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When Manual Overrides Tech
January 7, 2008
During my morning rush to catch a flight, I ran into a new design at the airline counter. Seems some supervisor decided that the self-serve kiosks were too efficient, so they changed the process. Instead of transitioning from collecting your boarding pass to waiting in a group until your name is called to deliver your checked bag, you get dumped back into a line to wait single file. Now, with 10-15 people in front of me, I should have selected the ‘don’t know how to print an e-ticket from my home computer’ line. It only had a few people.
The Einstein with the airline who decided on this new process never stood in line with passengers to suffer from this obvious inefficiency. Soon we began to share our thoughts about the forced queue. You never want the road warriors sharing complaints – they get cynical very quickly. It is common historical knowledge that small countries have been invaded based on the wrath of road warriors.
One of my colleagues recently completed his certification in logistics management. I could not understand why anyone would want to be certified in logistics, until I heard about the large salaries that are available for smart people who can strategize on audience traffic patterns. Maybe I should get one of those pieces of paper and submit my resume to the airlines.
Unlike other corporate entities that are faced with the logistical challenges of managing large numbers of people, our industry has traditionally excelled in this department. If a tradeshow forced its participants to stand in long lines throughout the day, no one would ever come back. Perhaps the rest of the corporate world should take some notes from our industry on how to show some respect for paying customers who will gladly take their business somewhere else when left unsatisfied
Posted by Stephen Nold on January 7, 2008 | Comments (0)
Industries:
Associations,
AV & Technology,
Catering,
Conferences,
CVBs & Venues,
Destinations,
Destinations,
Events,
Exhibiting,
Food & Beverage,
Management Update,
Meetings,
People,
People,
People,
People,
Production Technology,
Show Management,
Site Selection,
Speakers,
Speakers & Entertainment,
Technology,
Tradeshows,
Tradeshows
