I can’t remember a bad experience with WestJet, it’s not like they always have the flights that we want or can accommodate everything, but my experience with them has been good.

I’m not comparing them to other airlines per say, it’s hard to when they don’t even fly places we’d like to go, but when we’re with them the experience seems to be great.

Is it a pain in the neck to pay for luggage? Yes. Is it also painful to buy food? Yes. But I keep coming back to one thing: my experience has always been a good one.

I think they understand something that every business needs to: You can’t make everybody happy, but you can do for one what you wish you could for everyone.

Point in case: I just got off the phone because my companion ticket expired yesterday (oops) and I was wondering if there was anything to be done about it. Did I have a wait time on the call? Yes. Was there a high volume whatever at their call centre? Yes.

But was the person pleasant and doing their best to accommodate me? Yes. The original lady I talked to transferred me to another department and said she couldn’t promise me anything but they would like to help.

The reason was that I called the wrong department in the first place. I never pay attention long enough to make it through the menu to “Press the # key to speak to the fuelling truck on runway eight” etc, so I started pressing the 0 key eighty million times to speed up the process and talk to a human. Sometimes it actually works but I’m still proud of myself when it doesn’t. It’s complicated.

The correct department informed me they could make an exception for me as long as I booked today. So now I love WestJet even more.

It’s hard to describe why I like certain stores over others or eat at certain restaurants more. I do know it has a lot to do with their manner with me. It drives me mental when we are there to spend money and enjoy something and I am treated like they are doing me a favour.

Now a company owner would never think of acting this way, but they are left with the distinctly hard job of instilling a “we like people and their money” with every employee. It seems to me that this is what it comes down to most of the time.

I worked at a place once where you couldn’t pay your bill if the main office person was on lunch break. Super genius! You’ve actually got the customer to the point of cha-ching! and now you let them know YOUR STOMACH is too important at the moment and would they make another trip when it’s convenient for YOU?

If the phone rings with a potential customer what do you do?

Do you:

A. Ignore it because you’re busy?

B. Ignore it because it’s not your job?

C. Pick it up and act irritated because they interrupted you?

Or..

D. Pick it up because it sounds like MONEY?????!!!!!!

It’s almost unbelievable to me how some aspects of the service industry are in business at all these days when the customer experience is as terrible as it is. Now to be fair there are many terrific companies that will weather the current economy because they care enough to bring the right energy and focus, but some of their competition could only be in the black if people don’t really care where their extra dollars go.

I super love when I’m in a restaurant that’s busy and the young waiter let’s me know how stressed out they are by their manner. “You don’t even know how tired I am right now! (Aka I was up til 3 AM playing video games). Oh great, another PAYING CUSTOMER just walked in! Now I’ll have to serve them too!”

Having spent some time in the States I’m always a little shocked by the way they handle customers, especially in the South.

“Honey, what can I do for YOU??”

Coming back here I do get more personal space, and honestly great service in most places, but still the feeling I’m inconveniencing someone by paying for their kids to be in school lingers.

I’ve had some long and painful days in all different kinds of employment, but I found that something my dad instilled in me long ago has made all the difference.

“A bad attitude doesn’t help”

He was right. In fact, most of the time a positive attitude actually makes the job fun in the end because you get a great story to tell where people are laughing with/ at you. It’s sort of ridiculous to whine every time something goes wrong as if everyone is out to get you personally and make your life miserable. In my experience miserable people find reasons to be miserable even when everything is pretty good…

Not the people I’ve talked to at WestJet! They actually act like they enjoy employment!

That or they ask “Do you actually WANT a job?” On the application:)

The only trouble with a great customer experience is that now I need to figure out where we want to book our $100 companion ticket, its full price partner ticket, and if we can actually afford going there?:)

Special note: Please don’t sue me WestJet competitors because….

A. I have no money (re the previous paragraph)

B. I like you too (re I’m Canadian:)