About Continental, Thrifty, Customers, Lemons and Friends

I ordered a cup of tea with lemon when the Continental flight attendant, Tim, asked for my drink order on my pre-dawn flight this morning. A couple of minutes later, Tim walked back to my row, kneeled down on the floor, and with a troubled look on his face he told me, “I don’t have any lemons.” He seemed so distressed about this citrus crisis that it made me laugh out loud. “I want to go check in the back, but I can’t get past their drink cart. I promise I’ll get to the back as soon as I can,” Tim said with great urgency. I assured him that it wasn’t a big deal, but Tim was genuinely concerned when he apologized again. It was really much more traumatizing to him than it was to me, and I giggled again after he walked away.

I continued with my work, sipping my bare and natural Lipton without a second thought. True to his word, Tim showed back up a few minutes later with a wedge of lemon barely big enough to be skewered, and he declared “It’s the last one!” He was like a Survivor contestant who had found the only coconut on the island. I was impressed that he had cared enough to remember, and even more impressed that he made good on his promise without any prompting from me. For me it was a non-event. For Tim it was a true moment of reckoning. Yet again, it made me giggle.

In great contrast, when I was renting a car at my destination city, the Thrifty car rental representative didn’t seem nearly as concerned that he didn’t have the economy car that I had booked. I’ve noticed in the last year or so that car rental companies can’t even give their larger vehicles away. So, they literally give their larger vehicles away - to economy car renters for economy car prices. Not wanting to refuel a mammoth vehicle, though, I was put in the position of having to plead for the small car I had booked. As if doing me a favor, the Thrifty guy called around, and then told me I would have to wait 15 extra minutes for the privilege of getting what I had asked for in the first place.

I did choose to wait, to the surprise of the Thrifty guy who apparently didn’t have too many people take him up on the extra-wait option. When my “small” car arrived, it was actually a mini SUV instead of the minivan that had been assigned to me 25 minutes before. When I went back to the counter to once again insist on the car size that I had booked, the woman helping me this time said, “What happened was we gave you a free upgrade!” I carefully explained why this gas guzzler did not represent an “upgrade” to me. I finally settled for a mid-size mini station wagon because I was tired of waiting, and even more tired of demanding.

I realize that the travel industry and the retail industry are different entities, but customers are customers, service is service, and expectations are expectations. What struck me today is something that applies to every business with direct customer contact, no matter what the industry. That is, you can’t fool customers into thinking that you care about them when you’re really only concerned about your own welfare. Continental cared a whole lot more about my experience with a sliver of citrus than Thrifty cared about my experience with their $20,000 vehicles. Thrifty was making a buck. Tim, and by association, Continental, was making a friend.

While economic conditions can thwart your ability to make a profit, nothing but your own choices can block you from making a friend. In the long run, which is going to have more value?