Have we crowned the wrong folk hero?

By Barry Stern

It’s 6:21 AM Eastern Time on Thursday, August 12th and I just Googled our new folk hero Steven Slater - 4,840,000 results. He has clearly touched an international nerve as a courageous representative for all the downtrodden masses of customer service providers. But I’d like to express my anger and frustration at the folk hero status ole’ Steve seems to have achieved. The high or low point depending on your vantage point was my viewing of Jimmy Fallon’s “Ballad of Steven Slater” the other night on his talk show. Now stories of course are emerging about his apparent instability or that his “fuse was lit”.

As a frequent traveler, this saga certainly caught my attention; I too have felt like exploding at people countless times over the last 25 years of travel. In fact, I felt like clobbering the woman in the row in front of me 2 nights ago who screamed at her kids for the entire flight when all they were doing was being kids.  Or the idiot in the seat in back of me who really didn’t need the phone he was talking on for the person on the other end to hear him before they closed the hatch. You know, I really didn’t need to hear you strut your stuff about your big “deal.” I get it, you’re a very important man, so important it just couldn’t wait. But I had a book to read and I was exhausted, grumpy, and just wished I wasn’t on the plane. I really just wanted to tell you that I thought you sounded like a complete arrogant idiot. But the point is, I didn’t.

I will never forget the angry man sitting in front of me many years ago who was so hostile to a flight attendant that he literally dropped his newspaper in front of her in the aisle in the hope that she would trip.  Or the idiots on my trip back from Puerto Rico who came on board with boatloads of duty free liquor, stuffed them into the first class luggage compartment when they were in coach, and so abused the flight attendants that the pilot eventually had to threaten to land the plane prior to our destination. But these flight attendants held it together. You could see them gather themselves, their training and mindset kicking in.  They are my folk heroes.

I’d like to celebrate you and everyone in your organization who provides customer service. It’s a skill and a motivation, one which you have and companies select for and develop. I’d like to put in each and every one of your names and get 6 Million results. I want your internet presence to out-Slater Slater. I’d like to see your pictures all over the internet coupled with testimonials from clients who were upset about the fact that they didn’t get the prescriptions they need, that their paychecks weren’t deposited, or panicked about how they were going to get to their city after missing their connection. I’d like them to tell us all about how well you handled that situation, and in the end how you brightened their day and alleviated their fears.

I’d like to see stories about how in the face of dealing with the most ornery, unreasonable, and threatening customers your fuses remain “unlit”. You are my real folk heroes.

I want to hear from YOU. Who are the customer services heroes in your lives, in your companies?  Send me a post. Let’s give them their due!  

Barry Stern is vice president, Consulting Services and Delivery for Development Dimensions International (DDI). Follow him on Twitter.

Comments

[MJ]

Thank you for this post!!! I'm not surprised but terribly disheartened by the celebrity status of Steven Slater. Kudos to all those individuals in the service sector who keep it together even in the face of customers who are rude, disrespectful and mean who think they can take out their "bad day" on someone else.