A Little Compliment Goes A Long Way (In Fact, All The Way To Hawaii And Back)

Have you noticed that we spend a lot of time grumbling? Or maybe that’s just me! You know what I mean… we only ever contact customer services when we want to complain. Well, the other week when I got back from Hawaii I decided to email Continental Airlines to tell them how awesome the vegan ‘sandwich’ was. I say ‘sandwich’ as it was like a veggie burger - they just call it a sandwich. I don’t think I mentioned at the time but usually I get given rice on flights when I request a vegan meal and I really hate rice. Worst food ever. I have gotten to the point where whenever I have a flight my first thought is ‘Oh great, I’m gonna get rice!’ (sarcastically). I just don’t like rice. The fact that it looks like dead maggots does not help. So anyway, I was shocked and amazed that on two of my five flights to and from Hawaii (two going there, three coming back) I was given what was like a veggie burger. It was amazing! In fact the one on the LA - NJ flight even had vegan cheese on top! Holy vegan macaroni! And wow, it tasted good! I was in heaven (well, up in the clouds anyway). I was so amazed that on the way there I actually made note of the brand that made the vegan sandwich with the aim of hoping to go and check the website out when I came back home (although as it happened I think I forgot and lost the paper).

So a week or two later I was reading the vegan message boards I check out once in a while and found a thread about aeroplane food. It made me think back to how awesome those two meals were. I then googled and discovered that someone else had actually taken a pic of the vegan sandwich with all the ingredients listed. I decided I was going to email Continental Airlines and tell them how wonderful the sandwich/burgers were - and how I hope they will keep serving these, as I really loved them and it was great to actually have something nice to eat - rather than having to resort to one of my many packets of crisps stuffed in my bag. I did also suggest they give vegans crisps as well, as the meat eaters on the plane got crisps while us vegans got an apple! I quite like crisps… actually I could live on crisps forever and be content (albeit fat).

Today I just received a reply, and it made me go ‘aww’ because obviously they don’t appear to get too many happy compliments… Here’s what the customer service manager wrote:


‘Thank you for contacting Continental Airlines.

I enjoyed reading your comments about the vegan meals you received when you traveled to Hawaii.

One of Continental’s primary goals is to have the highest standards of excellence exemplified through our service and employees. In the service industry, nothing is more important than the impression we make with our customers. 

It is unusual when people take time to write about something good, and I sincerely appreciate your thoughtfulness in doing so. Your comments will be shared with our Food Services management.
 
I appreciate your taking the time to add your thoughts on providing chips with the vegan meals. Feedback from our customers gives us our best indication of whether we are on target, or there is an area needing possible improvement. I added your comments to our report to Food Services.
 
We appreciate your e-mail and hope to see you on a future Continental Airlines flight.’

Needless to say, they will be seeing me again on a Continental Flight and I will pray for a vegan burger! Hm… I wonder if I could specifically request one…

Anyway, so the reply made me feel like I’d done my good deed for the day - and how it’s nice to give a compliment when you can. I feel sorry for people who work in the customer services department as obviously people DO usually only contact them to complain. So next time you enjoy something, why not spend a few minutes writing and telling them about it? Give them something to smile about or feel warm inside for. If we didn’t have these services we’d be screwed, so it’s nice to let them know that if they do something good we do appreciate it. And it’ll make YOU feel good when you know you’ve made their day too.