Is your Airport Customer Services Delivery Under Pressure?

This guest article is by Pauline Hoogervorst, Director, Customer Service Solutions, AirGate Solutions. Pauline’s focus during her career has been Customer Management, experienced from both Operational and Commercial sides of the aviation industry. This also gave her the opportunity to understand the gap between the “Marketing Promise” and the “Customer Experience”. Her motivation and drive is to support the aviation industry to change their organizations to become customer-centric with a service delivery that fits their brand promise.

In today’s environment of instant information, passengers expect to be constantly informed by connecting to a variety of sources whilst maintaining contact with their social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook. With the economic crisis and the rise of the “Social Customer”, leaders of airlines and airports have started to realize that providing Excellent Customer Service is a key differentiator to their competitors.

London’s Gatwick Airport (@Gatwick_Airport) is certainly a leader in this respective, having a Twitter FIDS screen in full public view, allowing ‘social customers’ to tweet any issues that need attention. Being in full public view, everyone can see the airport’s responses and their timeliness.

Because the needs and expectations from passengers change and evolve, the target for your organization will constantly move forward. What might keep you awake at night is the dilemma between technology changes and customer focus, because rapid changes are necessary. Lately a lot more effort has been put to ensure that the company does not get bad press or negative “buzz” instead of focusing on providing a better than expected Customer Service experience. Because Customer Services centers are traditionally operational, transaction-focused and managed as a cost center, fundamental change is necessary

It’s understandable that you, as Manager Customer Services, are feeling the pressure!

To improve your performance under pressure, it is essential that you are aware of the ‘Big Picture’ and the direction of your organization. You are not alone, so make other stakeholders aware of the necessity to change

Integral to performance improvement is the measurement of Customer Service. The challenge has been to define that metric which is the foundation of a passenger engagement framework. Initial development of the Passenger Experience Index (PEI) is that foundation. It is based around social media strategy, recognizing the disconnect between passenger expectations and new opportunities to improve service delivery and hence new marketplace growth.

Excellent Customer Services begins with Leadership. It begins with a champion to step back and gain a holistic overview of the organizational processes, to bridge the silos and guide stakeholders through the necessary stages to move from company to customer centric.

Leading change in Customer Service requires that you understand these key elements:

  • Know your Customers’ Needs
  • Make the Connections
  • Align your People
  • Don’t do it Alone

To ensure that these key elements are effectively are learned, Customer Services management need to learn from industry professionals. There are courses, such as the Customer Service MasterClass, that are designed and delivered by aviation professionals, specifically for the aviation industry.

Excellent Customer Services begins with Leadership.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a Comment

Sustainable Aviation Fuels Powerlist 2023

No, thanks