Some Thoughts on Operational Empathy

My trip to Taipei began and ended with two very different customer service experiences. (The photo above was taken from Taipei 101, the world's-tallest-for-now skyscraper at 1,671 feet. The building has a 10 GigE fiber optic trunk line.)

(a) Upon my arrival, I got into a taxi whose driver offered a choice of sparking or still mineral water and Chinese, Japanese or English newspapers. He explained that a cab ride is not just a cab ride. Customers might be thirsty if they've come off a long flight. And they might want to catch up on local news if they're on their way to a meeting. He tries to think about what goes on in the customer's life before and after each ride, because people are more likely to give repeat business to vendors who create a seamless experience.

(b) On the morning I was scheduled to fly back, I heard on the radio that all flights were temporarily grounded because of heavy fog above the airport. United told me that my flight would be delayed by 6 hours. Nonetheless, I should arrive at the airport 2-3 hours before my originally scheduled departure time because it's "more convenient" to check in "on time". And how would I get back to DC if I missed my connecting flight in Tokyo? The rep confessed he hadn't thought of that.

During my looong wait, I tried not to be mad at United for circumstances beyond their control. Somehow the situation reminded me of my EV1 days; I'm embarrassed to say that the experience I delivered was closer to (b) than (a). If a customer's server died, he was supposed to create a ticket for "easier tracking" - even if he'd already reported the outage by phone. And once the machine had been replaced, any problems associated with restoring data from backup were "beyond our scope of service".

Of course, policies and procedures are essential for keeping costs and work loads under control, but is "we don't support third party scripts" the best way to deliver a seamless experience? Where are hosting customers coming from? And where are they headed with the bandwidth and storage space they've purchased? Are there manageable equivalents of newspapers and bottled water for surprising them with care?

PS - I've always really liked DataPipe's "operational empathy" tagline: they say it's about anticipating customers' needs and taking a personal interest in their goals. While I'm sure they've trademarked the phrase, they don't have a monopoly on thoughtfulness!