Herman School of Business
I showed up...they didn't...
If you read the blog posting from Tuesday you will remember that it spoke about snowflakes and flexibility. I talked about leaving a day early so that I would honor my commitment to speak in Texas.
Here is a side note about customer service. I bought a cheap ticket for less than one hundred dollars to get to Dallas over a month ago. By changing the ticket I should have also had to absorb almost a three hundred dollar extra charge for a last minute ticket. Southwest Airlines understood why I was making the change and they allowed all changes over this two day period to be made…with no surcharge! That’s what builds customer loyalty.
My flight took off on time on Tuesday night…but was late getting into Oklahoma City where we were discharging and taking on more passengers. The ice storm was very bad there and after about an hour delay we were “de-iced” and headed for Dallas. Dallas was an ice rink. Not just the airport, the entire city was coated with ice.
The ice had been building all day and in fact Texas Christian University was closed on Tuesday. Uh Oh. Not to worry said my contact…he could never remember them being closed two days in a row. Being from Baltimore ice and snow are a reality and I have driven in it for almost 45 years. It seemed like the amount of experience people on the road in Dallas had was about 45 minutes. They have no idea how to drive in those conditions. Creeping along, almost stopping and starting, braking and turning at the wrong times…and flashing those blinkers seemed like they were just saying… “Here I am, come and hit me!”
Ice forms first on bridges and overpasses. Where I live ten year olds know that. In Dallas each driver finds out the hard way…by rolling up on a bridge at a steady speed and then trying to brake to keep from hitting the creeping-flashing-blinker car crawling down the other side of the bridge. Or, when they decide to change three lanes to get off the freeway, with their windows and mirrors coated with ice so they can’t see you coming just before you hit them.
Anyway…sometime after midnight I hit the pillows at the Holiday Inn…and woke up to a cartoon like show on the morning local news. Constant footage, some live, of cars and trucks crashing into each other as news crews stood on the side of the highway and predicted the next accident to happen.
School was canceled for the second day in a row.
What’s worse than giving a free speech where you even pay your own expenses and throw in free books? What’s worse is doing all of that and not even giving the speech at all!
We will try to re-book an event for March, when I will try Texas again for the Small Business Development Conference. I should have set up a little driving clinic to cover my wasted money on this trip.
- Posted: 29 January 2009
- Comments: 0
- Category: Business failure
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