It's that time of year again...

As June comes over the horizon, it's time to register and get ready for Lexington Poetry Month, more often referred to as LexPoMo. Along with the usual writing challenge this year, I'm going to try to revive my little corner of the internet and share some of my thoughts and ideas. Since I'll be writing everyday with the challenge, I'll take time to post something at least every other day. We'll see how it goes.

Traveler's Woes

Yesterday, I experienced some of the worst and some of the best customer service I have had in a long time. The interesting part of this equation is that the most extreme cases came from employees of the same company, US Airways, and at the same location, Philadelphia International Airport.

First, the bad. After having suffered delay after delay on my flight from Charlotte to Philadelphia, I run from concourse B to concourse A, full speed, because I had gotten a notice my connecting flight was also delayed until 11:45p. My flight had just landed at 11:20 something and I had just gotten off the phone with the gate agent confirming the same (that's part of the good, so I'll return to that point later). I made it to the gate at 11:33p just to be told that I couldn't board. I was irate, but I held my tongue and kept my calm, even when the so-called supervisor said they were "not obligated" to put me in a hotel for the night, even when same supervisor said they were "out of hotel rooms" after I produced an email noting one of the five delays of my flight were "maintenance issues." Long story short, she kept escalating the issue (and my blood pressure) by regurgitating the rehearsed company line rather than getting all the information and THEN providing a personalized response. If I have learned anything from all my years in retail and service, you have to listen to the customer, get all the facts to assess the situation accurately, be compassionate an understanding even if the customer is not at the time (although I was!), and diffuse the situation as best you can with creativity and individual attention to the customer's specific needs.

As for the good, it all falls squarely on the gate agent, Shakid. He had called my cell phone to let me know of the delay of my later flight and to make sure I knew the right gate to which I would need to sprint. He also redirected me from the insanely long queue at the special services counter to his gate to rebook my flights. He reminded the supervisor of some hotel vouchers they had issued earlier in the day which the travelers had returned unused that he easily could reissue to get me a room. He accommodated my request for a rebook flight with only one other US connection and a direct flight to Lisboa, as well as routing my checked luggage on to my rebooked flights. All in all, he listened and creatively addressed my concerns. I walked away happy from an otherwise frustrating situation.

Maybe I shouldn't be so harsh on his supervisor. She did do one thing right. She got out of Shakid's way and let him do his job. And he did a great job.

I'm putting the good word out a little pre-emptively as I sit at Logan International in Boston this morning with a 12 hour wait for today's flight. But I got my flight this morning, no problem. So I've decided to make the best of today. I got 4 solid hour of sleep, a hot shower, and fresh clothes. I can relax until I can check in later this afternoon. I have time to people watch, to write, and to read a bit. Sounds like a good day to me.

#keeppositive #lemonadeoutoflemons #nofilter

From the phone

There are so many new things (thankfully, good things) happening right now that I feel compelled to add an update. I finished up my first residency toward my MFA last week and love being back in classes. This brief residency thing will mesh well with working. Let's hope it continues in such vein. I'm finally getting the hang of my iPhone after years of being the Blackberry holdout guy. For you others still holding out, I'll tell you that you get the hang of apps after about 6 weeks. And I just got Blogger on here, so this post is my test run to see if my joy continues. My health improves every day - blood pressure down, cholesterol down, and weight continuing down (still have a ways to go, but progress is progress!). I will take advantage of the good karma and keep moving forward. You do the same -

in love & light
j