On a recent flight back home from a neighbouring country on a reputable airline (known for its world-class service, among other things), my flight was delayed by an hour. Nothing out of the ordinary, except that the flimsy reason given was the plane was delivered late to the airport, and hence everything else was pushed back.
Never mind the wait (and waste of time). After I boarded, I asked for a copy of the papers as I had been starved of local news since I had been away for a couple of days. The stewardess brought me a copy all right, a two-day old copy. I was flabbergasted, and pointed this out. "Excuse me, but I'd would like today's," said I.
"Sorry sir", she said, and off she went to search for a current copy. She returned with a big smile on her face, and gave me a copy of Today, another local newspaper, but not what I wanted. "Hi," said I, "but do you have a copy of today's Straits Times?"
"Oh, sorry sir, I thought you wanted Today," she said, and off she went again. This time, I spied success as she came back. "Sorry sir, we ran out of today's papers, but here's a copy of the Business Times," smiling broadly to head off my rising displeasure. "Okay," said I, about to accept it, when again I spotted the date, and pointed out to her, "but this is dated two days back."
"Oh, oh, sorry sir," she look puzzled. My question: don't they check the publication date before handing the stuff over? Or were they too hasty to please?
Never mind that. Meal time came round, and I was all set up to receive mine. "Would you like the pork with rice, or the fish with pasta, sir?" she inquired. "Pork with rice, please," said I, relishing the thought of some nice hot food.
Rummaging through her cart for about a couple of minutes, she whispered to her co-server if they still had the pork with rice. "No" came the answer. Sheepishly, she turned to me: "Sorry sir, we ran out of the pork with rice. The fish with pasta is actually quite good! Or how about some beef with potatoes?" she offered.
"No thanks; how about a vegetarian main?" I asked. "Let me check," she replied. A minute later, I heard the words I kind of expected: "Sorry sir, we don't have any more vegetarian meals."
I resigned myself to having my meal without the main course, and asked if she could supply me with some biscuits instead. Job done, I quietly finished my meal and settled down to my book.
"Excuse sir," another voice whispered near my ear, "I managed to find some duck with noodles from the other classes. Would you want it?"
I turned to see another helpful, smiling stewardess hovering at my side, hoping to make amends. "No thanks," said I, having already had my fill of biscuits.
Surprisingly, I wasn't the only disgruntled customer. Earlier, another stewardess spilled the contents of a paper bag on someone across the aisle as she struggled to pack the cabins above him. Luckily, it was mostly tidbits that fell on his head.
And not too long after, yet another passenger was disgruntled to find that he had been given the beef with potatoes meal, even though he had indicated he didn't want the beef. "So sorry sir", came the trained response.
This experience has shown that with success comes a great responsibility to deliver what you promise, and that the standards one sets can only go up, not down. Unfortunately, when the lapses appear, the decline in service standard becomes glaring, and turns into a blemish.
