The U.S. airline industry is embarking on a series of customer service initiatives meant to win back our business, if not our trust. But it doesn’t want to talk about it, two recent reports suggest.
An article in Crain’s Detroit says Northwest Airlines has taken “a quiet approach” to repairing its image after this summer’s flight delays. The airline recently agreed to trim its schedule, cut pilot flight hours and is offering them overtime and bonuses in addition to bringing back furloughed pilots and hiring new ones, it added.
Then it editorializes, “The strategy appears to have worked.”
And the San Francisco Chronicle had a piece about the hiring of Barbara Higgins a former a senior customer service executive for at Disney, who was late last year named to the newly created position of chief customer officer at United Airlines. She’s charged with restoring United’s “once-lustrous reputation for customer service,” according to the article.
There is some evidence that a similar move is underway at Delta Air Lines. Not so long ago, the carrier developed a system called “First Point of Contact” that gave customer service agents more flexibility when responding to passengers.
Why are airlines reluctant to talk about something that is going to improve their product?
Maybe it’s because passengers find it difficult to believe anything the airlines tell them.
For example, a few months ago US Airways announced a series of customer-service initiatives that, it promised, would, “improve reliability and meet customers’ needs.” That included adding airport staff, hiring new customer service agents and being more flexible with some of its policies, particularly for its best customers.
Result? The last government report card ranked US Airways first — for complaints.
I think Northwest, United and Delta are on the right course. They should shut up about any internal customer-service improvements and fly the planes.
The results will speak for themselves.
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