Earlier today, I worked my way through the Indianapolis airport to fly home to Orlando. I had a very pleasant experience. Since flying is typically described as anything but pleasant, my positive feeling struck me and sparked a recent memory of flying out the New York LaGuardia airport a few weeks ago. For the sake of brevity, my experience at LaGuardia was far from pleasant. In fact, I’ve flown out of there dozens of times, and it’s never been pleasant. So, I started to think through the process and contemplate what made such a vast difference in my experiences.
The first challenge to my experiences was the airlines. I flew Delta out of LGA and Southwest out of IND. While I love Southwest, Delta is my preferred airline and I always get a great seat. Yet, when I sat down in my large comfortable Delta seat a few weeks ago, I could feel my blood pressure rising from my experience. Not this morning. At the IND airport, I seemed to float into my typical Southwest coach seat, happy and relaxed.
The second challenge was logic. The outcome was the same. Heck, even the process was the same: walk through TSA Pre security line, walk to gate, grab a bottle of water and healthy snack, and board the plane. I can’t complain distinguish anything about the process at either airport.
Then what was the difference? Why did I need to sit and relax for 20 minutes before talking to anyone on my LGA flight? As I thought through this, the answer was embarrassingly simple…
It was the people.
This is not a Midwest vs. New York opinion. I love the city and love the people – including their fast-pace and to-the-point style. It’s an opinion based squarely on the workers at these two airports. The people were kind and outgoing at IND, and let’s just say they weren’t at LGA.
The people made all the difference in these two experiences. Everything else was the same.
So, what kind of an experience are your clients having? Everything else being equal – technology, service response time, competence, etc. – you make the difference. Are you kind? Do you listen? Do they know you listen? Do you walk around with a smile or a grimace?
In Vector Firm, we talk a whole lot about the modern way that businesses buy and how much it’s changed. One thing that hasn’t changed: you and the experience you provide can make all the difference.
