(Reprinted from The Church of the Customer Blog)

Talk about Being Fabulous!!!

A rogue pilot at stodgy United Airlines is creating his own, word-of-mouth-worthy experience for fliers.

Here’s how Capt. Denny Flanagan does it:

He mingles with passengers in the gate area He makes gate announcements himself, updating passengers about weather conditions and sets realistic expectations for delays
He uses his cellphone to call United operations to ask about connections for passengers
He passes out information cards to passengers with fun facts about the plane; he signs two of them, whose owners will win a bottle of wine
He snaps pictures of animals in the cargo hold to show owners their pets are safely on board
He writes notes to first-class passengers and elite frequent fliers on the back of his business cards, addressing them by name and thanking them for their business
He personally calls parents of unaccompanied children to give them updates
He instructs flight attendants to pass out napkins asking passengers to write notes about experiences on United, good or bad
He orders 200 McDonald’s hamburgers for passengers if his flight is delayed or diverted

“I just treat everyone like it’s the first flight they’ve ever flown,” the very smart captain told the WSJ in a highly valuable front-page story. “The customer deserves a good travel experience.”

With airline service at frustratingly low levels, Flanagan’s work easily creates word of mouth during and after the flight.

The reason why Capt. Flanagan is a rogue is because his work isn’t the result of formal training. I’ll bet his techniques make some colleagues uneasy or nervous. Even United’s “Chief Customer Officer” isn’t quite sure what to do with him other than “hope” Flanagan’s techniques rub off on other pilots.

That’s a missed opportunity. Understanding the power of word of mouth has helped propel Southwest to be the most-recommended airline and profitable for 34 consecutive years.

If I were in charge of United for a day (a scary thought, I know), I would make Flanagan’s techniques part of a pilot’s regular training schedule. I would invite Flanagan to design the course and teach the first class.

And to cement my reputation as a great, one-day CEO, I’d appoint Flanagan the Chief Customer Officer after he reaches mandatory retirement age for flying.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 at 1:53 pm and is filed under Success and Achievement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.