en though we’ve been telling her and telling her that company policy only allows 2 pieces or whatever will fit under her seat. What am I to do?”

I told the agent to relax and let Ms. Crow come on board with all her carry-on baggage and I’d deal with her. The agent, relieved to have her problem solved, ran back to get rid of Ms. Crow.

However, by the time Sheryl Crow came storming on board, she too was in quite a snit – with good reason, however; don’t forget she’d just been through a real confrontation with

Does your company have ‘company policy’? You know, the policy that lets you say, “I’m sorry ma’am, we don’t offer refunds, exchanges only”? Or the policy that lets you say, “Here at ABC Bank, we only have teller services until 3:00 pm daily”? Or the policy that says “Check-out time is 1:00 pm – later check-out will be charged accordingly”?

When your company was new, someone (maybe even you) said, “We need some guidelines about what we will and will not do for our customers. Let’s make those guidelines so that our customers don’t take advantage of us. And let’s call those guidelines Company Policy – that way, there’ll be no mistake about how serious we are about maintaining our integrity!”

Well, I have a really good suggestion for you. Take your company manual, find the pages that cover ‘company policy’, rip them out of your manual and throw them away. Then you’ll be able to start looking after your customers with common sense and doing what’s best for them, rather than doing what’s most convenient for you and showing common distrust (both of your own staff and of your customers).

The company where I previously worked, like all airlines, had company policy. One part of that policy was based on a hugely important safety factor. With any airline, you can only carry on as much baggage as can be safely stowed away, so if there’s turbulence (or worse), the carry-on baggage won’t harm you or other passengers, or block your way out of the aircraft if you have to evacuate. This policy is not for the convenience of the airline, but for the safety of their passengers. And so, you would think that this policy would be pretty rigid, right? Well, listen to my story and see how I bent ‘company policy’ to accommodate a customer.

I was at New York JFK airport waiting to board the passengers on our flight back to Toronto, when one of our check-in agents came on board in a real tizzy. She said, “We have a celebrity, rock star Sheryl Crow, checking in with 6, count’em 6, pieces of carry-on baggage and she just insists she has to bring all this on board, even though we’ve been telling her and telling her that company policy only allows 2 pieces or whatever will fit under her seat. What am I to do?”

I told the agent to relax and let Ms. Crow come on board with all her carry-on baggage and I’d deal with her. The agent, relieved to have her problem solved, ran back to get rid of Ms. Crow.

However, by the time Sheryl Crow came storming on board, she too was in quite a snit – with good reason, however; don’t forget she’d just been through a real confrontation with

customers don’t take advantage of us. And let’s call those guidelines Company Policy – that way, there’ll be no mistake about how serious we are about maintaining our integrity!”

Well, I have a really good suggestion for you. Take your company manual, find the pages that cover ‘company policy’, rip them out of your manual and throw them away. Then you’ll be able to start looking after your customers with common sense and doing what’s best for them, rather than doing what’s most convenient for you and showing common distrust (both of your own staff and of your customers).

The company where I previously worked, like all airlines, had company policy. One part of that policy was based on a hugely important safety factor. With any airline, you can only carry on as much baggage as can be safely stowed away, so if there’s turbulence (or worse), the carry-on baggage won’t harm you or other passengers, or block your way out of the aircraft if you have to evacuate. This policy is not for the convenience of the airline, but for the safety of their passengers. And so, you would think that this policy would be pretty rigid, right? Well, listen to my story and see how I bent ‘company policy’ to accommodate a customer.

I was at New York JFK airport waiting to board the passengers on our flight back to Toronto, when one of our check-in agents came on board in a real tizzy. She said, “We have a celebrity, rock star Sheryl Crow, checking in with 6, count’em 6, pieces of carry-on baggage and she just insists she has to bring all this on board, even though we’ve been telling her and telling her that company policy only allows 2 pieces or whatever will fit under her seat. What am I to do?”

I told the agent to relax and let Ms. Crow come on board with all her carry-on baggage and I’d deal with her. The agent, relieved to have her problem solved, ran back to get rid of Ms. Crow.

However, by the time Sheryl Crow came storming on board, she too was in quite a snit – with good reason, however; don’t forget she’d just been through a real confrontation with

mon distrust (both of your own staff and of your customers).

