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Do you know who your real brand manager is?

September 17th, 2008 Posted in Business Strategy, Rants

At iMedia Brand Summit yesterday, I was floored by a comment from Jerry Courtney, Group Manager at Target. He said that they don’t think of retail employees at the stores as “clerks”, but as “brand managers”. After all, his point was, the frontline employees have vastly more control over the actual brand perceptions than anyone in the home office.

This point was on my mind when I arrived at the airport today. Long-time readers of this blog know that I have some serious issues with American Airlines. I have nearly 700,000 flown miles with them in the last 7+ years. I live in Dallas, their main hub. I have thought about putting a requirement for me to fly on American for client travel. I can deal with their crazy up charges, and have defended (or perhaps rationalized) their odd policies. I’ve cut them slack for putting more effort into their pointless Facebook app while neglecting to provide updates about whether Hurricane Ike will effect my flights.

When I checked into my flight home today, I wasn’t assigned a seat. I had applied for an upgrade when I checked in online and was told that I didn’t have enough credits. But strangely, I noticed an upgrade notification in my inbox as I rushed to get to the airport. When I checked in, I wasn’t assigned a seat, so I checked with the gate agent. Here is the shortened and slightly paraphrased version of how things played out. It was actually much worse in person.

Me: Hi there! I need to get a seat assignment. I believe that my upgrade request came through.

Jill: (searching) Yes, you did. That’ll be $105.

Me: I’m sorry?

Jill: Your upgrade costs are $105.

Me: Sorry, I’m confused. I’m not sure why the fee.

Jill: Because. You. Requested. An. Upgrade.

Me: Is that fee something new? I’ve not had to pay for upgrades before.

Jill: Yes, you have.

Me: Actually, no, I haven’t.

Jill: Maybe you didn’t know you did.

Me: I’m pretty sure I’d remember paying $105 numerous times.

Jill: Upgrades. Cost. Money. You. Pay. Money. And. You. Get. An. Upgrade.

Me: Ma’am, there’s not need to talk to me like I’m dumb. I’m just confused about the policy. I thought upgrades were based on upgrade segments….

Jill: Yes, and maybe you don’t have any left.

Me: Ah! I’m just trying to understand – if I don’t have any segments, that actually makes sense. I get that I would need to buy more.

Jill: I don’t know if you have any segments or not.

Me: Oh, OK.

Jill: Sir, I don’t know what you’re having a hard time understanding. Upgrades cost money. Each time you fly 500 miles you pay for an upgrade.

Me: Yes, I know. I’ve been a Platinum customers several times and am Gold now…

Jill: You’re not Platinum now, you’re Gold.

Me: …but I’ve never had to pay for an upgrade before.

Jill: Yes, you did.

Me: Fine, can I…

Jill: I just don’t understand what doesn’t make sense. I’m trying to help.

Me: Can I just decline the upgrade?

Jill: You’ll have to move back to coach. What seat were you in?

I know travel is tough these days. I know that paychecks have been slashed for people like Jill. I know that she has to deal with a lot of irritated travelers during each of her shifts. I feel for Jill, I really do. But the reason travel sucks is not the travelers, it’s you Jill. It’s the angry flight attendants that get mad when you ask for a blanket. It’s the busted ass planes. It’s the charges for absolutely everything that isn’t screwed down.

But I also know that Jill doesn’t care about her business, her company, or her industry. I know that she’s about the furthest thing from a brand manager that she can be. It’s obvious in the way she, and her colleagues, treat the customers. Airlines, with the exception of Southwest, have forgotten that the customer is always right. Or at least that the customer is not your mortal enemy.

And as alarmingly rude as Jill from San Diego was, she’s not really to blame. American Airlines is a company that has lost their way, building marketing-based Facebook apps when they should be building customer service facing blogs. Restricting smart employee decision making rather than empowering employees to bend or break silly policies. Wasting money on direct mail marketing campaigns rather than investing in creating better methods for accepting and reacting to feedback.

If Jill was empowered, trained, and encouraged to be a brand manager, she’d be demanding such things too. Unfortunately for all of us, American’s home office doesn’t trust her anymore than they respect their customers.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 8:34 am and is filed under Business Strategy, Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
  • http://www.wordofmouthguru.wordpress.com Lloyd Duggan

    Jake,
    You are right on in your assessment. Poor customer service is rampant in American business. I had a somewhat similar experience I wrote about in my blog; (http://wordofmouthguru.wordpress.com/2008/09/15…) I think the point about classifying customer facing employees as brand managers is a good one that more companies should consider. Great post!

