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Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Anxiety and AMAZING Customer Service

I am a very anxious person by nature. I always have been. I worry and over analyze the lamest things. Because of my nature to do this, I am also a control freak. I'll admit it, I like to be in control. It stops there from being variables that will cause me anxiety (see how that works)!
However tonight is a perfect example of WHY I am an anxiety ridden control freak.
My family is taking a trip to Mexico in a little over a week. And by Family I mean ALL of us (not just Rick and I), my mom, my aunt, my 3 cousins. Because we are staying in one of my cousins time shares he planned the trip. I was squeamish about this to begin with but hey, he was paying for the hotel who can complain.
Then the other issues came up. When the airline tickets were bought, they put the wrong last name for me, well they put the correct one however, I had yet to change to my married name (I know, I know after almost 6 years its a little premature to take on his name, but I had to), so in order to get a passport I had to change my name at the SSN office, and get a new CDL. Okay - DONE, I am flying to Cabo on the 31st with no problems.
WAIT- Nope not done yet.
They ordered Rick's ticket using the name Rick. Now most people would think 'OH, his name is Richard' - yeah no, its Michael (little known fact, he goes by his middle name). So tonight I went about tackling the name issue.
We're flying on Alaskan Airlines (weird right. Flying from California to Mexico via Alaskan Airlines - but hey it was cheap). So first I called them. They couldn't help me because the tickets were booked via Orbitz. I called Orbitz, they said they would send the airline and FYI that his real name was Michael. I called the airline back - that's not good enough it has to be changed I had to call Orbitz back. Orbitz tells me that they can't change the name on an airline ticket I will need to call Alaskan Airlines back. So let's take a quick score up to this point that is 2 calls to Orbitz, 2 calls to the airline.
I finally call the international desk at Alaskan Airlines and I get connected to quite possibly the ANGEL of ALASKAN AIRLINES, Ann. I explained the whole situation to her. She said she could change it however, it would cost me $100 (oh geez). Then Ann (being the angel that she is) started looking and noticed that the tickets for my cousin Mike and Jim (who are legally Michael and James)had the wrong names. So now we have 3 tickets that will need to be changed at $100 a pop. Ann puts me on hold to discuss with her supervisor. When she comes back she tells me that they can waive the $100 charge per ticket since its just first names but that we will need to pay the tax difference but that should only be about $20 a ticket - NO PROBLEM I say.
Now Ann sets about the tedious task of fixing this. She takes MY number and says she'll work on it and call ME back with the fix. Close to an hour later she calls me back. She's fixed the tickets, there is no tax difference and no charge AT ALL!! Needless to say I was overcome with gratitude for Ann. I told her how impressed I was, I had been impressed before, even when it was going to cost me $100 a ticket (because she had noticed that Mike & Jim's tickets were wrong too) but now she's not only fixed ALL THREE but there hasn't been a charge?! WOW.
Needless to say I not only praised her but I insisted on talking to her supervisor and telling them how wonderful she was. Coming from a customer service background I can appreciate good customer service, even mediocre customer service - its a tough job, trust me I know. But to have some one provide AMAZING customer service and not do her job but actually look out for the customer is by far some of the best service I haven gotten in a really long time. So I say HATS OFF to Ann at Alaskan Airlines International Customer Service for being amazing at your job and helping a anxiety ridden control freak rest a little easier when I go to Mexico, now if I could just figure out how to get from the Mexican airport to the hotel . . . .