Leadership (failure) lesson from British Airways last night… 👇
All passengers seated waiting to take off after a 30-min delay when the pilot announces: “We are a few minutes from departure, and the 30-min delay is due to some of you not following the baggage rules, thus you’ve made everyone late…”
It’s true, it was a full flight and there were more bags than fit on board, and several had to be checked. It's also true (or at least my opinion), that a 30-min delay isn't that bad.
However, here’s what irked me and why I think the message is wrong:
1. There was already a 15-minute delay two hours before departure—thus at least half of the delay was a BA (or a non-passenger) issue, yet this wasn’t acknowledged, instead “we” were blamed for 100% of the situation.
2. The pilot delivered this message from a _literally locked cockpit_ (read: corner office, ivory tower, any disconnected space from customers/employees) and left the flight attendant team to deal with the situation.
3. Passengers got on the plane with the bags. BA knew it was a full flight and that there would be space issues. They could have done more stowing of bags from the gate, not waiting until the situation was out of hand on the plane. I overheard several passengers say exactly this as they were looking for overhead bag space.
Now, BA isn’t the only one who should be learning a lesson. I was incensed by the lack of accountability, and when an attendant passed by distributing the bag tags, I (very politely!) told him I was disappointed in the pilot’s lack of accountability for at least half of the situation.
-- Right message? Yes.
-- Right person to give the message to? Not sure.
-- Right time? Likely not.
Have you experienced leadership blaming customers and letting their teams deal with it? What would you have done in my case?
Looking to learn, and hoping BA is too 🙂
Junior officer Customer Service, AI AIRPORT SERVICE LIMITED
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