  • http://www.kadidid.wordpress.com Kady

    I believe you 100%! Having been a frequent traveler for the last 10 years, I have seen the service getting worse and worse. Often I feel like I am at the mercy of the flight attendent. I don't see things getting better though.

  • TammyAllen

    I used to work for American Airlines. Their policies are inane. It's a hideous place to work. People stay for the benefits. They get trapped there.
    I was in the Management Training Program and one of my jobs was to call disgruntled passengers and deal with their concerns. I had to call a man whose wife had fallen down a flight of stairs and broken her neck and died. He couldn't take a trip he had purchased a ticket for. he had documentation for everything. American would not refund his money. I had to repeat over and over “I'm so sorry for your loss, I understand your frustration but your ticket is non-refundable.” It was agonizing and hideous and I should have walked out that day. I lasted 3 years with American. I just went to the retirement party of someone who has worked there for 35 years. It's mind boggling.

  • Greg

    I'm having similar issues with DELL right now. Endless loop about making ME the technician to troubleshoot. My warrenty DOESNT COVER damage done by DELL technicians. 40 days later I'm waiting for Hurricane Ike to release it's hold on the laptop shipment. ARGH

  • http://www.JAllanStudios.com Mandy Minor

    I couldn’t be more on-board with what CommunityGuy says. It seems like all of the “big boy” companies – American Airlines, UPS, etc. – are completely out of touch with what happens on the ground and amazingly ignorant of the fact that each of those interactions goes toward their brand perception. I have a great UPS story similar to CommunityGuy’s AA story…

    Our street address is some sort of USPS/UPS/FedEx vortex of misdelivered packages. We get at least one package a week for a very similar address that is in an entirely different zip code way across town. Every time we get one I call any number I can find on the package to report it. If I’m lucky it’s the number of the sender. If I’m not it’s the number of USPS/UPS/FedEx.

    Most recent package I got the privilege of calling UPS, who not only did not apologize profusely and promise to come get the wayward package straightaway, but told me I would have to call their 800 number, repeat everything I just spent 10 minutes telling them (to two different people), and wait for a return call before they would come get it. If I was a cartoon, my eyeballs would’ve popped right out of their sockets.

    Me – not the sender, not the receiver, not UPS, just someone trying to do the right thing – would have to spend more of my time to help UPS do the one thing they are supposed to do?!?! Are you effing kidding me? I told the girl on the phone – who was nice but definitely not a brand manager and definitely not interested in much besides her next break – that she was working for a company that couldn’t correctly do the one thing they are supposed to do and that she should think about career longevity with such a company. I’m pretty sure she didn’t know what I was taking about.

  • http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress BIG Kahuibn

    What most companies don't understand is that EVERY interaction is a brand interaction. It's really sad. The airlines are a lost cause as they have completely commoditized their business. With the exception of JetBlue and Southwest…

    Part of the big problem is lack of brand identity that gets translated internally. Companies that have a clear brand identity (like Zappos) and then communicate it internally are the companies that people connect with.

    Just my thoughts as a branding guy.

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    Has read with the pleasure, very interesting post, write still, good luck to you!

  • http://thefunkybusinessclub.wordpress.com Olga Slavkina

    The Target guy is right — it's the front line personnel who're the real brand ambassadors in service brands. Unfortunately, even marketing specialists who work for services companies often manage them as if they were product, not services, brands, that's one of the reasons we witness lots of unfortunate examples like AA. If you manage a services brand, the first thing to do is to engage your employees in understanding your brand values. They will do the rest and engage your customers.

  • http://thefunkybusinessclub.wordpress.com Olga Slavkina

    The Target guy is right — it's the front line personnel who're the real brand ambassadors in service brands. Unfortunately, even marketing specialists who work for services companies often manage them as if they were product, not services, brands, that's one of the reasons we witness lots of unfortunate examples like AA. If you manage a services brand, the first thing to do is to engage your employees in understanding your brand values. They will do the rest and engage your customers.