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I'm fascinated, watching two very different patterns. The one, the
airline industry, is a huge macro event. The other, eBay, is a micro
event. But both trends seem to me to demonstrate what's fundamentally
wrong with today's business managers.
With eBay, and actually, all over the Web, it seems, we're encountering
more and more pages (ads, sellers) that are taking advantage of the
current fuel pricing to jack up their prices. "Due to the increases in
postage rates (read: fuel), we're gonna raise our postage a
million-bazillion dollars." ........or words to that effect.
The airline companies have decided that "due to the price of fuel,"
we're gonna now charge you for everything we possibly can charge, and
justify it all by saying it makes the plane lighter. Oh....really?
When we first started flying, we paid a ticket price. If we had more
than 1 bag to be checked, we paid for that extra weight. The airlines
"assumed" there'd be the passenger weight, 1 bag, and some carry-on
luggage. When people started taking advantage of the carryon speed, the
companies put a template together. If your bag didn't fit into the
template, it had to be checked.
First of all; how come everyone wanted carryon bags? Because the time
and delays, along with lost luggage problems were so cumbersome people
did everything they could to avoid having to go to baggage claim. But
that's a different problem.
The key problem is that the price of the ticket should include ALL fuel
costs, and taxes, fees, runway access, and so forth. I'm not
*interested* in what all the company has to go through. All I want is
to pay a price, get a ticket, and get somewhere.
What I'm seeing is that operations have become so overbearingly
important to the brainstems running these companies, that it seems as
if everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. "Customers? What customers?
There'll ALWAYS be customers, no matter how bad my services are or how
high my prices may be."
Waddya think? Am I wrong? Should we start charging for every electron a
visitor is using when they access our Web site? How about charging for
the electricity it takes us when we have to process their order? That's
a fuel cost, right?
Or better yet; why not charge for the inconvenience of having to turn on
the computer, check the orders, then go through all the aggravation of
entering the money and sending off the item? Why not charge for each
bank deposit slip, since that's part of the rising costs of
fuel---going to the bank?
From what I'm seeing, fewer and fewer people---that would be
"customers" in ordinary language---are excited about flying ANYwhere!
What with the insanity of modern-day paranoia at the gates, inane
security concepts, and this added craziness of charging for whatever
they can get away with, flying has become even more miserable an
experience than taking a Grayhound bus!
I remember griping to my father, back when I took a job at
VideoConcepts, a division of Radio Shack. I was selling electronics,
and dealing with corporate processes. I told him that, as far as I
could tell, the lowest of all lowly peasants in the company were the
salespeople.
"You're wrong," he said! "There's someone a whole lot lower than you and the other salespeople!"
"Who?" I asked, running through the database of everyone involved with the company.
"The Customer!"  Oh yah....I forgot.
Are you seeing this? Do you notice the number of sellers who are so
lost in the delusion that customers "just happen, somehow," that they
make the shopping experience about as pleasant as jamming a pencil in
your eye?
Edited by: CraigL - Jul. 04 2008 at 3:32 AMCraig Landes
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Defining the undefinable. "There are 10 kinds of people in the world---those who understand binary numbers and those who don't." - Unknown
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Success = Passion, Patience, Persistence!
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Nice commentary CraigL. I'm not going to pretend I'm very educated on the airline business but I've tried to pay attention. I'm curious as to how this will all pan out. Will ALL the airlines jump in on the extra charges ? or have they already ? Will carriers that DON'T charge extra for everything possible, realize they are getting more customers ? In the past, whenever an airline raised it's prices, it never lasted too long because most of their competitors wouldn't raise theirs.
Or if the cost of fuel really is nearly bankrupting some airlines, why don't they just put a 'fuel surcharge' on their tickets ? Do they really think people are so stupid that they can't figure out that charging $ 20/bag is just adding to their travel costs ? Are people so focused on the ticket price they forget to price in the extra charges ? And have the airlines REALLY never been profitable ? So many questions...so little time.
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