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When Lily* retired as a ticket agent from a major U.S. airlines after 19 years of service, the airlines lost one of it's most important assets. When it came to passenger service, Lily received more "rose" letters from appreciative passengers than any other airlines employee in the entire north east corridor.
Throughout the years she dealt with lots of celebrities including Ivana Trump and Joan Rivers . On one of those occassions she found herself with a very unhappy Joan Rivers. Ms. Rivers was flying Qantas first class to Australia and had just been told by Lily that she would have to pay $100 for the third bag she wanted to check.
Joan Rivers started ranting. Now, the policy was explicit -- the fee for a third piece of luggage --first class or no first class was $100.
If you were in Lily's situation and facing a very unhappy Joan Rivers, what would you have done?
- Smile nicely, reach out your hand and ask Ms. Rivers for her American Express card.
- Decide she's a celebrity with a big mouth and waive the charge.
- Offer to call Qantas and see if they would be willing to waive the charge.
If you picked 3, you think like Lily. As Ms. Rivers listened to the one-sided phone conversation, Lily pleaded her case. After the initial response was a big fat no, Lily double checked saying, " Are you sure the $100 fee is worth having Ms. Rivers roast you in her comedy routine?"
Lily hung up the phone, smiled, and informed Ms. Rivers she would have to pay the $100. Instead of ranting, Ms. Rivers handed over her credit card and thanked Lily profusely.
She then insisted that Lily accept an evil eye bracelet from her costume jewelry collection.
This created an ethical dilemma for Lily because the airlines forbid ticket agents from accepting gifts from customers.
But Lily took the bracelet for a couple of reasons. First, it in no way influenced the outcome of the situation--Ms. Rivers paid the $100.
Second,Lily knew it had no real value -- it's costume jewelry(currently selling on eBay for $12.99).
Third, it was a gift from Joan Rivers.
But what makes Lily special is not that she went the extra mile for Joan Rivers, Lily went the extra mile for all customers.
When a customer approached her and asked her to give him a gate pass because he had left his Bose headphones in the seat back pocket, Lily had to inform him that the plane was already locked up and ready to leave.
He asked her what were the chances of the headsets being recovered.
Lily informed him that the chances of it being turned in were slim to none because either the cleaning crew r a passenger might help themselves to the left behinds.
But Lily didn't stop there. She found out what gate the plane was scheduled to land, and then she called the gate agent. She explained the situation and asked the agent to please check the seat pocket where the passenger had been sitting and then she gave the gate agent the passenger's email.
Several weeks later the passenger returned and said, " Lily I could kiss you. They returned my Bose headset." He handed her his business card and asked her to go to dinner and send him the bill.
About a month later the passenger returned and asked why Lily had not sent him a dinner bill. Lily explained she was just doing her job and wouldn't be sending him a bill.
Lily-- who is my cousin-- was sharing these stories while we were waiting for our breakfast at Keys Cafe in Minneapolis. We had opted to sit outside despite the 50 degree weather. When we sat down the sun was shining and there was a twenty minute wait if we wanted inside seating.
However after 3o minutes we had not been served. Our server came over and apologized for the slow service. After 45 minutes and no food, the sun was no longer hitting our table and we asked if there was anyway we could be seated inside because it was beginning to feel very nippy.
The waitress came out and said we could not be seated inside.
At 70 minutes into the brunch our food was finally delivered and the waitress informed us that because of the long wait the manager was treating us to breakfast.
Now we would have been charmed if they took 20% off
