I was returning from Delhi to Bangalore on Monday, Sept 16th and the allergic cough I had picked up in Mohali was not letting up. I asked the Airhostesses on the Indigo flight for some water after they had completed their service and I asked three different times, not one of them served me any water !!
Contrasting this experience with the one on Friday.. I was returning from Mumbai this time to Bangalore and the cough is nearly gone but I wanted to keep sipping on hot water. The Airhostess was the same one who had been on the Thursday flight from Bangalore to Mumbai. Not only did she remember me, she checked on how my visit went and when I asked for piping hot water, she brought it for me even as we were getting ready to land. I was just blown away by the customer service.
Both the Airhostesses have received the same training from Indigo and are bound by the same rules. While one applied the rules in favor of customer service the other didn’t have the service mindset !! I remember an article that I read ages back in the “World Executive Digest” which spoke of how the “service” mindset is something you are born with, difficult to teach. The article suggested that the hospitality industry can do well by identifying such individuals, hiring and training them rather than trying to change a non-service mindset.
Interesting thought and I have come across many examples to support that view. These two flight experiences being one of them.