How Lufthansa won a lifetime customer

Rotation

In an era when stories about airline service tend to be negative, it is nice to hear a story of exceptional service, and even more interesting when we know the person personally. A colleague of ours in Europe, who will remain nameless for privacy, recently had a health emergency when flying on Lufthansa.

She was traveling in business class from Italy to the United States, on a Wednesday morning, with a connection in Frankfurt. But she became seriously ill between flights while at Frankfurt Airport. With severe pains from a kidney issue, she ended up laying down across several seats in the gate area.  The Lufthansa gate agent came by to offer assistance.

Quickly determining that the issue was serious, the Lufthansa gate agent called the staff doctor at the airport, who deemed her condition too serious to travel. The traveler was taken to Frankfurt’s airport hospital facilities that are typically used exclusively by airport and airline staff. There the traveler was given treatment for several days to stabilize her condition and return her to better health.

Of course, in the process, her luggage went to the US, so Lufthansa provided the essentials necessary until her bags returned to Germany. The level of service and concern for her as a passenger was exceptional and exceeded her expectations.

After sufficient recovery to travel, she returned to Italy on Saturday via Lufthansa, who sent a representative to not only accompany her on the flight itself, but to accompany her all the way to her home to ensure her safe arrival.

This level of service and attention is above and beyond what anyone would expect from an airline.  Our colleague indicates that she will now only fly on Lufthansa, and our project manager in Europe has now designated Lufthansa as the preferred carrier for our assignment.  The quality of service typically differentiates itself when things go wrong, rather than when things are routine.  Lufthansa helped our colleague through a difficult situation with flying colors.

About the author, AirInsight:

AirInsightAirInsight helps clients make better strategic decisions, achieve market leadership and improve company value through disciplined analysis filtered through the perspective of industry experts.

Its innovative strategies and market intelligence have provided sustainable strategic advantage for our clients, and we look forward to helping you. It blends the capabilities and resources of large firms with the personal attention possible only with a smaller organization.

AirInsight is a boutique consulting group run by Ernie Arvai and Addison Schonland. © 2013, Ernest S. Arvai. All rights reserved.