Why I Don’t Sit Next To Babies

Maybe you’ve seen the commercial of the woman rocking a crying baby until he falls asleep. The camera pans back and you realize it is a West Jet Flight Attendant, helping out a distressed mother on a flight. West Jet claims that they “care more” about their guests. Normally commercials and ads about “great service” don’t mean much to me – I expect great service, as I’m sure you do too. But West Jet does indeed go above and beyond.

My wife was asked to speak at a Christian conference. She took our then infant daughter along for the trip. On the West Jet flight from Toronto to Calgary she was seated at the window with a man next to her. Kacey bounced along happily on her lap, giggling and satisfied for the first hour of the trip. Then, without warning, she began to throw up all over the man next to my wife. Kim’s initial reaction was to turn Kacey away from the man and towards herself – this resulted in Kim catching the second wave of heaves from Kacey. Apparently it was disgusting; and in mere moments they were both covered in mushy baby goo.

Neither of them moved – they just exchanged looks of horror. Kacey started to cry and the man seated on the aisle reached one finger up and “ding” – called for the flight attendants. A female flight attendant came to the scene – took one look and the whole crew sprung into action. One woman took our baby and our diaper bag. She cleaned Kacey up completely and changed her. She swaddled her in a blanket and held her while everyone else worked to clean up my wife and the poor unlucky soul next to her. One flight attendant went into her own personal bag and used her toiletries to help Kim smell better than strained peas. In every sense of the word, the West Jet staff went ABOVE what one might have expected as great service. They were phenomenal.

Don’t just give your customers great service. Go above any expectations. This isn’t just marketing, rah-rah hype. It does make a difference that people will remember.