"My wife has been in the hospital, and we have to postpone our trip to my son's wedding in San Francisco by one day. How much will it cost?"
"That will be $100 for changing the date plus an additional $1,230 per person," the Continental agent replied. "The seats in your category are sold out; you now have to buy the highest-cost coach seats, as that is all that's left."
I then called the customer care department. The first agent I spoke to did not seem very interested.
"I can get you a $450 ticket if you will wait three more days," he said. "That is all I can do."
I did what any normal person would do: I hung up and tried again, hoping for better luck.
This time I got an agent who heard my story and said: "Well, since she was in the hospital and you have never canceled a trip before, we can do the postponement for free. Just bring a copy of the hospital discharge paper with you."
He added, "I hope your wife is better and can enjoy the wedding."
Maybe the second agent just wanted to help me out. Maybe the first refused mostly to show that he could refuse - or maybe Continental had failed to train him properly.
The agent who saved me over $2,500 may have made the effort to figure out that keeping this frequent flier as a customer would pay off for his employer.
The key to effective empowerment, from the customer's point of view, is how employees are trained to use their power. And some use it badly.
A banking example:
Some branch managers and platform officers waive too many fees, even those they obviously shouldn't, such as for writing bum checks and making payments late. This is one big reason that some branches waive many more fees than others do.
Some banks have solved the problem by posting monthly lists of which branches have been going hog-wild on waivers. That seems to do the trick.
And then there are appropriate waivers.
At my local bank I have an account with a fairly high balance requirement. That saves me from paying a maintenance fee. There are free checking accounts with much lower minimums, but I never did anything about them, since I normally have enough liquid funds to meet mine.
I also enjoy getting my interest payments, even at well under 1% in the current market.
But recently I got a bigger payoff. I went in to arrange an international transfer. I expected to pay $25 or $30 for the service.
"No," said the platform officer. "You have a special account. This is a free service for you."
That waiver cost the bank $35 but earned it a great deal of good will. I figure the officer knew which was more important.
