I'm pleased to present today a guest post by Ramesh. This is the first guest post I have done and I'm curious know thoughts on this. If you have an opinion, leave it in the comments.
Cheers, Adesh.
There are airlines and airlines – some good, some bad and some horrible for their service. But there is one I deeply admire for their customer service. What I especially admire is that they seem to have achieved sustained good customer service and on scale. In all organizations, there’s always a person or two who is outstanding in service. But in this airline, it seems to be a habit.
How did they achieve this ? I asked their operations director many years ago. What he said was very interesting.
He said service was not a warm , touchy thing. It was not just the smile and the pretty young stewardess. It was more systems, processes and numbers. As an example, he said, one of the things they wanted to deliver as a service was that when you got off a plane and entered the terminal, your bags must be coming on a conveyor.
They try to achieve this in the following way
- The guys who get off the plane first are the business class travelers. These are the guys this airline wants to vow with their bags on the conveyor when they walk into the terminal
- At check in, they tag the business class traveler bags separately. These are placed at the front of the baggage hold.
- When an aircraft arrives and when the blocks are placed under the wheels, the timing starts
- One sequence of events that is set in motion is that the aircraft doors are opened, the ramp is placed, the passengers get down and are whisked by the bus,
- The second sequence of events is that the cargo door is opened, the bags are unloaded and the baggage trolley takes the bags away to be put on the conveyor belt in the terminal
- They have configured their operations such that the two processes take roughly the same time.
- They measure the times for each and every arrival, in each and every airport and he gets a daily summary of the number of times they are out of synch.
- The two crews are incentivised on sticking to their target times.
This was a different perspective for me. He said that the warm, touchy stuff can lead to occasional flashes of service brilliance. But it’s the hard nosed operational stuff that keeps customer service at a high level.
Another nugget he shared with me was that he had a team of QC inspectors who routinely flew on his airline flights . Amongst other things, they carried a thermometer. When the coffee was served – they measured its temperature and checked if it was in the prescribed range. This was measured and reported daily !!
Wow . Wonderful perspective, I thought.
Ramesh is an Indian, living in China, and currently on a sabbatical after many years of corporate life. He blogs on business issues of interest.
by rads , on May 1, 2009 10:56 PM
Agreed that service is more about the process rather than a sweet n friendly stewardress. Great contribution by Ramesh.
by Zoobie Sidhu (nee Singh) , on May 2, 2009 12:00 AM
In service industry, it is not just the customer facing staff, but the support staff which is a major contributor to a great customer experience. Apart from the airlines, take hospitality or retail, its the same story. If housekeeping or supply chain is not efficient, customers will not be happy.
Very well written post Ramesh. Hope to read some more great stuff from your side.
by le embrouille blogueur , on May 2, 2009 7:25 AM
Great Post. Incidentally I spoke about my airline service experience in one of my post ..http://dukulsblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/food-wait-7387-miles-congestion.html ...if you are interested.
by Ramesh , on May 2, 2009 3:26 PM
Thanks Rads, Zoobie, blogeuer, for your kind words.
Had read your post blogueur. The less said about the American airline industry, the better !
by Adesh Sidhu , on May 2, 2009 11:18 PM
@Blogueur - Thanks for visiting and thanks for sharing this wonderful link.
by le embrouille blogueur , on May 3, 2009 6:57 AM
Adesh ..it's a pleasure. And let me tell you. You are in the inner circle ..purely because you and I are fans of the Ustad!! keep the good stuff coming !!
by Sushil , on May 3, 2009 10:55 PM
Hi Adhesh & Ramesh. Good post on Customer Service. Its not easy to figure out at this level for all businesses what is true CS for their line of work. The moment they are able to do that they will be able to make a difference.