Derek Fuller has been with Ivie since 2002 and is currently the Marketing Services Director. He travels to our Ivie Asia office a few times each year and has volunteered to share his adventures and observations via the Ivie Blog, Twitter and Facebook pages. Enjoy!

International travel is effortless once you get past the ticket agents. Before I get into the adventures of my third trip to China, I wanted to give a quick “shout out” to a few DFW American Airlines Ticket Agents, the newest entrants into the “Derek’s Top 5 Worst Customer Service Experiences” list. Congrats on making the list and doing it with such zeal! Let me be clear, the security, flight crew, baggage handlers and such were all fine. The two ticket agents, however, are the stars of this story.

Here is my brief account of their efforts, or lack thereof, that qualified them for such an honor. My flight left early on a Friday morning at 5:45 A.M. So I was up very early and had to arrive at the airport approximately two hours before departing since it was an international flight. If you’re doing the math at home, that means I had to leave my house around 3:15 to get to the airport on time. Thanks to light traffic, I arrived in Dallas about 3:50 and joined my fellow travelers, of which about 80% were traveling internationally. Who else would arrive so early for a domestic flight? The two ticket agents appeared around 4:00 and proceeded to get their stations ready, get coffee, move the crowd line barriers, telling us all that they would open momentarily. Little did we know that this meant that only the self-service kiosks would be available for ticketing, and that the agents were merely just handing out baggage tags.

When the self-service kiosks were finally made available (activated one at a time, mind you), none of the 40+ international travelers were able to get a boarding pass, because their passports and/or visas needed to be verified by the ticket agent. So, we followed the kiosk’s instructions and proceeded to the ticket agent to verify travel documents. When the first person approached the ticket agents, he was greeted with a stern, “We’re only doing baggage check-in for those with boarding passes,” and was quickly turned away. The lucky few that were able to get boarding passes approached the counter where they were helped. After repeatedly asking how we, the international travelers, could check in, the ticket agents, in increasingly annoyed tones, told us to just wait until 4:30 when the rest of the ticket agents would arrive.

As I watched the time tick away, a few things occurred to me.

When do they close the baggage check for international flights?
How long until I can check in?
Why are the ticket agents now checking in a large charter group before anyone else?
What are my options if I don’t make it in time for this flight?
Who do I talk to at American Airlines about this?
Did something happen to the ticket agents this morning before they got to work, or are they like this all the time?
Why would American Airlines hire such unfriendly and unhelpful people to work the early morning international shift?
Why does my trip have to start like this?
Does the young girl behind me (a first-time traveler, no less) think this is how traveling always goes?

I started to mentally craft a strongly worded letter to American Airlines when another Customer Service representative told us that there was a ticketing desk just a few gates up that was fully staffed. So, I thanked her and beat feet along with a handful of my line buddies, leaving the grumpy ticket agents in my wake. I made it to the other station, got completely checked in by a much friendlier ticket agent, and moved through security in about 12 minutes. I was much happier and ready to embark on my long, 19-hour journey.

Nineteen hours of near-constant interaction with any company provides multiple opportunities for employees to do irreparable damage to the business relationship. Since I work in the Customer Service business, I see this all the time and tend to be able to separate a few bad apples from the bunch. But the typical consumer will probably just lump the whole company and bad experience together to form their opinions. And those customers are likely to share their opinions with friends, family, and anyone who will listen. 

Do companies not realize this, and why doesn’t it keep executives awake at night? Companies need to be cognizant that every employee has the ability to improve or ruin the customer’s experience. Once you sour that experience, whether it be at the beginning, middle, or end of an experience, it creates a domino effect for the rest of your employees that come in contact with that consumer. They have to work even harder to overcome the negative actions of the previous agents. You never know how a bad mood, attitude, or lack of willingness to help will affect a customer and how long it will last. Over a lifetime, the travel revenue lost could be substantial if I decided to not fly American Airlines again. Maybe each agent should think about that before they take out their frustrations and give poor customer service to the next person in line.

That’s my take on the matter.