Imagine that you’re rushing for a flight. You arrive at the airport, and one of two things happens:
You get a notification on your phone that your flight is delayed — an hour, two hours even. Maybe it doesn’t give a reason why.
Same delay, but in this scenario, you get a bit more of the story behind the delay. Maybe it’s because of a minor mechanical issue that needs to be fixed, or a specific weather warning, or something else. The point is that you’re told with greater specificity why the aircraft will be late.
Would it matter to you? Would you feel better about one scenario or the other?
About five years ago, United Airlines made a bet that it would, which led to a program called Every Flight Has a Story.
Short version: When a United flight is delayed, a team of roughly 15 United Airlines employees called storytellers at United headquarters in Chicago tries to determine if they can provide passengers with a fuller explanation.
We’re talking about SMS messaging and app notifications. Here a few real-life examples:
Flight UA 5312 from San Francisco to Tucson is now estimated to depart at 01:15 pm. Your inbound aircraft is arriving late due to airport runway construction in San Francisco that limited the number of arrivals and departures for all airlines earlier. We apologize for the delay and are working to get you on your way as soon as possible.
Your flight is delayed because conditions at Puebla airport caused by volcanic ash are preventing us from departing. The safety of our crew and passengers is our priority. Thank you for your understanding as we wait for conditions to improve.
[On the day of the NBA All-Star game]: Hoops and high-fives to our All-Star passengers! Just a friendly travel assist — expect a full-court press at security lines today. Beat the buzzer by arriving early and streamline your game plan with the United App.
“The insight we believe is that no matter the situation, if you’re honest, empathetic, and transparent about what’s happening, the experience for people is better,” United Airlines chief information officer Jason Birnbaum told me this week. “It’s going to be better than if they feel like you’re withholding information or they’re getting conflicting information, or worst of all, [if they think], ‘You’re trying to tell me something, [and] it’s not true.'”
Currently, about 15 percent of delayed United flights result in a more detailed story; Birnbaum explained that as they’re rolling artificial intelligence into the process, they hope to get up to around 50 percent.
(Will customers be able to tell the difference? AI-generated messages will be reviewed and edited by humans; more to the point, two of the three messages I shared above were generated by AI: the first and the third.)
To be clear, nobody is going to be happy about a delayed flight or other travel interruption.
But, if you can avoid making a bad situation worse by providing a bit more information, would that make sense? Imagine simple things you could do along these lines in your business:
Unable to meet a customer’s order on time? Don’t just tell them it’s delayed; tell them why, and that you’re working to overcome it.
Do you have to close a retail outlet for the day? Leave notices at the location explaining why, and post on all of your social media and other internet presences, so that at least customers don’t make an unnecessary trip.
Found an error in the SaaS product you sell? Keep a public-facing running log of issues, and what you’re doing to correct them.
The whole idea is wrapped from head to toe with the idea of emotional intelligence. As I write in my free e-book, 9 Smart Habits of People With Very High Emotional Intelligence, it’s about leveraging emotions (both yours and other people’s) to make it more likely you’ll achieve your objectives.
The goal here: Happy (or at least, happier) customers, who have a slightly better experience, and who might be more likely to remain loyal.
It’s a smart idea for United Airlines, and I’ll bet it would be a smart idea in your business, too.