London Underground: tube theatre

Another day of commuting, another day of misery on the District Line… however this blog is about celebrating superior service whenever it occurs and whilst my overall customer experience on the homeward journey tonight was less-than-superior due to a “customer incident” at Baron’s Court causing the usual delays and confusion, the attitude of the tube driver on my train made – if not exactly superior – it a bit more bearable.

When I got on the train a morose-sounding driver announced the reason for the delay and the likelihood of the train’s destination being changed at Earl’s Court. Nonetheless, he said, we should join the train and await further announcements. The effect of this rather miserable delivery was quite surprising: people chuckled and said things like “someone’s happy” to each other. As we progressed, slowly, towards Earl’s Court, the driver’s tone and language became more exaggerated at each stop, culminating with something along the lines of “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, this train will be travelling to… (long dramatic pause) Ealing Broadway!”

It’s good practice in customer service not to blame your organisation but, in this case, adopting a we’re-all-in-this-together tone of resignation seemed to hit the spot. And the fact that the driver was warming to his role as time went on, upped the level of entertainment as well as demonstrating a sense of empathy (which is good practice).

This story is both a superior and less-than-superior example but it does illustrate the fact that very often customer service representatives are playing a role, in front of an audience of paying customers, and so it helps – particularly when circumstances conspires against you – to play it with some gusto.

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