Airlines? Have they lost the plot?

Over the last twelve months there have been a slew of reports about Airlines forcing customers off planes, cancelling flights with no provision for travelers and more, so, so much more.

You may wonder why airlines have suddenly been in the news for all the wrong reasons and worse still most of it was entirely avoidable!

American Airlines, British Airways, United Airlines and Ryanair are four of many, who have come to grief over the last year.

Why?

Airlines operate in a highly complex and regulated industry. International agreements govern the industry, health & safety, security & tight profit margins and all have contributed to the problem.

The main problem is that Airlines have lost focus on the customer.

Some seem to be forgetting to remember they are commercial operations to make a profit and they do this by providing a service to their customers.

United Airlines “Fly the unfriendly skies”

In the case of United Airlines,  being the first of these reports to hit the headlines.

It was a video of security dragging a customer off a flight due to overbooking. Worse still the overbooking was due to staff was traveling on a “dead leg”.

I have worked in the Travel & Tourism for over thirty years and I could never understand the Airlines setting loading levels at 103-104%. Purely on the basis that if I am flying I need to fly on that flight I have booked, I have never traveled with the intention of delaying my travel!

Airlines got away with it over the years because they would offer enticing offers for people to shift their travel arrangement (financial recompense, free hotels with board provided, upgrades on future flights etc.).

What has changed is the mindset that they have a right to offload passengers and when this came to a head they used security as an excuse to forcibly remove the passenger.

“Make American great again”

American Airlines also have fallen foul to PR disasters as well.

First up is when they ejected a woman wearing a “Black Lives Matter” t-shirt. She had queried why non-English speaking passengers could not sit in the exit row. The flight attendant reported she felt threatened by the passenger.

Second up is Briana Williams who was reportedly ejected because she was involved in a standoff with staff. This happened when she asked staff for the stroller for her 4 month baby to be off loaded when they had a long delay.

This is basic customer service, if they could explained why the stroller could not be offloaded and then offered assistance in the airport for the mother & baby, this may have been a much better solution.

I have flow with American Airlines and they use to have a reputation for being among the best for customer service. Not any more, in one fell swoop they have destroyed a hard won reputation that dates back over forty years.

Ryanair “Need somebody to love”

Ryanair is a different story, famously cost focused, the boss Michael O’Grady famously refuses staff to buy pens out of company funds.

This extended to their staff contracts and tight scheduling of turnarounds. When they made a mistake in the scheduling they could not match the staff to flights, in this case pilots to planes.

The pilots refused to change their schedules as Ryanair had also lost the goodwill between management and staff.

This has been compounded by the loss of pilots to rival airlines offering better working conditions.

This resulted in the cancellation of thousands of flights and caused many customers to be stranded abroad.

My view on low cost airlines is they are not the same as traditional scheduled airlines.

They operate out of the cheapest slots and the secondary hub airports for major destinations, in some cases over 60km from the “named” city on the advertising.

That is like flying to London and actually using Birmingham or flying to Washington and arriving in Richmond.

In the beginning they operated charters to certain airports for a set period. This meant they avoided all the costs of having to commit to rescheduling customers if flights were cancelled. Ryanair still have this mindset, yet now they are a scheduled airline.

This came back to haunt them in 2017.

BA “The World’s Cleanest Airline!”

British Airways has been hit with a slew of reports relating to bed bugs and cleanliness, apparently according to the news reports this is linked to a change in the cleaning contracts.

BA are still advertising as if nothing has happened, they are still projecting themselves as upmarket service with high customer service standards. A quick check on forums and trip advisor tells a different story.

I wonder if the marketing department actually checks with these forums or their own customer service department to gauge customer feedback, before creating these campaigns.

The point is that all of this is entirely avoidable by focusing on the customer. Remembering that as a business, long term profit and margin is reliant on making the customer happy.

Yes, the airlines operate in a highly regulated environment but providing customer service should be their top priority.

This can happen in competitive conditions such as:

·         Be honest and up front with the true cost of the flight. Having a low headline cost with lots of hidden add-ons erodes customer goodwill.

·         Be upfront with the service levels, a low cost airline is not the same as a scheduled carrier. Luggage restrictions are tighter, food and drink is not included, destination airports may not be as well connected for example.

·         Treat the customer with respect and they will respond in kind.

·         Set loading levels sensibly, don't have 104% levels on busy routes or at busy times. When caught out splash the cash as it is the airlines fault not the customers. Personally I think no flight on main routes should exceed 100% loading levels.

·         Once a customer has boarded don't forcibly remove them for the flight being over booked and especially if it is due to staff on “dead legs”.

·         Plus don't harm them in the process! The video of this event beggars belief!

·         Don’t cut cost at the expense of customers, customers expect planes to be safe, clean & staffed sufficiently. Sometimes “outsourcing” equals losing control.

·         If a customer has a query that can’t be fulfilled, try and find a solution that is acceptable to the customer. If you can’t do it yourself, find another member of staff who can. (American Airlines, are you listening?)

Finally, have customers finally starting realising the differences and will they change their buying habits as a result… Only time will tell.

ZENIF has an expertise in customer service and uses the “Customer Service Twist^©” to help business achieve exceptional customer service.