How to avoid a customer-service nightmare

Bad service is everywhere.

The latest American Customer Satisfaction Index finds that airlines score a failing 64 percent. Hotels? Guests give them a gentleman’s “C” (75 percent). Ditto for car rental companies. Even though there aren’t any reliable customer service surveys, the one or two I’ve seen suggest no one is particularly happy with the way they’re treated at the counter.

Friedman, a fellow writer who lives in Hawaii, made her flight to Frankfurt, but others aren’t so lucky. Some are denied boarding, or removed from their flight, refused a hotel room or a car — all the while being treated worse than cargo.

I know. I had the misfortune of being on an international flight where the flight attendant had me in her crosshairs.

My carry-on bag was “too big” (it was regulation size) my laptop needed to go in the overhead bin, not the seat pocket, and no, I couldn’t have the whole can of sparkling water, it was against the airline’s policy. Oh boy. At some point, I felt certain the crewmember would open the cabin door and kick me off the flight.

I think she wanted to.

What do you do when you run up against a brick wall like that?

1. Don’t provoke an angry service employee

If you’re faced with someone who is unpleasant, try to avoid a confrontation. Instead, do whatever is necessary to ease the tension — even if it means agreeing with someone who is obviously wrong. CeliaSue Hecht, a media consultant in San Francisco, recently had a run-in with a hotel manager, who forced her to wait several hours for her room and didn’t seem to care. Rather than rant against the hotel employee, she wrote an email complaining about her treatment.

“This got me a complimentary stay, which I appreciated,” she told me.

2. Put yourself in their shoes

Think someone is being rude? They probably feel the same way about you, says Freeman Hall, author of the new book, “Retail Hell: Confessions of a Tortured Sales Associate” (Adams Media, 2009). “They’re pointing the blame finger at each other,” he says. “What I’ve discovered after years of waiting on customers is it’s usually — not always — a misconception that occurs when the customer and service provider first encounter each other.”

For example, the service provider says “hello” and the customer doesn’t respond. Or the customer thinks the salesperson is ignoring him or her. Many misunderstandings can be averted by simply acknowledging travel industry employees and empathizing with them just a little.