Descriptive Reflection on an Interpersonal Communication Issue
This situation happened during the December peak period which meant that a lot of people are travelling during this peak season. As such, there is a need for airlines to require passengers to turn up 3 hours earlier for check in instead of 2 hours during normal seasons. This incident also occured due to two low cost carriers that were merging into one airline during this crucial period of time. However, the number of check in counters were not increased despite both airlines having multiple flights during the same timeframe. To add on to this situation, there were a few flights to the same destinations at different timings causing mass confusion among the passengers.
Therefore, the queues for check-in were so long that it was snaking all the way to the kerbside of the drop off doors. This terrible queue situation led to many angry passengers who were worried that they will end up missing their flights. I was quickly deployed down to manage the crowd as they were beginning to obstruct the path for other passengers. During this situation, one of the passenger called me over to get a better understanding of the situation. However, she was extremely frustrated and was shouting at me demanding that I do something to rectify the situation. She was insisting to be checked in first and this led to other passengers arguing with her as well.
To my dear readers, if you were in my position, what would you have done to handle this difficult situation?
Best regards,
Natasha
Hi Natasha!
ReplyDeleteI felt so sorry on how you get scolded despite not being your fault. You must be in a very difficult position at that point in time. I believe there is a standard of operation for the employee to obey when they are deployed down for crowd control. For me, I will not compromise by letting the passenger check-in first because there are similar passengers like her. If I am not able to resolve the conflict between her and the rest, I will seek help from the senior management as they are more experienced in such a scenario. However, I will try to stop any arguments as it is part of my responsibility to ensure a pleasant experience in Changi Airport for all the passengers.
Regards,
Xenia
Hi Natasha!
DeleteI felt so sorry on how you get scolded despite not being your fault. You must be in a very difficult position at that point in time. I believe there is a standard of operation for the employee to obey when they are deployed down for crowd control. For me, I will not compromise by letting the passenger check-in first because there are similar passengers like her. If I am not able to resolve the conflict between her and the rest, I will seek help from the senior management as they are more experienced in such a scenario. However, I will try to stop any arguments as it is part of my responsibility to ensure a pleasant experience in Changi Airport for all the passengers.
I am looking forward to knowing how you handled and resolve this incident.
Regards,
Xenia
Dear Natasha
ReplyDeleteI feel sorry for you and understand that at the point of time, you must be feeling exasperated from all the fuss and to have met with an angry passenger adds on to your stress. It is definitely a really difficult position for you and I believe that it takes a lot to stay collected and remain professional. If I was placed in your position, I would definitely feel really stressful and panicky with an angry passenger.
However, there are ways to handle such situation when it arises. According the Thomas-Kilmann conflict assessment, in your situation, you would need to balance between assertiveness and cooperativeness. As you would have to safeguard the rest of the passengers interest and the angry passenger's interest. Out of the five conflict management modes, it would be most suitable to use the compromising mode where you partially satisfies the angry passenger's concern. While using the compromising mode, you would require both thought and feeling empathy as it would help the angry passenger to ease her anger to a certain extent instead of adding oil to fire. The above mentioned techniques would be essential when you try to handle the situation. You have to really take note of your tone and language so that you would not add on to the situation.
As for what you can offer to the angry passenger is to allow her to know the alternative of self-check-in service. At the same time, let her know you understand her frustration. Most importantly, keeping your stand firm on the situation as you need to be fair to other passengers. If really could not be appeased, approach your supervisor or manager for assistants.
It is a really difficult situation to handle but I believe it would definitely help you gain experience in the future if the situation were to arise again. Thank you for reading this comment. I look forward to hearing from you how you handled the situation.
Warmest Regards
Jeaine
Dear Natasha,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your experience with us. Cheryl and I understand how frustrating it must have been during such a stressful and challenging situation.
We would suggest using the DRB framework in resolving this issue. This framework suggests defusing the angry passenger's anger by addressing her concerns and showing empathy towards what she is experiencing. Next, you can explore possible solutions such as deploying more manpower at every check-in counter, if possible, to facilitate the speed of check-in. Additionally, using "I" statements such as "I understand your concerns, and we are trying our best to attend to everyone" might help ease the situation.
We hope you find our suggestion useful (:
Cheers,
Cheryl and Laura
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDear Natasha,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this interesting (east-to-imagine) scenario. In it you give clear, relevant details in terms of the problem issue. I appreciate the feedback you've received, too, and how Jeaine mentioned the Thomas-Kilmann instrument and how the last peer team connected your experience to the DRB techniques in terms of how you might have defused the toxic situation and apologized even more convincingly. We're only missing your final follow up to the discussion as the last step for learning here.
Cheers,
Brad