dispatches from the new world of work

Lost Bags

I hope none of you were ensnared in the Comair-USAir fiascos! The story reminded me of a brief conversation with a United check-in employee at O'Hare on December 19. My transaction went just fine, but I commented on the generally long lines and obviously small # of UAL employees. Her response, "Yes, United is running an experiment called 'Fly the Airline with no employees.'" Uh huh.

Tom Peters posted this on 12/27/04.

Comments

Fly the Wal*Mart with no employees, fly Lowes/Home Depot/Albertsons with zip for employees, love the self-checkout counters.

Posted by Sean at December 27, 2004 12:36 PM

We are getting there... we already have banking and brokerages with no employees, retailing with no employees, nobody answers the phone at companies anymore (just a computer), there's self check-in at the airport... and back-office operations and call centers are outsourced half-way across the world.

Younger generations of consumers will get used to all of this, and they'll consider it "good customer service" because it will meet their expectations. And automation will mean speedy and error-free transactions instead of "cold" service.

Posted by Gabriel Salcido at December 28, 2004 4:29 PM

My parents flew US Airways over the holidays. You can guess the result. Their luggage arrived four days after they did -- the day before they flew home. The agent at the counter was nice enough to put a "priority" tag on their bag for the flight home. You can guess the result. It was only lost for two days. Sure seems like now would be the time for at least one domestic airline to step up and guarantee the highest quality service. Bags don't arrive when you do? $300 voucher for a future flight. Sick of little bags of pretzels? We'll give you a real meal. Would I be willing to pay a little more for that? Absolutely. Think some of the people who flew with US Airways and Comair would? Absolutely.

Posted by Gregg Stutts at January 1, 2005 2:53 PM