I reached Bangalore airport at 9:15 pm for my 10:45 pm Indigo flight to Mumbai. On the way, I had got a message that the flight was delayed 50 minutes to 11:35 pm. I decided to check at the Indigo ticketing counter if there was a seat available in an earlier. (That is one advantage of choosing Indigo – the frequency of flights from the major cities is very good.) The 9:45 pm flight had been delayed by 30 minutes to 10:15 pm. So, perhaps I could get a seat on that flight.
The agent looked at me and said that it will cost Rs 1800 for the change. I hesitated in answering – wondering if the hour extra was worth that much. Perhaps sensing my dilemma, the agent said, “Mr. Jain, I will do a one-off gesture for you. I will waive the additional charge.” And then, without me asking, she assigned me 1C, which would have cost extra. I was delighted.
As I made my way to the gate, I thought to my self about how a frontline customer service executive was empowered to make the decision without making any phone call or checking with her manager. Indigo does not have a loyalty program so she had no clue whether I was a loyal traveller. (That the airline has a 60-70% market share does mean that for business travellers, it would be a preferred choice.) This was a story I needed to tell my Netcore colleagues: how can our customer success teams work on customer delight moments and be empowered to make “in-the-moment” decisions if it was so needed.
My positive experience did not end there. As I reached the boarding gate, I found someone waiting for me. He introduced himself, “I am the airport manager. X [the ticketing agent] works for me. She informed me about you, and I came to make sure everything’s fine.” Quite a surprise! I thanked him, and told him, “I run a company of over a thousand people. It is so good to see that the agent could make the call on her own. Thank you.” And as I walked away, I realised I could do a small gesture of my own. I had a signed copy of my book, which I gave to the airport manager. I said, “This is for both of you. The second last chapter has some very good life lessons, which I hope you will find useful.”
I was indeed happy to reach home an hour earlier. Thank you, Indigo!
