About the people who serve us

A New York voice boomed from the back of the long car rental line: “Wha’d they do, lay off half the people?”

One of my thoughts no doubt shared by fellow detainees waiting, waiting at the big-name car rental office at a Florida airport. Behind the desk flashed a screen informing us of the company’s very high ratings for customer service. I was not the only one smirking.

The problem was not the quality of the employees behind the desk. They performed nobly under strain, all two of them. It turned out that one was stuck wrestling for half an hour with a glitch in a customer’s reservation.

Foul weather up north had forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights and rerouting of passengers to other airports. The customer taking up the agent’s time needed to return his car to a different airport than planned. The agent needed authorization from some higher-up, and that was requiring multiple phone calls.

Why wasn’t he empowered to do what everyone knew he’d have to do — and which he ended up doing — which was make the change? Another question: The weather event was obviously going to unleash travel chaos, so why didn’t the company put a third person behind the desk? (Perhaps she was laid off.)

Problems in service are usually the fault of the employer, not the employee. Computers attached to exotic chains of command are intended to cut costs to the bone. But should the slightest thing go wrong, the system falls apart. One could almost hear the others making mental notes to try a different car rental company next time. (I know I did.)

Meanwhile, a woman talked about spending extra hours getting out to New York because her flight was short one flight attendant. The jet was there. The pilots were there. No one could leave because they were down one flight attendant. (The same delay happened to me a few years ago, so it’s not unique.) You’d think a big airline operating out of a big airport would have an extra flight attendant in reserve.

Heaven forfend that some worker be unoccupied for 10 minutes during a slack in demand. But that’s the thinking of executives who regard workers as a mere weight on their bottom line.

“Many retailers see labor as a cost driver rather than a sales driver and therefore focus on minimizing costs,” Zeynep Ton wrote in Harvard Business Review. The article is titled “Why ‘Good Jobs’ Are Good for Retailers.”

As Ton explained, the executive needing to quickly goose profits has no easier route than to get rid of workers or add to their load. The assumption that customers don’t notice or care about lousy service is a bad one.

A classic example was Robert Nardelli at Home Depot. He cut jobs and began relying more on part-time workers — all the while arranging outlandish pay packages for himself. Wonder what that did to the stressed staffers’ motivation. Wonder how that changed the quality of employee willing to work there.

Home Depot’s stock price swooned along with its reputation for excellent service. Nardelli resigned in 2007 — with a $210 million severance package, natch.

Services requiring a live human being are best delivered by well-trained, well-paid and empowered workers. In a study of one large retailer, every $1 increase in payroll delivered up to $28 more in sales.

As for concerns that better staffing might raise prices, someone should have asked the exhausted travelers waiting in line for a car whether they’d pay an extra $10 to get one right away. There would have been a stampede.

Froma Harrop is a Providence Journal columnist.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Opinion

Washington state senators and representatives along with Governor Inslee and FTA Administrator Nuria Fernandez break ground at the Swift Orange Line on Tuesday, April 19, 2022 in Lynnwood, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Editorial: Community Transit making most of Link’s arrival

The Lynnwood light rail station will allow the transit agency to improve routes and frequency of buses.

toon
Editorial cartoons for Wednesday, March 27

A sketchy look at the news of the day.… Continue reading

An image of Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin is reflected in a storefront window during the State of the City Address on Thursday, March 21, 2024, at thee Everett Mall in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Editorial: State of city address makes case for Everett’s future

Mayor Franklin outlines challenges and responses as the city approaches significant decisions.

FILE - The massive mudslide that killed 43 people in the community of Oso, Wash., is viewed from the air on March 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Editorial: Mapping landslide risks honors those lost in Oso

Efforts continue in the state to map areas prone to landslides and prevent losses of life and property.

Burke: ‘Why not write about Biden, for once?’ Don’t mind if I do.

They asked; I’ll oblige. Let’s consider what the president has accomplished since the 2020 election.

Comment: Catherine missed chance to dispel shame of cancer

She wasn’t obligated to do so, but she might have used her diagnosis to educate a sympathetic public.

Comment: Why more Americans are ending up in ‘potter’s fields’

Just as more seniors are living alone, a million ‘kinless seniors’ are likely to die alone, mourned by no one.

Comment: AI making disinformation even harder to fight

AI makes it especially easy to target communities of color and others reliant on cell phone apps.

toon
Editorial cartoons for Tuesday, March 26

A sketchy look at the news of the day.… Continue reading

We need ‘We Are the World’ effort for today’s crises

Thank you for publishing Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker’s “For one brief… Continue reading

Is Ferguson who voters want to elect as govenor?

When I realized how damaging Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob… Continue reading

Saunders: Hearings catch Hunter benefiting from ‘Biden lift’

Republicans have failed to connect the president to his son’s crimes, but there’s no denying those.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.