This guest post is from Jeremy Epstein, VP of Marketing and Social Navigator at Sprinklr.
Raving Fan Tom Siegman sent me this gem a while back.
It’s further proof that:
- Any touchpoint can become a remarkable experience
- Thinking about how you want people to FEEL is smart marketing
- If you do both of those, people will talk about it and share…
Here’s his story about something that Delta officially calls “Middle Seat Mondays.”
Well done, Delta Airlines!!
Yesterday I had to fly down to Atlanta. I was scheduled on the 8 AM flight. I got to LaGuardia airport and, after having a remarkable macchiato at World Bean in Delta’s terminal (delicious coffee at an airplane terminal is remarkable in and of itself) I realized I still had time to slide onto the 7 AM flight and get to ATL early. Nice.
I went up to the gate and they a) waived my fee for flying early, b) apologized profusely for only having middle coach seats (I’d been upgraded on the 8 AM flight), c) handed me some tasteful holiday chocolates as I boarded the flight. Fine. All of this is outstanding. But following is the kicker. Today I received this message from Delta (see below). I am now a raving fan.
— Delta Air Lines <DeltaAirLines@e.delta.com> wrote:
From: Delta Air Lines <DeltaAirLines@e.delta.com>
Subject: Caught In The Middle
To: tbsiegman
About Jeremy Epstein
Jeremy Epstein is VP/Marketing and Social Navigator at Sprinklr, the world’s leading enterprise Social Media Management System to help large organizations save time, mitigate risk, orchestrate activity, and use social data to grow their business. A committed WOM practitioner, Jeremy previously worked at Microsoft and ran an international community marketing-focused consulting firm.
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I have been a fan of Delta Airlines even when it was still Northwest Airlines. I live in the Philippines and whenever I have a chance to go to the US, I try take NW/Delta rather than Philippine Airlines because of what they did for me back in 2002.
For our honeymoon, my wife and I decided to go to the US (we were using her air miles). We left Manila for New York on December 1, 2002 (Manila time). I wasn’t used to wearing my wedding ring so I moved it over to my pinkie so that it would be loose. As expected, I lost it and only realized it when we were boarding from a stop over on our way to New York.
The purser (not sure what her actual position was) for the flight was kind enough to let us go down the plane to look for my wedding ring in the airplane we had just disembarked from. We couldn’t find it. Everyone around our seats pretty much knew what was happening with one Japanese passenger kidding me that I was going to get it and that I’d have to buy my new wife a new ring for my dumb move. Obviously, my wife was distraught and was saying that it must be an omen of things to come in our marriage.
I pretty much gave up but the lady we spoke with said that she would try and look for it after our flight left.
When we arrived in New York, I heard Northwest paging me over the airport PA system. We approached the counter and they informed me that lady I spoke to was able to find the ring on the other plane and that it was on the way to New York on the flight coming in the following day. We were floored! (I was relieved knowing that my wife wouldn’t divorce me 24 hours after getting married). That NW lady could have decided not to look for my wedding ring. What’s more, if it were another person who found it (solid gold ring with 6 diamonds on it), they could have chosen to keep it with no one knowing at all. This lady decided to take the effort to look for it (before the cleaning crew arrived) and returning it to me.
That lady made me an instant fan of Northwest/Delta for life.
One of the biggest regrets I have in my life though is that I never found out the name of that lady and I never got to thank her for her effort, honesty and desire to provide a stranger with the best customer service one can ever get. If it weren’t for her, my wife probably would have left me! LOL.
We are about to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary this November. It would be awesome if Delta would be able to find out that nice lady’s name and contact details for me, as I’d love to be able to thank her via email or Skype or any other means possible.
That is a fantastic story. A great example of how one moment (that costs nothing) can be worth more than a million dollar ad campaign.
Maybe for your 10th anniversary (since your wife didn’t divorce you), you can call Delta and see if their PR department would want to track her down. It would be a great PR/Social/WOM story for them, I would think.