First things first, to all of you potential 2013s who got the call from Don recently I hope to see you during admit weekend. Coming to LGO is a very complex decision and I urge you to reach out to current students, alumni, faculty, or anyone else to get all of your questions answered. I speak for everyone when I say we are all happy to help.
Now I want to talk about how organizations respond to problems.
My wife Kerin, son Sean and I took a trip to Dallas recently and, as would be expected anytime you leave the house, we encountered some trouble. It started with the subway trip from our place in Davis Square to the airport. MIT provides subsidized unlimited transit passes for students making it very cost effective to get around. The morning we left for the airport I tried the pass that I had been using for the past few months only to find out it had stopped working. We were in a rush to get to the airport so I just paid the fare and planned to deal with it when we got back. When we landed in Dallas we collected our checked bag from the conveyor and found it had been damaged and no longer stood up by itself. Most if not all airlines have a policy that they aren’t responsible for any damage to bags so we carried it to the rental car and headed to the hotel. On our flight home the same airline sent Sean’s car seat to Pittsburgh instead of Boston. And finally my subway pass still wasn’t working when I tried it on the way home.
None of these problems were major and we were able to resolve them in some fashion without much monetary damage or frustration (Kerin might disagree about my level of frustration) but every time I talked to a customer service type person I got a similar story. “We’re sorry, these things happen.” I’m sure this is true but it left me thinking about a response I would have been happier with. I know that all systems have problems and I understand statistics. Sometimes it’s my turn to be the unlucky one that gets to deal with a defect. What would make it better from my perspective is some sort of information about how the company is responding to the type of problem. I’d like to know if they are working on it. How many bags have been damaged this year? How does that compare to last year? How common is it for subway passes to stop working? Is anyone actively trying to fix it? I think if I knew what kind of response a company was taking to reduce the likelihood of me or anyone else experiencing a similar problem in the future I would be happier. I also think if I was a customer service agent who had to deal with a dissatisfied customer having that kind of information could be helpful. Maybe the information takes the form of a pamphlet or newsletter or something available at the time of the problem. Everyone hates that helpless feeling of being the unlucky guy or gal who has to deal with a process that didn’t work. Maybe it would be a little easier to swallow if you knew someone was doing something to keep it from happening next time.
