bend.
The breeder took the opportunity to email my wife to tell her that the flight had been cancelled and that the resulting pick up time would be one hour later. We were relieved to get this email which was complete with a phone number, shipping number for the dog, and a cell number for a manager in the "Pet's First" program that is a Delta Airlines specialty.
Well, you know where this is going right? We arrived about ten minutes early, to find that not only was the new flight delayed (again no contact from Pet's First) but that they weren't even sure if the flight had left Altanta yet. We waited an hour, then were told that yes the flight was finally in the air. We asked "can we track the dog?" We were told, "no, our computers won't show us that."
The plane arrived, after we waited for three hours. It contained no dog. By the way, the South Bend Regional Airport is so small that the baggage handlers as ticket counter agents. (as a security byline, you only need a four digit number to gain unfettered acess to the tarmac)
We were told by the ticket/baggage people that they couldn't even tell us where the dog was. A passenger mentioned to us that she saw a dog get loaded. Then the baggage/ticket people related that this plane wasn't equiped for a dog, and it never was, so a dog shouldn't have been scheduled on this plane, ever.
We called, talked to 800 numbers, tried the internet, no avail. Then we called Pet's First, oh the fun that was. They hung up on our breeder three times for daring to be upset. Then finally a manager at long last said "we found the dog and it will be loaded on a flight that arrives in South Bend at midnight." On New Year Eve mind you.
Kids cried. We worried about the dog. We gnashed out teeth about the state of the airline industry. You can ship a cigar in a small box from Alaska to Kenya, and Fed Ex can tell you where it is to within a few feet, but the American Airline industry has decided that they are above this kind of service. Too good for it, too broke, too tied up with unions and government money, too stupid.
Oh it got better, at midnight no dog, our puppy spent the night in Atlanta. Finally New Years Day we called and talked to a couple people and one of them helped out. They told us at last that the flight the night before had been called back so the dog would go out on the very next one and we could pick the dog up in a hour. We drove and picked up the dog. Healthy.
Yeahh.
But, here's where the rant begins, why did it have to be that hard? A live lobster can get across the country in four hours. A letter can be delivered to the Rocky Mountans in 12 hours. But, Pets First can't even tell you for 36 hours where a dog is. I'll be they've had some dogs die, how sad.
The airlines are an embarassment. They have failed and probably should be put out of their own misery. They are using 40 year old excuses, like weather and delays, with no eye to solutions or customer service. They don't care about how much of a pain it is to travel, they still think people should just be happy to experience "flight."
Why the rant? Because i'm worried that Synergy Homes is the same sucky thing. Are we?
Are we blaming last week's rain storm for our lack of planning for the last month?
Are we even thinking about technology?
Are we improving continually?
Are we asking customers to help us?
Do we care how much emotional stress is spent buying from us?
Or, are we just building like every stupid builder has for decades, slow, expensive, stressful, error prone, lacking customer exhiliration, and lastly without really caring? Are we saying "you should thank us for giving you the joy of homeownership, how dare you act so emotional?"
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