Stay Classy Gogo
In the tech field whether you’re offering a customized software solution or access to the internet at 10,000 feet above the ground, what you’re actually selling is much more than a product. You’re selling a service.
Service as defined by dictionary.com is, “an act of helpful activity.”
There can sometimes be discontinuity between the fact of what was delivered and the feeling of what was received. One must always ask themselves, “Was the service provided helpful?”
Well in the case of inflight internet “service” provided to our CEO Mike by www.gogoair.com last week, the fact was fulfilled…barely. He got online. But the service was terrible and I’m not just talking connectivity.
Our fearless leader is often traveling and we were hoping despite his flight that he would be able to join our weekly team meeting. And GoGo Inflight got him online but the connectivity was so choppy that we had to resort to gathering his input through instant messaging.
But that’s not even what bothers me the most.
For a company that touts great, sassy website content like, “Fly classy” and “Gogo keeps you connected even with your head in the clouds”, the response we received to his complaint was:
Thank you for contacting Gogo.
We are sorry to hear that you were unhappy with your recent Gogo experience.
Like any connection to the Internet, the speed of Gogo can vary. Gogo will allow you to surf all over the Internet, but media-rich content may be slow or unavailable depending on how many people are using Gogo, bandwidth consumption, device, atmospheric conditions, terrain, network capacity, and aircraft locations.
It is important to know that, in general, streaming full length television or movies (NetFlix, Hulu, etc.) or other audio/video streaming is not supported, as is noted in our FAQ and Terms of Use.
For immediate assistance when you are having an issue with Gogo, please contact us via Live Chat by clicking https://custhelp.gogoinflight.com while you’re in the air or on the ground. We can also be reached 24/7 at 877-350-0038.
Fly classy,
Your Friends at Gogo Customer Care
Part of the problem is the website sets you up for really high expectations like, “The Gogo experience is best compared to mobile broadband service on the ground — except with a whole lot more altitude.”
What’s delivered underwhelms.
Then their response adds insult to injury by blaming other customers, the device, aircraft and terrain for eating up all the bandwidth. After which they direct the disgruntled customer to visit the greatly buried FAQ and Terms page. But at least they got back their sass with the signature line encouraging the customer to “fly classy”. Something that would be a whole lot easier to do with reliable internet.
Given the number of business travel happening daily, I anticipate this issue will come up more often.
My recommendation for how Gogo could have better handled this complaint would be to note that it is indeed a problem. Don’t blame others for eating up the bandwidth. Don’t legalize things by reminding someone of the terms of their agreement. Nobody is suing you Gogo. Just acknowledge there’s a problem and assure the customer that you’re looking to resolve it. Listen to them. Give them the feeling of having been heard. Or even better, actually listen.
That’s going to go further at getting repeatable business then sticking to your guns and placing blame on why the experience wasn’t stellar.
Stay classy or don’t Gogo, it’s up to you. Just like using your service again is up to us.