What a difference a day makes.... yesterday was one of those un planned but fantastic days today was a long planned and well looked forward to day which fell short of expectations. We had moved the schedule forward by 1:15 because they had to be out of the Hotel sue to the South African Iron Man competition. In order for everyone not to have to get up too early I agreed bags being at the airport 90 minutes before departure and not the usual two hours. Disaster struck and the roads were closed for the Iron Man, the bags arrived at the airport one hour and 10 minutes before departure. We processed them very quickly but the roads reopened and the passengers were on time. Added to this the aircraft tug broke down and we only got the aircraft on stand 10 minutes before scheduled departure time. Amazingly we departed only 15 minutes late. The arrival in Cape Town was fantastic. All the coaches and the baggage truck on the apron. We are staying at a great hotel and Cape Town is may favourite city in the world... so what went wrong. A quick shower after arrival and it was onto the shuttle bus to the V & A waterfront, it was sunny and the mountain had no table cloth. I was wondering round enjoying my favourite place in my favourite city when I ran into the stage manager his colleague from the tour. They wanted to find a bar which whilst not what i was planning was OK. Then the karaoke kicked in and the rugby was put over the PA in the bar. The entire day was going to rats. We had a beer and then the tour management that we contracted with showed up so I had to have another beer. Having had two “large castles” I made my excuses and left I then proceeded to run into everyone from the tour, absolutely not what I had planned. I went into my favourite shop in my favourite place in my favourite city and “X” the soloist was in there shopping. I could net escape!!!! I finally broke free of the tour orbit but not before running into several other tour members. I managed to have a nice meal but the day was not as planned so I cut my losses and returned to the hotel. Cape Town is still a great city but not this time. I firmly believe that the more you anticipate a day the harder it is to live up to the expectation, I you have no expectation then it is easy to exceed that lack of expectation. This is a great lesson on customer service and one reason one reason why some brands like Emirates Airlines have to be better than better when it comes to the product because they have set a very high bar and passenger expectations are very high.
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
Day 9 (travel day) Port Elizabeth – Cape Town.
What a difference a day makes.... yesterday was one of those un planned but fantastic days today was a long planned and well looked forward to day which fell short of expectations. We had moved the schedule forward by 1:15 because they had to be out of the Hotel sue to the South African Iron Man competition. In order for everyone not to have to get up too early I agreed bags being at the airport 90 minutes before departure and not the usual two hours. Disaster struck and the roads were closed for the Iron Man, the bags arrived at the airport one hour and 10 minutes before departure. We processed them very quickly but the roads reopened and the passengers were on time. Added to this the aircraft tug broke down and we only got the aircraft on stand 10 minutes before scheduled departure time. Amazingly we departed only 15 minutes late. The arrival in Cape Town was fantastic. All the coaches and the baggage truck on the apron. We are staying at a great hotel and Cape Town is may favourite city in the world... so what went wrong. A quick shower after arrival and it was onto the shuttle bus to the V & A waterfront, it was sunny and the mountain had no table cloth. I was wondering round enjoying my favourite place in my favourite city when I ran into the stage manager his colleague from the tour. They wanted to find a bar which whilst not what i was planning was OK. Then the karaoke kicked in and the rugby was put over the PA in the bar. The entire day was going to rats. We had a beer and then the tour management that we contracted with showed up so I had to have another beer. Having had two “large castles” I made my excuses and left I then proceeded to run into everyone from the tour, absolutely not what I had planned. I went into my favourite shop in my favourite place in my favourite city and “X” the soloist was in there shopping. I could net escape!!!! I finally broke free of the tour orbit but not before running into several other tour members. I managed to have a nice meal but the day was not as planned so I cut my losses and returned to the hotel. Cape Town is still a great city but not this time. I firmly believe that the more you anticipate a day the harder it is to live up to the expectation, I you have no expectation then it is easy to exceed that lack of expectation. This is a great lesson on customer service and one reason one reason why some brands like Emirates Airlines have to be better than better when it comes to the product because they have set a very high bar and passenger expectations are very high.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment