Bad Profits are just plain BAD

I am an American Airlines frequent flyer. While I would not consider myself a promoter (I was Passive), I have just turned Detractor. Oh, I'll continue to fly on American domestically because of the benefits I get, but I have taken my last international flight on American.

Even with flight status, American does not allow electronic upgrades on International flights. To secure a business class seat, you have to use miles and pay a $300 fee EACH WAY! In addition, if you request the upgrade within 30 days of your flight it is a $100 expedite fee! Even then you can be "wait listed" and may or may not get upgraded.

On my recent flight to London I had a nightmare reservation thanks to a travel agent error. This fee structure combined with the fact that American does not fly direct to London, creating a 3 hour delay out of Chicago this week, has changed my Net Promoter status and my "continue to buy". I'm ready for another airline to take me to/from London. If I like them enough I may switch my domestic flights as well.

The point here is this nickle and dime philosophy has cost American my International business. This is the perfect example of what Fred would call bad profits. Profits at the expense of loyalty.

American, do you listen to your customers? Fix this policy! Is it really necessary to charge a $100 expedite fee in todays world of Internet connectivity? What cost do you incur? Is it worth the thousands of dollars I would have otherwise spent to travel back and forth to Europe several times a year?

Net Promoter Adoption

Hello old friends, it's been a while. I'm trying to get my corporate blog to be more real-time, so in the meantime, I'm back to my personal blog and back in the game.

I have the opportunity to speak often on Net Promoter as part of my role as CMO at Satmetrix, including teaching Net Promoter certification. One of the key themes I share with business leaders is that Net Promoter Score is easy to adopt across a large complex organization because everyone can understand the concept of making more Promoters and less Detractors.

Well, recently my husband has returned to the consulting business. As part of my marketing consultation I recommended he start blogging to increase his visibility in the market. His recent post is a great illustration of how easy it is to understand and adopt NPS. Because of my influence, nearly every customer experience he has is critiqued, and he catagorizes himself as a Promoter or Detractor. With the power of the Internet, his Promoter/Detractor status is now displayed for all to see.

While he is still new and gaining readership, I noticed when I did a google search for him today that his blog was mentioned on an apache blog posting. For those not in the software world, this is a big deal!

Let the word of mouth begin!