How To Make Me Your Brand Ambassador

You're not going to believe what happened to me over the holidays.

Four months ago we booked a family vacation to Cayman Islands. I was exhausted and really needed to get away and spend quality time with my family in the sunshine.

I was so organized. AirLine tickets, booked. Hotel, reserved. Airport taxi, called. American dollars, purchased. Car Rental, done. And, my awesome assistant @YMC_BC confirmed everything for me. We were set.

The last thing to do the afternoon before we left was to do online check in for our WestJet flights (which flies direct to Cayman! Yay).

I pulled out our passports and....

almost....

fainted...

because...

my son's passport...

was..

EXPIRED.

I'm not kidding. At 5pm on Saturday afternoon, our flight leaving at 9am the next morning, I discovered that I had overlooked a little detail.

OMG. We were dead. Already exhausted, I did what any multi-tasking mom who just screwed up does. Cry. Weep. Bawl. And then call down to my husband to break the news. He looked at me in stunned silence and then rubbed my back to calm me down. Inside I'm sure he wanted to strangle me, but he managed to create an air of calm.

"Think", he says. "Who can you call?"

All I can think is Twitter - my lifeline to all problems. I tweet WestJet who has a great Twitter account with this crazed message: "Please call me. It's an emergency." Not 2 minutes later, Greg from WestJet is listening to me sob about my stupidity and the predicament I've put my family into. He jumps into action, contacting a collegue who had had a similar problem. He calls me back with what he believes is an emergency passport number. I thank him so much and call the emergency number, fingers crossed. I'm automatically put on hold for two hours. At which point I give up.

Plan B - hubby stays with my son to get an emergency passport and flies out to meet me and my daughter hopefully a couple of days later.

I call the WestJet call center to change our tickets. The woman at the call centre is very sweet, asking why we're cancelling our flights. I tell her about my stupid mistake. She asks me to hold. She comes back online and tells me she'd just checked a few websites and it seems that Cayman Islands doesn't require a passport - only a valid Birth Certificate.

What?? I'm stunned.

She asks me to hold and again. I'm shaking. Five minutes later she comes back online to confirm the good news.

She is now by best friend. I ask if she would be able to email me those links so I can print out the documentation should we experience any problems at customs. She looks at my file and notices my email address.

"YummyMummyClub?" she asks.
"Yes" I respond
"Erica from YummyMummyClub?" she asks
"Yes, that's me"
"OMG - I just won pink Energizer batteries from your website this week!!" she laughs

I remember the contest that Racheal, our Energizer Mummy, ran on Twitter - asking moms to tweet a holiday joke to win pink batteries.

And then it hits me. Of course she won with a joke - She's from freaking WestJet who have the best jokes in town!! And here's the crazy six degrees of separation - I had retweeted her joke!

We laugh hysterically, then I thank her, blowing kisses into the phone. I was rescued by Shannon at WestJet.

So, what's my point? WestJet runs these ads on TV about how their staff aren't just employees, they're part owners. Here was an example of an employee who, for no reason other than awesome customer service, went beyond what was expected of her. She could have easily politely changed my reservation and did her job well.

She EXCEEDED my expectations and saved my butt.

What I really want is for all the extremely important people at WestJet to read this post and see how their staff is bringing their corporate culture to life and affecting their customers lives in the process. If you're from WestJet and reading this, please give Shannon Leverette and Greg Hounslow a raise and then a hug from me.

For those who do run a business, take note of this tale - of a company who empowers their staff to be human and treat their customers like we matter. And here's what happens when you treat your customers well - From now on, if at all possible I will always fly with WestJet. And when I have to fly prize winners or bloggers - you know who's getting my business.

So, to wrap up this saga - we had no problems at customs. On the way there, the flight crew invited my kids to meet the pilot and sit in the cockpit while a still puffy-eyed mom and relieved dad snapped photos. On the flight home, my restless kids were asked to join the flight crew handing out water to everyone on the plane. Once again, WestJetters creating great experiences for their customers!