Comments on: How Singapore Airlines converts the biggest critics into its strongest brand advocates

By: it’s a bird! it’s a plane! no! it’s a… hostel?! in technology on twistr | a world of lesser foolishness

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:32:02 +0000

[...] How Singapore Airlines converts the biggest critics into its strongest brand advocates (simpliflying.com) tagged with: Airline Bunk bed Hostel Jumbo Hostel Singapore Airlines Swedish language Travel Window blind [...]

By: How Singapore Airlines converts the biggest critics into its strongest brand advocates « BIB Spring Blog

Thu, 28 May 2009 19:04:40 +0000

[...] critics into its strongest brand advocates Posted on May 6, 2009, 8:52 pm, by Shashank Nigam 9 comments [...]

By: Ian Whittaker

Ian Whittaker — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:54:34 +0000

Hi Shashank,

Simple really, as you know, treat someone right (because it’s the right thing to do) and they will be happy with your service, things go wrong in life, it’s how you deal with them. Deal with them right and the customer will sing your praises, use you again and refer you to others. A good book is ‘how to win customers and keep them for life’ by Michael LeBoeuf.

Kind regards

Ian

By: Spectra Nova

Spectra Nova — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:51:25 +0000

Great Lesson! That’s what a response attitude and a tremendous sense of empathy achieves

By: George Wu

George Wu — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:31:29 +0000

There is a strategic marketing aspect to this as well. Beyond just providing better customer service, there’s an old maxim that converting your harshest detractors into satisfied customers creates your strongest promoters. It’s often tough to justify the return on investment of doing so with every one of your critics, but it can sometimes be done at reasonable cost. You see this in your article – Singapore Airlines trains it’s staff to compromise in complicated situations. So they sky is not the limit.

Clearly Singapore Airlines is thinking smart not just about providing good customer service, but about taking advantage of bad situations to create good will. That sometimes it’s not just about making the disgruntled customer shut up and go away is something all businesses need to keep in mind.

By: Elizabeth Zachariah

Elizabeth Zachariah — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:29:31 +0000

should be how all of us do business…

By: shashank Nigam

shashank Nigam — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:01:40 +0000

@Joan: Glad you liked SimpliFlying. Do join Tweepiittion as well, where you can win a book on SIA or a 4GB iPod ( http://bit.ly/qDlqA )

@Ronald: I couldn’t agree more with your assertion that a brand is about the alignment of expectations and performance.

By: Joan Planet

Joan Planet — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:00:01 +0000

Nice article and nice blog as well. I wish more airlines would follow these ideas…

By: Ronald Kuhlmann

Ronald Kuhlmann — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:57:25 +0000

I’ve got whiplash. Just last week your were broadcasting the shortcomings of SIA because of their handling of your recharge issue. It did seem like a small request and clashes completely with their “if it’s simple give it to the customer” mantra.

What your example illustrates is that, regardless of policy and training, everyone gets it wrong from time to time. The real test of any firms mettle is not how they operate when things are fine, but rather how they cope with problems and unexpected events. Some get it right more often than others and the outcome is a mixture of policy, morale, training, personality and timing. Every brand needs to reprove itself in every encounter.

I was waiting to board Southwest some years ago when a guy got out of the boarding line and threw a tantrum because he had to wait in line for seating. The agent skillfully advised him that this was their operational model and it worked pretty well. He continued to grumble about the experience, to the point that other passengers were hoping he would just go away. Southwest is one of the worlds strongest brands but it did not mesh with the passenger’s expectations.

The best products have well defined promises, meet expectations and do it with predictable regularity. That is the key–not the level of service but the alignment of expectations and performance.

In your SIA example, they failed on some level which belies the idea that they have some lock on a secret formula. Polling large bunches of folks, I’d bet that Southwest has just as many satisfied customers as SIA but they have pulled that off in a very different manner.

By: Jan Mulder

Jan Mulder — Mon, 11 May 2009 08:33:21 +0000

There is a difference between words and actions. This was our experience with SIA. SIA pushes passengers to buy tickers early. In fact, months in advance. Our tickets were from Amsterdam to Manado (Indonesia) via Singapore. Shortly before our departure the Indonesian government required dutch passengers to have a visa. We were unaware of this, as we often have travelled to our family in Indonesia.
As we were not informed by SIA of this visa requirement (and nothing was on their website which we checked before departure) we got stranded for several days in Singapore. In my view SIA entered into a contract to use their means and expertise to bring us safely to Manado. Their refusal to let us onto the ongoing flight to Manado (which only flew 2x week), got us stranded at our own expense.
All we asked for, when we got back, was a refund for the hotelcost. No more, no less. But we got a clear NO as an answer. And, low and behold, after our letter suddenly a warning appeared on the SIA website about the Visa.
I ask you, would you expect this from a GREAT airline?
I certainly did not!

Jan Mulder