The company where I previously worked, like all airlines, had company policy. One part of that policy was based on a hugely important safety factor. With any airline, you can only carry on as much baggage as can be safely stowed away, so if there’s turbulence (or worse), the carry-on baggage won’t harm you or other passengers, or block your way out of the aircraft if you have to evacuate. This policy is not for the convenience of the airline, but for the safety of their passengers. And so, you would think that this policy would be pretty rigid, right? Well, listen to my story and see how I bent ‘company policy’ to accommodate a customer.

I was at New York JFK airport waiting to board the passengers on our flight back to Toronto, when one of our check-in agents came on board in a real tizzy. She said, “We have a celebrity, rock star Sheryl Crow, checking in with 6, count’em 6, pieces of carry-on baggage and she just insists she has to bring all this on board, even though we’ve been telling her and telling her that company policy only allows 2 pieces or whatever will fit under her seat. What am I to do?”

I told the agent to relax and let Ms. Crow come on board with all her carry-on baggage and I’d deal with her. The agent, relieved to have her problem solved, ran back to get rid of Ms. Crow.

However, by the time Sheryl Crow came storming on board, she too was in quite a snit – with good reason, however; don’t forget she’d just been through a real confrontation with

e safety of their passengers. And so, you would think that this policy would be pretty rigid, right? Well, listen to my story and see how I bent ‘company policy’ to accommodate a customer.

I was at New York JFK airport waiting to board the passengers on our flight back to Toronto, when one of our check-in agents came on board in a real tizzy. She said, “We have a celebrity, rock star Sheryl Crow, checking in with 6, count’em 6, pieces of carry-on baggage and she just insists she has to bring all this on board, even though we’ve been telling her and telling her that company policy only allows 2 pieces or whatever will fit under her seat. What am I to do?”

I told the agent to relax and let Ms. Crow come on board with all her carry-on baggage and I’d deal with her. The agent, relieved to have her problem solved, ran back to get rid of Ms. Crow.

However, by the time Sheryl Crow came storming on board, she too was in quite a snit – with good reason, however; don’t forget she’d just been through a real confrontation with

en though we’ve been telling her and telling her that company policy only allows 2 pieces or whatever will fit under her seat. What am I to do?”

I told the agent to relax and let Ms. Crow come on board with all her carry-on baggage and I’d deal with her. The agent, relieved to have her problem solved, ran back to get rid of Ms. Crow.

However, by the time Sheryl Crow came storming on board, she too was in quite a snit – with good reason, however; don’t forget she’d just been through a real confrontation with the check-in agent! I let her bluster for a few minutes, “I’m never going to fly with this airline again, ya-da, ya-da, ya-da”, and then I sat in the seat beside her and explained why that the company policy was for safety reasons, and not just to make her pay for extra checked baggage.

She was beginning to calm down. I forged ahead, “Mostly, Ms. Crow, I need you to understand that we’re willing to do everything we can to help you and today, because we have so many empty seats, we’re able to accommodate your extra carry-on by putting them under the seats which would be used by other passengers, if they were here. But if the flight were full, then no airline would allow any bags on board which could not be safely stowed. I know you wouldn’t want to cause harm to yourself or anyone else, right?”

By this time, Sheryl Crow was almost contrite; I had saved my company’s reputation in her eyes by using ‘company policy’ to educate my customer. Now that she understood the reason for the rule, she no longer had an attitude about that rule or anything else to do with our airline. And she was gratified that I’d taken the time to explain a rule, which she’d always considered an obstacle. By educating her about the reasons for that rule, I was able to help her avoid such a situation from now on – no matter which airline she used! Our flight back to Toronto proceeded smoothly and Sheryl Crow turned out to be an interesting, delightful celebrity – without an ounce of attitude left.

The best part is that I’m certain she told colleagues and friends about her new knowledge and understanding of airline ‘company policy’. And when she told them, I bet she talked about my company and said “You know, someone finally took the time to explain the reason why to me, so now I’m better equipped to overcome the problem when I fly again”.

The moral of the story of course is that we must never never never hide behind ‘company policy’; the only time we want to use ‘company policy’ is when we can use it to educate and help our customer – to her advantage. Like all great