INTLGIRLY,
Great post. I can understand what you're saying, and I've had my share of jobs where I've been at the receiving end of some nasty customer venom myself. I can also appreciate the layers of management which can be out of touch, rigid, and apathetic.
It's also true that, even in everyday life, there's always going to be the usual quota of jerks and just generally unpleasant people. One thing I've learned is that these people, these jerks, the cranky passengers, and others who want to make life miserable for others: That's just their way. More than likely, they act the same way to others they come into contact with, whether it's a grocery clerk, waiter, or whatever. They have to live with themselves. I find that such people are usually nasty to everybody, so it's really on them.
I agree that the management can also be a large part of the problem. I don't know precisely how the airline industry works, but if it's anything like other large organizations I'm familiar with, it's probably a matter of someone at an executive level deciding, "Hey, this would be a really great idea," which then becomes policy. By the time it trickles down to the customer level, the customer is thinking, "Hey this sucks." All he can do is tell this to the customer service representative. Theoretically, if enough people call in to say "Hey this sucks," then it could be enough to cause management to reconsider their position. That may be what's on people's minds when they call in to complain. They just want "somebody" to know that they're not happy and that one or more aspects of their service was not satisfactory. The hope is that someone in a policy-making role might think "Well, gee, he's right, the policy sucks, so let's change it."
The general assumption is that businesses actually want to do a good job and provide high quality service for the sake of customer retention. Even setting aside business considerations, there's just the inherent human pride in doing a good job and taking pride in one's work. But when management doesn't care about that, then it puts the front line personnel in a very difficult position. Even if they're just greedy and out for the buck, I could sort of understand it, but even then, the kind of apparent apathy and inertia don't really seem to fit.
That culture seems to be more prevalent these days, but I don't know where it comes from. Even back in the days of the greedy industrialists, they still had a sense of pride, probably more ego-driven than anything else. They wanted to be the best, the biggest, the richest. They had to compete for that; it wasn't just handed to them. But now, they seem to be more than willing to settle for second-best. I noticed another site mentioned here which rates all the world's airlines on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, and not one single U.S. airline rated above 3 stars. Where is the pride? Don't they want to be the best? That's what I don't understand.
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