Handling Customer Expectations
Today I went skydiving for the first time in my life. I’ll tell you - its a heck of an experience and I sincerely believe everyone ought to try it at least once in their life time. I’m seriously considering a second jump.
As you can imagine it was a very special day. I had received the jump as a birthday present and was looking forward to the experience - parachute jumping was something that I always wanted to try, but like many things in life was left aside for a long time.
Anyway, here I was, arriving at the Skydive centre where I was greeted by the receptionist who welcomed me for my 13:00 jump - I had arrived at 12:45 - she was saying that there was a delay of roughly an hour as the weather in the morning wasn’t great. I asked what would happen next and was told that I was going for the briefing session and would be put ‘in the jump list’. I was also told that it shouldn’t be too long as I was one of the first to arrive for the 13:00 briefing session.
At around 15:00 I went to the reception to try find out what was happening as I hadn’t received any update since my arrival two hours prior. To my surprise, there were going to be roughly five groups before my jump. I wasn’t told how long it would take or why it was taking so long. This seemed very odd as I was told I was going to be one of the first.
At this point I was feeling really frustrated. This was supposed to be a very memorable and fun day, not an agony of a wait and lack of information. I then went to complain and was told by the receptionist that she wouldn’t know how long it would take and she was “not the one who prepares the jumping list”. Basically I was told they had no idea when I was going to jump!
Almost two hours after my complaint an instructor came to say that my jump would take place roughly around 18:00! The only time someone from the centre came to give me an update was almost four hours after my arrival!
After all that, I did jump and the experience was fantastic but how the centre handled things left a rather bitter taste in my mouth.
I’m thinking about jumping again, but if I do, I certainly won’t be using the same centre. Everything was set to be a fantastic day, and it would’ve been had the staff at the skydive centre followed some simple business rules:
- Be upfront about what’s happening
- Be clear on what to expect
- Communicate with your customers
I was left unattended for hours without any knowledge of what was happening or why it was taking so long. This generated an awful lot of unnecessary stress and exasperation. All they had to do was keep me informed on the day’s schedule; nothing too drastic like. A staff member going around talking to every customer. This centre needed a simple information board with some sort of updated schedule and a receptionist that could offer some clarification if needed, simple!
Now, thinking positively, my day skydiving taught me a valuable lesson in business: when handling customers expectations, it is important to be very clear on schedules, procedures and especially with unexpected situations. We all deal with situations differently so it is important to keep everyone aware of what’s happening at all times.