No Soup For You: Edinburgh Airport's Call Center Ban

In a famous episode of Seinfeld, “The Soup Nazi,” an energetic chef prohibits customers from returning to his soup stand if they order incorrectly or otherwise misbehave. George has his order canceled after asking for bread with his soup. Elaine receives a one-year ban for putting her hands on the counter, expressing her distaste for Lima Bean soup, and comparing the chef to Al Pacino. Kramer is the only one who ends up in the inner circle of the Soup Chef, telling him, “You demand perfection from yourself and your soup!”

To which the Soup Chef responds, “How could I tolerate any less from my customers?”

In a fashion eerily similar to this, Edinburgh Airport recently cut off all access to its customer call center after callers were acting in a less than desirable manner. The issue began around the first weekend of July when a large percentage of bags went missing upon their travelers’ arrival at the airport. Naturally, the empty-handed passengers called the airport, where they thought their bags would show up once the plane landed, to see what had happened.

Unfortunately, what the passengers did not know is that they should be calling the handling agents that deal with the maneuvering of bags from place to place:  Swissport, Menzies, and WFS. Without this information, they continued to call (and subsequently, verbally assault) employees of the Edinburgh airport. 

This led to two things happening:

1. The airport got a sudden influx of calls they were unprepared for.
2. The airport customer service agents were unable to solve the issues, leading to hostile conversations between angry travelers and helpless agents.

In an effort to protect their employees from the misplaced rage, the Edinburgh Airport has temporarily cut off all call-based customer support. In other words, no soup for the disgruntled travelers.

No one should be verbally assaulted at work and there is no excuse for such transgressions. However, irrationally angry customers are not always angry irrationally. All of these customers are missing precious cargo, one traveler stating, “It’s really upsetting because I’ve got personal, family stuff in the bag that I can’t replace.” (BBC) By cutting off contact with customers like this and calling them “rude,” the airport is neglecting to acknowledge the broken process that is leading to this perceived rudeness. If instead the airport began willingly taking calls and listening to customers, they could receive valuable feedback that could help them (and their baggage agent partners) improve.

To alleviate even more call-center-stress, the Edinburgh airport could proactively message their customers. This way calls would be redirected to the intended parties, not the innocent airport. There are three ways to do this:

1. Implement an automated phone service: When Customers call the Edinburgh airport, supply a message regarding who is responsible for lost baggage and how to be transferred to that number.
2. Post clear information on the website: By providing step-by-step instructions on the website about what to do when a bag goes missing, it becomes much easier to direct travelers to this information via phone call, email, or even in person.
3. Call the passengers first: Before the passengers have a chance to call the airport, have a representative (or even a bot) call them. Focus on flights with large numbers of missing bags and inform them that the airport knows there is an issue, they are taking specific steps to fix it, and the timeline for a resolution.

A spokesperson for the Edinburgh airport stated, “We’re doing what we can to support [the passengers] in this.” (BBC) These efforts are wonderful, but they are not customer-facing. The Soup Chef from Seinfeld worked hours to create a perfect soup, but none of the customers knew that. All they saw was the unassuming stand with an angry chef. The airport baggage service may be working hard to achieve perfection, but the customers are not going to automatically see that when their items go missing. By sharing more with your customers and being proactive in alleviating stress, you can prevent your call center agents from getting verbally abused and, as a result, run a more effective business.