CRM on a Budget: Reinventing the Basics of Customer Service
By Roger Williams, Managing Partner, Consulting, Airline Information
The secret to successful CRM is managing the balance of “high-tech” verses “high-touch” customer elements of the airline business. This article will examine the so-called “high-touch” aspects of customer relations that can be used to execute a CRM strategy in the absence of expensive and sophisticated IT systems. What is particularly interesting about the high-touch approach to CRM is that these elements are missing in executed strategies supported by even the best CRM systems.
Airlines in the United States have increased ticket prices enough during the past 5 months to increase the average domestic fare by more than 10% according to a recent Reuters report. Demand may drop so drastically after this busy summer season that airlines will most likely be forced to concede to a low-demand-low-fare market exasperated by dilution pricing by bankrupt Majors. Maintaining your fair share of the market and increasing sales volume is extremely difficult during times of low demand and “differentiators” or “unique selling points” cost money.
A high-touch approach to CRM incurs nominal financial burden and is the true foundation for ROI on IT systems. This approach first examines the accountability of staff within their respective roles - the leading cause of customer attrition is customer frustration combined with a perceived better option with a competitor. Customers get frustrated with airline service because of lack of communication and accountability. For instance, if there is a weather delay at the gate that continues to persist, then constant and clear communication is paramount or one will quickly realise a shift in blame from the unfortunate elements of nature to an airline that cannot get their act together and leave on time.
Lack of accountability occurs among customer contact staff that are not properly trained or not willing to take responsibility for events occurring within their area of control. Thinking along the lines of full accountability encourages one to pre-empt problems by more closely monitoring the airline’s process flows within their control. Irregular operations are an ever-present part of commercial aviation because of the technical nature of what airlines do. Coordinating the safe operatation of aircraft and managing large amounts of reservation and departure control data is a tall order that is executed based on strict technical standards and ignore much of the human factor. The flight operations and passenger movement process is commonly fulfilled with a diminishing level of accuracy and contingency starting from the exacting standards of flight operations to the subjective realm of customer service.
I recently had a frustrating trip to Düsseldorf via Paris-deGaulle to attend the eAirRail conference. Gate agents don’t seem to make announcements anymore! I appreciate info tools like Delta’s Nervous System - driven plasma screens, but its accurate information is no substitute for a good-old-fashioned apology for late departure. So back to my story, we departed 40 minutes late from JFK with no explanation from the ground or in-flight crews – incidentally we also started boarding 20 minutes after the time that it indicated on my boarding pass with no explanation. It was a “red eye” flight so several other gate agents still on duty had come to assist with this final departure for the evening. So there was an army of agents in plain view not providing communication with customers.
Due to the late departure out of JFK and the high-altitude winds this time of year I missed my connection in CDG to Düsseldorf. I was eventually re-booked in CDG by a very polite ticket agent who assured me that my bags would be transferred to my new flight and even pointed out that the tag numbers were printed on my new boarding pass making everything okay. Subsequently my bags did not arrive in DUS and the equally polite baggage agent that took my Passenger Irregularity Baggage Report there mentioned that bags rarely make re-routed connections out of CDG. I was not happy to say the least and in my opinion the airline had put my business trip in jeopardy due to issues that could have been easily avoided.
My experience is a great way to outline how staff accountability and customer-friendly contingency planning could have kept me being a happy customer. Here is what could have occurred and may have even caught the attention of a hardened traveller like myself and made a difference in my loyalty:
- Many years ago gate agents (including yours truly) had a strict announcement schedule that if followed, kept passengers informed and calmly seated until boarding. Gate agents should be among the best communicators in the airline station, this is what forms the “Relationship” in CRM. Its time to get back to making regular human announcements and respect the time printed on boarding passes. Far too often you see nervous business travelers pacing at the gate glancing at their watches because boarding does not begin on time and there has been no announcement.
- Too many agents forming a redundant group of bodies at the gate only diminishes the impression of the operation with the customer and causes uneasiness.
- My flight landed in CDG with 30 minutes to spare for my connection, I along with the other 10 or so passengers that had tight connections could have been escorted through. Misconnects cost the airline money in accommodation and passenger business. They are highly preventable if agents take iniative and prepare by monitoring upcoming misconnects.
- Pilots must trust their instruments and so should customer service agents. If that ticket agent’s computer said that my bags were onboard then that should indeed have been the case. If this proves to be consistently inaccurate as the baggage agent in DUS suggested then it must be fixed.
The moral of this story and for mastering CRM, with or without computerised analytics, is to create a process to manage passenger movement irregularities. This process must be scalable enough to be constantly updated with the variables of air travel and airport infrastructure. Integrating the irregularity management process with your customers requires extending professional communication techniques from the PR and marketing department to frontline relations. CRM software will not provide maximum and or even satisfactory results unless high-tough customer relations and dynamic irr-ops management are mastered.
Here are few things that successful low-tech carriers have done for years to pre-empt irregular operations in Customer Service:
- Reservation agents flight-firming during downtime.
- Sales mgrs looking at route operation report in addition to their normal sales report and identifying friction points such as bad connections, lost bags, facility, in-flight and customer service delay codes.
- Inflight department monitoring their own delay codes, reasons behind them and how to remedy.
- Res agents gathering accurate info and backup phone numbers on PNRs to call when delays occur.
- Airport agents monitoring flight connections and identifying potential mis-connects that can be expedited through airport facility.
- Airport agents looking for anticipated computer overrides such as cancellation of future segments on nosho PNRs, dropping of frequent flyer account number on altered PNRs, outdated fax field info such as transferred bag tag numbers. Many of these things can be fixed by a few key strokes or a call on the radio/telephone to other support staff.
- Communication training, how to talk with people and problem solving, critical thinking.
- Baggage agent monitoring mis-conx baggage and overriding computer system defaults to ensure transfer.
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