I had the pleasure of flying to Philadelphia to assist in cleaning up 60 years of junk from my mother's house. She is moving and we all know that we and everyone we know have the tendancy to be pack rats. But this is not the subject of this blog. I usually fly on Southwest Airlines. Their company philosophy and energy is contagious. There are Flight Attendants that are alive! Sure, you always have the chance of getting someone on a bad day but as a whole, they are a great airline. This time, however, I flew USAir. In days gone by, I remember USAir as being a pretty good airline. Oh, how things have changed. The seats are much closer together now. When you first get boarded and the Flight Attendants seem annoyed for you being there, you know that you are in trouble.

The beverage service sure has changed. Everything can be had, for a fee. The Attendant walked down the aisle and stopped at each person asking if they wanted something to drink. A man next to me said that he would like water and the Attendant said, "That costs $2.00" as if he was expecting him to gasp and throw a fit. When he said ok, the Attendant reluctantly had to retrieve the lone bottle of water.

The thing that struck me as the strangest of all was when we were preparing to land. One Attendant got on the PA system and did the entire speech..."Seat backs and tray tables must be in the upright and locked position during take off and landing. All carry-on luggage must be stowed in an over head compartment or under the seat in front of you." When he finished, it wasn't 10 seconds later that a female Attendant got on the PA and did the exact same speech again.

This is when you look around and wonder, are we all morons? Maybe they get mad when we don't look at the while they are fastening their fake seatbelt or pretending to blow air into their flotation device.

The bottom line is...are we even listening? Not just to airline people but to our customers. Do we hear what they are saying? I have had customers who have come to me and said that their last agent did not listen to them. Heck, I sometimes even get that at home! One of the best things I remember from a seminar I took years ago was that we should work on having a dialogue with others, not a duelalogue. If we are constantly thinking about what we will say as a response, we can't be listening to what the other person is saying. Did you hear me?