A Practical Guide to Airline Customer Service. Colin C. Law

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      Airlines set strict dress code policy for staff who travel on their aircraft. Staff who travel on the company’s travel benefits are considered the representatives of the airline and they are required to dress appropriately. In March 2017, an airline was slammed in social media for refusing two female staff passengers wearing leggings to board the aircraft. They were asked to change their outfit before they were allowed on-board.

Service delivery system

      An airline must deploy adequate service personnel to reduce waiting time. For example, the average check-in time for Airline A is 3 minutes. If it allocates 10 check-in counters to check in 500 customers, the total time required is 150 minutes. On the other hand, if it decides to open up 5 more check-in counters, the total required time is reduced to 100 minutes. However, the downside to this is increased airline operating cost. Similarity the number of cabin crew deployed on an aircraft affects customers’ level of satisfaction. Another factor that determines services is the quality of the actual service delivered.

Intangible customer service

      Intangible customer service mostly refers to the ability of service agents.

      Service skills

      Service skills refer to the ways employees interact with customers. These include communication skills, ability to maximise resources and think out of the box, and problem-solving skills. Today’s customers expect service agents to understand their needs and resolve issues in a timely manner.

      Product knowledge

      In order to provide excellent service, airline employees must have adequate product knowledge related to their duties and the surrounding environment so as to cater to the needs of passengers. These include basic knowledge such as operation of in-flight entertainment system and duty-free limit allowance of alcoholic drinks allowed to be taken into a country.

      Service attitudes

      Helpfulness and friendliness are the basic requirements of a service provider. A positive mindset also helps to create a cheerful environment which indirectly helps to enhance customers’ level of satisfaction. Service attitudes can sometime turn an unpleasant situation into an opportunity for creating loyal customers.

Who are the customers?

      Customers are individuals or organizations who have engaged an airline’s services. An airline customer can be from any group, gender, nationality or culture. In addition, airline customers can be divided into three types: internal customer, intermediate customer and external customer. It is important to establish relationships with both internal and external customers as the former handles all the various aspects that come together to create a smooth flight experience, and the latter provides the revenue that keeps an airline operating.

Internal customers

      Internal customers comprise the following groups of people that airline employees work with in order to operate smoothly: vendors, suppliers, and manufacturers. In the instance of frontline service agents, they need the support of their internal customers—various supporting service agents to provide effective customer services to customers. These supporting service agents include catering service agents, maintenance personnel, baggage handlers and ramp agents. The airline also relies heavily on these suppliers who provide services for cleaning and catering to maintain the cleanliness of the aircraft and timeliness delivery of in-flight meals.

Intermediate customers

      Passengers sometimes transfer between airlines, especially for long-distance travels and airlines need to work together to ensure a hassle-free experience. Hence, airlines need to consider the needs of their intermediate customers—other airlines. Teamwork is important in the airline industry as service agents need to coordinate with their co-workers to provide services to passengers.

      Travel agencies and freight forwarders are also an airline’s intermediate customers as these companies help the airline to sell its product to external customers. As such, it is vital to develop a good relationship with the providers of these services. This is even more so in today’s context where customers’ choice of airlines are directly influenced by travel agents and freight forwarders’ recommendations. Offering excellent services and being attentive to these intermediate customers helps build good working relationships and increase sales.

External customers

      These refer to the millions of customers who travel by air every day. While these customers expect to be well taken care of during their journey, there are some customers who require more help than others. It is important for airline service agents to identify these different types of customers, their characteristics and needs.

      External customers may be divided into the following main categories:

       Business travelers

       Leisure travelers

       Cargo customers

      Business travelers

      These are customers who travel for work. These customers often travel many times in a year and are very familiar with the air travel process.

      Characteristics:

       Dressed in formal attire

       Expect a hassle-free experience

      Leisure travelers

      These customers usually travel for leisure and in groups. They do not travel often and may sometimes require additional assistance.

      Characteristics:

       Dressed casually

       Expect a fun and exciting experience

      Figure 1-9: Airline customers.

      Cargo customers

      Cargo customers engage an airline for freight delivery services and usually contact the airline directly. They are just as important as business and leisure customers as they make up a significant percentage of an airline’s sales.

Customer service in the airline industry

      During the air travel process, airline employees from various departments have direct and indirect interactions with customers. The air travel process begins with customers making their ticket reservations. This is followed by check-ins at the airport, boarding of aircrafts, the en-route experience, arrival at their destinations and finally, baggage retrieval. There are airline employees at every step of the way who provide services and assistance to customers in distinct ways.

      For example, reservation service agents must have superb listening skills as they need to pay attention to customers’ requests. Both airport service agents and cabin crews require a different skill set as they deal with customers face-to-face. On the other hand, lost and found agents need to demonstrate strong problem resolution skills as the majority of customers who they are in contact with have issues with their baggage.

      Passengers

      Customer care (reservation and ticketing)

      The customer care department, also known as ‘reservation СКАЧАТЬ