World Class Customer Service

Transcription

1 INCREASE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION & GROW REVENUES CONSULTING CUSTOMER SERVICE WHITEPAPER

2 Onboard service on-demand, organic foods, specialty drinks, women s lounges, ipads for crews so they can identify VIP travelers and their needs, social seating, extra legroom in selected economy cabin rows, integrated air-ground transportation, lie flat beds, thin line economy class seats to increase legroom, paperless cabins the list of customer service innovations goes on and on. The airline industry grows ever more creative and competitive. How can you keep up with the competition? What customer service options are appropriate in your market? What do your customers want from your airline in order to maintain their loyalty? Every business thrives on customer loyalty. Your airline is no exception. Satisfied customers quickly lead to greater revenue growth, and without heavy acquisition costs. You cannot afford to ignore what your customers say about you compared to your competition. Social media and a myriad of online tools quickly spread the word about how your airline treats customers. The world is an increasingly small village. Succeeding in this new world of customer service, requires methods to effectively measure what your customers say about you and your competitors. But measurement and evaluation need to be 2 followed up by action that implements appropriate, proven, and sustainable practices to raise service delivery levels to new heights. Exceeding expectations heightens expectations and you will need to keep raising your game. This paper will identify customer service measurement techniques and best practices to implement plans that could close the gap between you and the competition. The best practices are based on real-world experiences that have proven themselves time and time again and that lead to loyal customers, increased revenues and reduced costs. Every business thrives on customer loyalty. Your airline is no exception.

3 Measure customer satisfaction Knowing what your customers think about your airline s service, and how they compare you to direct competitors, is a crucial starting point. Many airlines survey their own customers to get opinions. But few take advantage of methods to objectively and consistently compare this same information to their competitors performance. After all, if the customer has a choice, and the competition is satisfying them more, you are likely to lose the battle for loyalty and revenue. A multi-dimensional view of customer service performance is therefore crucial. IATA offers a tool, Airs@t, to collect this multi-dimensional performance information. Airs@t is a comprehensive survey that measures how your customer service is received versus the competition in key flight regions in the world. The service is provided on a subscription basis. Airs@t surveys evaluate 65+ travel attributes covering pre-flight, the onboard experience, and post-flight factors. Airs@t identifies gaps where customer service levels are not up to that offered by the competition in the same geographic region. Survey data is collected and compiled online by IATA s affiliate, mind-set. Reports are provided quarterly to participating airlines with periodic special analyses available. Competitive data is agglomerated and deidentified. The scores for the various factors can be directly compared to the competition and trended over time to see if your customer service is improving. The surveys are conducted across four major international travel regions. Airs@t surveys collect information from nearly 50,000 customers and 23 airlines, serving 33 airports. The program is constantly expanding by adding new travel regions, airlines and airports. 3

4 The Data The data provides an excellent reference on how your airline ranks based on customer experience; an excellent starting point to identify performance gaps and begin the process of building an even more loyal customer base. Let s illustrate: The following sample of Airs@t data is taken from the North America-Europe travel region and incorporates results from ten airlines. The 65+ evaluation factors are grouped into logical clusters. The industry average line represents the combined results for the ten participants in this region. One target airline has been selected - Airline X for comparison to the group of ten. All airlines names have been coded in the following illustrations due to the non-disclosure agreement signed with the airlines participating to Airs@t. Full names of those airlines are unveiled in the full Airs@t outcomes and reports. Airline X s customer service survey ratings are below the group s average in virtually every category with lounge, food and beverage (F&B), and post flight showing the greatest negative deviations. Figure 1.1 Overall Performance Any of the categories above can be examined in greater detail. For example, the crew-related scores for Airline X can be trended over time. Crew performance for Airline X is consistently below most other airlines in the group in the North America-Europe region for this period of seven quarters Overall satisfaction Overall website Overall check-in Overall lounge Overall boarding Overall cabin Overall seat Overall crew Overall IFE Overall F&B Overall post flight 4

5 Figure 1.2 Boarding Performance However, boarding performance for Airline X was consistently strong over the same measurement period. 5 A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9 Airline X Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Figure 1.3 Aggregate Data Airs@t data can be disaggregated and displayed in many ways. These are but a few examples to illustrate the power of Airs@t to spot trends and issues. After establishing a passenger s satisfaction benchmark, a performance gap needs to be closed and areas of excellence sustained. 5 A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9 Airline X Q Q Q Q Q Q Q

6 Achieving and Sustaining High Level Customer Service Performance How do you improve your scores? What customer programs should you adopt and how do you keep service delivery at consistently high levels? There are five proven customer service principles that will guide you to sustained, high-level performance: Design Adjust Deliver Feedback Measure 6

