Overlooked: bad service/good profits

Can a business that takes its customers for granted — in some cases, even hates them — still rake in record profits? Does it deserve to? Those aren’t academic questions. They’re actually issues that this week’s events should have raised, but that haven’t.

I’m talking about the airline industry, of course. And the answer is yes and no, respectively.

On Monday, we learned that customer satisfaction had hit another three-year low.

At almost the same time, the International Air Transport Association raised its 2007 industry outlook from a net profit of $2.5 billion to $3.8 billion, despite a slowdown in the U.S. economy and a rise in oil prices back above $60 a barrel. (The forecast is interesting reading, by the way, even if you’re not an aviation insider.)

Another billion, and we’re breaking records.

Here’s the thing that’s bothering me. While there’s been plenty of reporting on the dreadful customer service grades, and plenty of coverage given to the IATA forecast, no one is connecting the dots and asking the big questions.

How can an industry that, for the most part, treats its customers like cargo, remain in business? Do they have passengers over a barrel? Do travelers enjoy being mistreated, the same way Wiener’s Circle patrons seem to like being berated by their servers?

Have airline passengers given up, after years of being ground down by unfriendly TSA agents, surly flight attendants and indifferent ticket agents?

Perhaps. But even they have, then we — what’s left of the journalists covering this industry and the bloggers who are looking over their shoulders — owe our readers more than simple “who/what/when/where/why” stories and postings on this topic.

What’s happening today is simply wrong. Airline employees know it. Now it’s time for the rest of us to connect the dots.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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