Unhappy landing in the customer journey
Reflecting on the recent high profile turbulence at the end of a JetBlue flight to New York, Colin Horgan in the Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/aug/12/steven-slater-rebel-dehumanising-service-society
observes that the ‘confrontation is symptomatic of a culture hooked into a service society where we all take part, acting out a kind of institutionalised intimacy where real relationships don't exist’.
Drawing on the work of the cultural theorist, JeanBaudrillard, Horgan points out that ‘The faux hospitality that we receive in a number of places every day is itself a system of production’, and, quoting Baudrillard, ‘’”as a system of production, it cannot but obey the same laws as those of the mode of production of material goods." Consequently, the human interactions which are part of this process of production and consumption ‘become just another throwaway item in a long line of consumer detritus. In effect, we are dehumanised while fulfilling a role that purports to enhance a personal experience’ Unfortunately, when this system of faux relationships breaks down, there is room for anger, which is what certainly happened in the moment of truth between Steven Slater, the service provider, and the passenger.
Horgan points out that the notion – or myth? – of consumer supremacy (‘The Customer is Always Right’) can only work if the customer is an active part of the process, i.e. there has to be a modicum of collaboration on the part of the consumer. This is, of course, essential in the kind of service relationship in an language teaching organization (LTO) , not least in the classroom.
If the customer’s ego isn't being stroked, if they aren’t the centre of attention, then the customer can feel rejected by the very social structure which has up till then supported the faux relationship between provider and consumer. So, says Horgan, ‘Effectively, Slater's angry JetBlue passenger was suddenly aware that the customer is not always right, and that she wasn't getting everything she thought she'd paid for: the consumer industry's ultimate insult’.
Ultimately, suggests Horgan, we need to remember where we fit into the scheme of synthetically produced relationships that are at the heart of service industries.
There’s quite a lot of food for thought here. What LTOs provide is a mix of education and service with a built in tension between the two, and in the quite different relationships involved in each. For instance, teachers occupy a gate keeping role to a student, which sits uncomfortably with the role of service provider role to a consumer. The ambiguity in these roles is potentially confusing to the student/consumer, particularly as the boundaries of each are likely to be ambiguous, and further confused by culturally based expectations.