7 TWO DECADES OF SERVICE For 25 years, an airline in North America, Midwest Airlines, provided service to a network of about 50 cities from hubs in two mid-sized US metropolitan areas Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Kansas City, Missouri. For nearly two decades, Midwest offered a unique all-business class service featuring gourmet meals served on fine china. Midwest also pioneered the concept of the baked onboard chocolate chip cookie snack; one of the most unique brand reinforcement perks provided by any airline. All staff, customer-facing or not, were trained to embrace a high standard of excellence in support of the product. The service stood out in dramatic contrast to the basic offerings of the major US mainline carriers. The airline s staff understood, and consistently practiced the art of sustained high quality service no matter what. AWARDS As expected, Midwest won dozens of international, national, and regional customer service awards, and the airline turned in outstanding financial results. In the early part of the last decade, intensified price and schedule-based competition began cutting into Midwest s results and market share. The airline was forced to adapt its customer service model. More seats were added to selected aircraft in a standard economy class arrangement. The complimentary gourmet meals were phased out and replaced with a high quality buy onboard product. However, the chocolate chip cookie remained! Despite the downgrading of onboard service, Midwest continued to win large numbers of prestigious awards. Why? The airline s staff understood, and consistently practiced the art of sustained high quality service no matter what form the seats or food took. Employees delivering the service cared and were supported by a management team that embraced the same values. 7

8 Midwest s success, and that of other customer service award winning airlines, is summarized by the five principles: Design Select customer service products and programs that are appropriate to your customers, and geared to researched customer needs and expectations that are affordable, measureable and sustainable. There is no one right answer as each airline experiences different competitive situations and different types of customers from many cultures. However, no matter what your airline decides to offer, you need to create measureable customer service behaviors for each employee group that interacts with the customer. At Midwest, each customer-facing employee, including cockpit crews, were given a wallet-sized card of customer service behaviors that they were expected to embody and against which their groups would be measured. Additionally, the customer service behavior goals were linked with corporate Key Performance Indicators. Employees would be measured and rewarded based on a combination of how well their employee group performed against the customer behaviors and how well the company performed overall. High customer service scores coupled with meeting or exceeding, for example, corporate on-time performance, profitability measures, and RASK (RASM) targets produced a certain level of reward. Benefits could be monetary, or take the form of well publicized high level recognition, or something simpler such as company sponsored pizza parties. The bottom-line of designing a program: Learn how to define goals, objectives and behaviors that motivate your team. Develop a complete program that holds people accountable, is quantifiable, and sustainable. Employees delivering the service cared and were supported by a management team that embraced the same values. Deliver Once the program is designed, teach your customer-facing employees what is expected of them. Recurrent customer service training is vital. Part of the training is to let each employee and work group know how they will be measured and rewarded for success. In addition, let the staff know how customer service deficiencies will be corrected. And then deliver the service in new ways! 8

9 Measure Consistent measurement from different perspectives is equally important. Develop appropriate measurement tools and techniques using the power of your website and other proven methodologies, to evaluate the behaviors defined and taught in the previous steps. Online or basic written surveys of customers, plus mystery shopper analyses, and staff observations of their peers are some of the techniques to measure actual performance versus desired behaviors of the customer service metrics. The secret is to measure consistently and with enough frequency to be able to identify problem areas that can be quickly remedied and to reward groups that excel. For example, Midwest measured basic behaviors using a combination of online passenger surveys and secret shopper feedback on a monthly basis. Measurements should not be taken less than quarterly. Feedback Consistent measurement must be combined with consistent performance feedback on all of the measurement metrics both the customer service behaviors and the corporate KPIs. Each airline will discover how and when to convey results. Midwest employed a combination of quarterly small group meetings, publication of results on the Intranet and in other corporate publications, and posters in employee areas that conveyed results. Ultimately, supervisors, managers and senior staff need to be present to explain results, make rewards, and correct problems. Accountability is key and it needs to extend to all levels of management. Exceling at customer service takes commitment and time but the results are worth the effort. Exceling at customer service takes commitment and time but the results are worth the effort. Adjust Customer service delivery is a dynamic process. Customer preferences change, competitors adjust their programs, and your employees will discover even better ways to serve the customer as the excitement of a new program takes hold. Over time, customer and employee feedback, and the consistent trending of the data, will point to necessary adjustments that are appropriate for your program and operating environment. Don t be afraid to make well thought-out changes. That s why the earlier diagram shows a complete loop. Redesign and repeat the process. 9

10 Exceling at customer service is all about consistency and sustainability. Great customer service is taught, delivered and measured at frequent, regular intervals and with attention to detail. Excellent customer service is a way of life for everyone at your airline; it s not something you do on a sporadic basis. And it pays huge dividends from loyal customers in the form of repeat and new business, and revenue growth. Step up to new levels of customer service with IATA. For further information on IATA s Airs@t and Customer Service Expertise contact: Mike Robinson robinsonm@iata.org

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