Responding to Customers During a Crisis

Southwest Airlines is my favorite airline and I'm a fairly outspoken about it. When a technology malfunction grounded around a thousand flights this past week and delayed hundreds more, it affected thousands of people flying across the country. When something this catastrophic happens, a crisis management plan is implemented. They have to get things back up and running first; not only the planes, but their website was down during a particularly good sale. As they are working on the technology side, their communications groups go to work. 

Southwest took to social media with videos explaining what was going on. One particularly informative Q&A posed questions that a lot of customers had on their minds, not just lobbed softballs for the COO. There are multiple posts giving customers information and although the comments are mixed, you can tell the loyal customers; the customers that have made Southwest Airlines the 7th most admired company in the world according to Forbes Magazine.

Let's face it, unforeseen things happen. They happen to good people and good companies, but if you communicate how things will be rectified for customers and how things will be fixed, the reputation that you've built with your company will continue to stand through thick and thin.

Work-Life Balance

Back in college, all-nighters were a regular occurrence. One time in particular, there was a party Saturday night. It was Friday night and the only thing standing between me and that party was a 20-page paper and one night do it. Of course the professor had given me more than one night to do it, and of course there was Sunday, but I made a deadline and decided I was going to do it within the 10 hours overnight at the library. With half an hour to spare, I completed the paper (and ended up with an A- on the paper).

When I joined the workforce full-time, there were a few of those overnights to meet a proposal deadline. They were a badge of honor, a physical act to show the company how dedicated I was. If I were to do that today, I'd be looked at as crazy. Pushing yourself to be better, achieving aggressive goals, competing with your co-workers to be the best.... all can be positive things if you're working towards them with an appropriate work-life balance.

Gone are the days for me where I can even function after less than 5 hours of sleep, let alone an all-nighter. Here are some things I do to maintain a decent work-life balance:
1. I have at least one vacation planned out. By the time I get back into town from vacation, I already have the next locale chosen. This allows me to always have the ability to bring happy thoughts to the forefront of my brain when I need some positivity.
2. I have dramatically cut back on when I check work email. If I'm hanging out with friends and family, the work email doesn't get checked. France is passing a law that makes checking email after hours illegal.

3. By realizing a job is just a job - it's not your entire life - is very important for me to keep in the back of my head. No one company will shut its doors because you took that two-week European vacation or took off work early to see your daughter's dance recital. Work will be there the next day and the next.
4. Find a good stress reliever. After a particularly stressful day at the office, some people use exercise or laughing with friends as a de-stresser. Me? An hour-long session of Grand Theft Auto trying to get four stars as quickly as possible.

Details Matter, Especially For Nursing Mothers

As an event planner, you try to anticipate the needs of your guests, especially when you're planning an internal meeting with people that you work with regularly. Food allergies, 1 or 2 bed preference, specific drinks... those types of things. Guests will remember the meetings if everything goes right, but the meeting will be positively memorable because of the details.

One of the guests at a meeting I produced in January was a nursing mother. (Side bar here: I am a mother myself, but I did not have the ability to nurse my son and consequently don't really know anything that a nursing mother may need.) She had to check out of her room and come to the meeting, but needed a way to keep her breast milk cold for the remainder of the day, which included the plane ride home. Gary Bruckner, Event Guru at Walt Disney World Swan Resort in Florida, came up with a solution stat: instant ice packs that become cold when you want them too. Gary's very quick thinking gave the guest an immediate viable solution and removed that worry for her.

Although you can't anticipate everything, after reading this anecdote, you'll think of this solution when a nursing guest comes to you for help in the future. Kudos to Gary for the great idea!