Yesterday I heard a report that the names of two terminals at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport may be changed from Humphrey and Lindbergh to “One” and “Two.” The airport commission met to decide the issue. Commission members are held back from the name change by the estimated 2.2 million dollar cost to change signs both inside and outside the airport. At the end of the report, the reporter said, “People don’t understand these terminals because more signs are needed.”
“Wait a minute!” I thought. “They are changing the name of the terminals and spending over two million dollars in new signs because they need more signs?”
Checking out the story more thoroughly online, I discovered that the commission is reacting to complaints from those unable to find their flight. Some people have missed their flights due to the situation. This happens because the two terminals are three miles apart off different exits and have no road connecting them. If a person goes to the wrong terminal, finding the other one means retracing the route back to the highway and taking another exit.
The signs indicating the terminals do not list which airlines fly out of each one. Airlines switch terminals, too. If one’s last flight on Midwest left from the Humphrey terminal, today Midwest flights leave from the Lindbergh terminal. Without a listing, how would a traveler know that?
Not surprisingly, travelers have complained. In one week 600 travelers complained at the information booths around the airport. Travelers have also gone online and registered their complaints. As we all know, those with complaints get our attention. We tend to react to their complaints, often without checking out precisely the size of the problem and without thinking through the problem from the customer’s point of view. Since some complaints have voiced that the names “Lindbergh” and “Humphrey” are meaningless to them, the commission apparently feels that the names of the terminals are not memorable and, therefore, a great deal of the problem.
From what I read online, I suspect that the names of the terminals are not the problem. The problem is not knowing which airlines board at which terminal. I don’t think any traveler cares about the name of a terminal. He or she just wants to board on time. Thus, rather than changing the names of the terminals, the commission could solve the problem by listing the major airlines that board at each terminal. Doing so would make choosing the exit much easier, which would dramatically decrease the number of people going to the wrong terminal.
Incidentally, the new names of terminal one and terminal two will be for highway exit purposes only. In actuality, the terminals will still retain their historic names.
Huh? That sounds like more confusion will ensue.
To solve a customer’s complaint, you must get to the problem. Often, the problem is not what the customer voices. Those who voiced that they couldn’t remember the terminals were merely blaming the names because the names weren‘t “relevant.” I question that terminal one and terminal two would have any relevance, either. In fact, I can image myself getting to the exit and thinking, “Was that terminal one? I think so. Wait a minute, maybe it was terminal two…”
The real problem is behind what the customer voices. In order to discover the real problem, you must ask the customer questions. Don’t ask the customer what he or she thinks is the problem; find out what the customer wanted that he or she did not get. That information will point to the problem and, then, the solution.
Are you asking customers questions to discover the problems indicated by their complaints?
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