Water Cooler Conversations

Written by Pat Perry
President, ERC 

Like many others from the area, my family took advantage of the recent Easter/school break and traveled to a place a bit warmer than Northeast Ohio.  We were fortunate to spend about a week in southwest Florida.  Great sunshine, flowers and we were pleased to see the color green again.

For anyone who has traveled into the Fort Myers airport, you know that their amenities make CLE (Hopkins) look like a bus station from the 1920’s.  Bright, attractive, welcoming and Fort Myers airport actually has lights in their baggage claim area - imagine that! 

Our journey to Florida was without incident.  In fact, our Continental flight was 10 minutes early.  It was nice to leave 32 degrees and arrive in 75 degree weather.  The week was terrific but ended in a slight glitch - a seven hour delay in our flight coming back to Cleveland.  Evidently our aircraft was stuck in Cleveland with engine trouble.  Instead of arriving home by 4 pm we strolled into town at 11 pm.  Needless to say, the passengers on Flight 1610 bonded throughout the day - at times it felt like it could have been a Survivor reality show episode.

We all appreciated that Continental wanted to ensure our safety and fly us on an aircraft with two good engines.  The issue was how the delay was handled by the ground crew.  They seemed as much a victim as we were - seemingly at the mercy of their computer system waiting throughout the day for updates.  At times, I wondered if any of the ground crew had heard of a telephone - perhaps a call directly into Cleveland might have been in order.

When the ground crew realized we were going to be in Fort Myers for awhile, they issued $8 lunch vouchers, good toward meals at the airport’s restaurants.  The gesture was nice and appropriate.  As we sat throughout the day, a number of us brainstormed ways Continental and other airlines could handle these types of delays, leaving passengers with a WOW experience.  Here were several ideas that were pretty cool:

• Randomly, pick one of the waiting passengers each hour to win a voucher for one round trip airfare anywhere in the U.S.
• Change the snack originally scheduled for the flight to a first class meal for everyone.
• Hot towels for everyone on the flight.
• Complimentary earphones for anyone on the delayed flight.
• Provide everyone on the flight with one first class upgrade to be used within six months of this delayed flight.
• Have an email sent from Continental’s CEO to each of the passengers this week to apologize for the delay and thanking each of us for flying Continental.

The point is that when problems occur with customers, as they always do in business, there are great opportunities to turn the problem into a great and/or memorable experience.

Continental remains my favorite airline by a long shot.  This was definitely a rare situation, but one in which the airline had some great opportunities to Fly Right.

Written by Pat Perry
President, ERC 

Over the holidays I had the good fortune of traveling to Florida.  As our trip neared its conclusion, my family knew that heading back into winter was fast approaching.  The consolation was that we were heading back on Christmas Eve and my kids were pretty excited about the Christmas holiday.

Leaving Orlando’s airport provided a stark reminder of how far Northeast Ohio is behind other cities when it comes to hospitality and world class transportation amenities.  Orlando’s airport is large but one of the easiest airports to traverse I have ever encountered.  It is airy, with wide aisles and magnificent colorful murals adourning just about every wall in sight.  Also impressive is the baggage handling service and easy access to rent-a-cars, buses, etc.

Every time I arrive at Orlando’s airport I am reminded how they have customer service (with a smile) figured out - from security through baggage claim.  Missing at Orlando is the chaos that is routine at Cleveland Hopkins Airport for Arriving and Departing flights.

Our Continental Flight home was as usual without issue, on-time and with excellent service.  Kudos to our major Northeast Ohio airline!

We left 75 degrees in Orlando and were welcomed with 28 degrees in Cleveland.  That first step off the aircraft into the tunnel was a wake up call that we were back north.

Funny, that it wasn’t the change in the weather that affected me the most.  It was the significant difference in the airports that was sobering.  It started with baggage claim - four flights that had just landed were on one turnstile!  After getting our luggage (and listening to that all too familiar siren “announcing” luggage arrival on the turnstiles) we waited for our ride home for about 20 minutes, even though the person picking us up parked five minutes away.  So I stood by our luggage and observed the airport’s archaic approach to handling the transportation for those departing the airport.  Long, ridiculous lines caused primarily by two of the rudest security officers I have ever seen.

As I watched the insanity of how Cleveland Hopkins is set up for departing transportation it occurred to me that I was accustomed to this as a Northeast native - but what of visitors?  How the airport handles them when they arrive in our town re-affirms the outside world’s negative impression of our region. 

Here are a few tips for the leaders at Cleveland Hopkins Airport:

• Invest in some bright, colorful paint.  Make up for the lack of sunshine with something on the walls except for grey and off-white.
• Go visit world class airports and learn how they cater to visitors.
• Replace your rude security officers with professionals passionate about our region and who understand how to leave a lasting, positive impression.
• Think radical customer service.  Have live bands in the waiting areas, offer up free cookies, coffee and hot chocolate, have volunteers from the Convention Bureau greeting our out of town guests, etc.  The point is do something different and better than what is expected.
• Fix baggage claim.  It is a joke.

If you have flown recently perhaps your experience was better or worse than mine. 

Cleveland has a golden opportunity to make incredible impressions with travelers at the airport.  It’s time someone stepped up to the plate and got the facility and processes out of the sixties.

On the bright side, Cleveland’s airport is seldom crowded compared to other major airports.  Good for the traveler, but probably not good for the region.

Maybe more travelers would warm up to passing through our area via air travel if we began earning a reputation as a world class airport.  To me it is not the cold weather that brings me back to reality when I return from warmer climates; it’s the cold reception at the gate.