Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

There’s a debate going on over at Tom Peters about customer service and relationships (what’s really amazing is that we are still having this debate about whether relationships are key to customer service - and competitive advantage. Aargh and yargh.)

One example brought up in comments is that cost, not “relationship” is a primary decision factor for the “occasional traveler” in choosing an airline. Here’s part of my comment on the post:

Yes, cost is a huge factor to the occasional traveler, but if that traveler has a problem, then the relationship becomes the key factor if he/she will: a. travel with that airline again; b. recommend that airline to others (including maybe their best friend, a CEO who travels 150,000 miles a year); c. blog about the experience which then spreads through the Web.

The big problem with airlines is that they generally treat everyone like an “occasional” traveler. I’ve been both a frequent and occasional traveler, and the service difference just isn’t that great - a little more hoo-ha up front, some warm nuts, sorta okay food, and there ya go. You have to be a really, really big poobah before you get truly first class service (and then there are still crumbs in that nice leather seat.) Rack ‘em, stack ‘em, move ‘em on out.

Whaddya think?