Travel and Thoughts on Getting Feedback from the Troops on the Ground

This morning, my family and I drove to the Milwaukee airport to catch a flight to New York City. Three years ago, I promised my then 9-year-old daughter that we would go to New York when she turned 12. Well, she turned 12 two weeks ago and I kept my word.

We arrived at the Midwest counter in pretty good time and waited patiently in line. And waited some more… Everybody seemed to be having problems beyond what the kiosks could help with. I finally weasled my way over to an empty kiosk and swiped my credit card. Everything was going great until I got to the seat assignment step. We apparently did not have seat assignments. OK, no problem. I proceeded to find a row with three seats together and started assigning. $35.00, the system added in red (at least I got a warning!). Aaaahhh, Signature seating. I tried to find some “regular” seats, but there were none to be had. So I decided to let the system pick the seats for me. It didn’t like that. It told me it could not complete my boarding process and that I needed to talk to an agent.

The poor agent was not having a good day. She was trying to help three different customers at once. I waited patiently (again) until she called my name. She then indicated that the only way she could guarantee me a seat is if I selected signature seats. I pulled out the “Executive Member” card, but apparently it didn’t matter that I had traveled with Midwest every week for two years. In the end, I wasn’t about to crush the dreams of my baby over a hundred bucks, so I said OK and handed over my credit card.

What is it with the horrific rip-off techniques latetly? Other customers were voicing their frustration. I heard “I’ve been a loyal customer…” and “The computer said that I would get seat assignment at check-in. This is false communication!” The poor agent responded, “I’m just the messenger… I’m just doing what they ask me to do.”

When we were finally on board the aircraft, I started thinking about this. I wonder if the people who came up with this ridiculous pricing scheme knows what the customers are saying. Is the agent reporting these comments back to her supervisor who in turn reports it to his supervisor who in turn reports it to her supervisor who may be able to do something about it? If I was in charge of the success of this program, I would want to know!

As product managers, we need to make sure that we are getting feedback from the troops on the ground (aka support). There are different ways to do this. You may have a support ticketing system that you can monitor. This works to a certain extent, but you won’t get the details that were not recorded. Perhaps, you could meet with the support manager on a regular basis? Or better yet, go spend some time with the support center staff and listen in on calls. It’s amazing what you can learn about your product from only one call with a confused customer.

How do you get feedback from the troops? How do you make sure that you’re getting the top questions/areas of confusion reported back to you on a regular basis? I want to know.