He's Just Keeping it Real

Our son Camden was assigned the task in math class to create a Venn diagram....you remember the Venn Diagram? That's that visual diagram depicting similarities and differences between two different things.  He was given the freedom to choose the topic, and here is what he came up with.

His choice? Airlines.  In case you can't read it, on the left is United.  On the right is Delta.

Things in common:

• Airlines
• Engines
• Wings
• Go in the air. 

United:

• Breaks guitars*
• Grouchy people
• Really hard chairs
• Only bring drinks once

Delta:

• Nice people
• Has TVs on each seat
• Gives you many drinks
• Best Airline in the World. 

*In United's defense, he has not personally witnessed breaking guitars but has watched this youtube video about 100 times.

SO IGNORING THE FACT that perhaps its a little unusual for a 7-year old to be able to do  a critical analysis of major airlines' customer service policies,  I will say that in general I pretty much agree with his content ;).  We had one of those disastrous customer service episodes when we flew over here with United. Stressed enough with leaving our home and taking our first family airplane trip - with five kids and a grandparent, mind you -  to a foreign country,  the United staff we encountered in Chicago really were really "grouchy".  It was discouraging enough that I  finally swore off years of loyalty (and late flights and broken itineraries and O'Hare airport) and moved exclusively to Delta. We've flown Delta on all of our trips home since.    Apparently, that was a Camden-approved change.

The businessman in me thinks there is a valuable customer service lesson in there somewhere.  United, if you're listening my son is available for hire as a consultant. His advice into your world of customer service and support policies will be along the lines of 1) stop being grouchy, 2) bring people drinks, and 3) don't break guitars.

Maybe the customer service lesson is not to over-think it.