Tuesday, June 4, 2019

#56 How British Air’s Customer Care Is Mired in the 1950s

Issue #56 – Tuesday, June 4, 2019

http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2019/06/57-how-british-airs-customer-care-is.html

  Posted by Denny Hatch


How British Air’s Customer Care Is Mired in the 1950s 
 
Just back from our 5th fascinating Viking river cruise: Budapest to Bucharest on the Danube.
     The American Airlines flight direct to Budapest was mercifully uneventful.

The Return Flight to Philly Was a Zebra—
An Old Horse of a Very Different Color 
On Thursday, May 23rd, we were in a Heathrow Terminal 5 waiting room. On the apron below were six of British Airways’ fleet of 57 old Boeing 747-400s (built 1988-2005). They were slated for U.S. destinations—Philly, Austin, JFK, Dulles, etc.
     At noon we were invited to board our 12:40 Flight BA 67. When we reached the narrow jetway the line of people wasn’t moving. Suddenly two “engineers” with yellow vests and hardhats rushed past us. In short order we were ordered to return to the waiting room.
     A “minor problem” resulting in a “slight delay” was announced.
     Three hours later it was decided that two guys in hard hats were not capable of fixing a fuel leak (presumably with Gorilla tape). The flight was canceled and we were turned loose into the mayhem of Terminal 5 to fend for ourselves.

Heathrow Hell
Above is the British Air customer service
desk where we spent the next 2-1/2 hours. 

It was as though this situation had never before arisen in the history of British Air—a canceled flight with no others available, the need for a hotel room, meals and a re-booking for the morrow’s flight.
     Here was 1950s customer care at its most primitive: long lines of distressed passengers dealing with harried British Air ground personnel. The technology: telephone calls, busy signals and interminably long waits. The British Air staff members were nice as could be, but trapped in a broken system. Example: it took a half hour to produce a voucher for the shuttle bus to the hotel.
     After 7 hours in Heathrow hell—(and 10,240 steps later according to Peggy’s Apple wristwatch)—we at last had our luggage and were aboard a rattletrap bus crammed with people and suitcases, backpacks and carry-on’s heading for delivery to the cluster of hotels ringing the 4.74 square miles of Heathrow property.

KLM's Wizardry at Schiphol
Is Slam-Damn-Dunk Miraculous! 
Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport has the stranded-passenger scenario down to a gnat’s eyebrow. The automated, computerized system has 100 amazing Transfer kiosks scattered throughout the airport is dazzling.
http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2018/09/25-dealing-with-customer-misery.html
 
• This is Artificial Intelligence at its best—machines that serve, sooth and reassure harassed, scared travelers.

• An automated system does not get tired, cranky and desperate for a smoke or bathroom break while interacting with stressed-out, confused victims of a cancelled flight. 

• The Schiphol eliminates the need for human intervention and saves big money as well as passengers’ sanity. A klutz of any age can work it. Live help is available, but seldom needed.

• Every major airport in the world should implement this magnificent business model.

The Renaissance Hotel, Heathrow—a Little Bit of Heaven!

It was a bumpy 20-minute ride in the jam-packed shuttle bus. Once at the hotel, we were warmly greeted. A special desk was set up to handle flight-cancellation victims. Check-in was smooth and quick. We were given vouchers for dinner and breakfast and a room key.
     The room was clean, comfortable and contained a fine hot shower, flat-screen TV, instant coffeemaker and mini-bar. Dinner was fine: I had an Indian curry dish and Peggy opted for a gorgeous fish-‘n’-chips. She ate every bite.



The 20-minute shuttle bus ride made me believe the hotel was several miles from Heathrow. Actually our room overlooked an active runway. I felt comforted being close to Heathrow.

Lessons for Marketers
• The next morning, the hotel driveway was chock-a-block full of tour busses.

• The demographics of this clientele: relatively upmarket tourists and travelers.

• The breakfast buffet was lavish and the dining room filled with guests. The hotel was doing a land office business.

• Flight cancellation victims did not choose that hotel. We fetched up there by circumstance.

• And… we were relieved and damned glad to have a nice place to stay. I have no idea what the room rates were. British Air was paying.

• For Renaissance, this was free money. They did no marketing to get us there. Our stay was the result of a busted plane and the airline’s ineptitude.

• For Renaissance, this was substantial business. The checkout desk clerk told me this had been a light night—only 45 passengers were there with flight cancellations. He told me sometimes as many as 400 rooms are taken as a result of cancelled flights.

• A bonus for the hotel chain was being able to make disgruntled guests so satisfied they would remember the experience with pleasure and consider booking Renaissance on future travels. Plus there was the word-of-mouth factor.

• In this case, Renaissance—along with a slew of other hotels in the Heathrow area—had cut a deal with various airlines to guarantee help in the event of screw-up and turn Customer Relationship Misery into Customer Relationship Magic (aka CRM).

• Whatever the business model, savvy marketers are constantly on the lookout for unique—and often hidden in plain sight—sources of additional revenue. 

P.S. More Heathrow Hell
The following a.m. we boarded another creaky old 747 bound for Philly We were on time and cleared for departure, whereupon we were forced to sit around for 4 hours in a sweltering cabin while the “engineers” fiddled with problems.
     After 11-1/2 effing hours inside an old 747 we arrived back in Philly 4 hours late. The landing was so rough I thought for a moment we had crashed. (I can't blame the pilot; by then he must have been a basket case.)
     A number of folks missed important connections—weddings, funerals and meetings.

Takeaways to Consider
• When you screw up, it is imperative to make it right for the customer immediately.

• If you start losing customers (who can write nasty reviews online), you are on a treadmill to oblivion.
http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2019/04/49-don-jackson-on-how-to-wow-customers.html

"Times of adversity and customer screw-ups may be the only times when you can really show your customers how much you love them."
   —Malcolm Decker, Freelancer, entrepreneur


• When traveling long distances with myriad connections for an important event, speech or cruise, consider leaving a day early. If the flight is delayed, you're covered. If you arrived a day early, you can relax, maybe do a bit of sightseeing and hey! you're on your way to getting over jet lag!


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Word count: 982



At age 15, Denny Hatch—as a lowly apprentice—wrote his first news release for a Connecticut summer theater. To his astonishment it ran verbatim in The Middletown Press. He was instantly hooked on writing. After a two-year stint in the U.S. Army (1958-60), Denny had nine jobs in his first 12 years in business. He was fired from five of them and went on to save two businesses and start three others. One of his businesses—WHO’S MAILING WHAT! newsletter and archive service founded in 1984—revolutionized the science of how to measure the success of competitors’ direct mail. In the past 55 years he has been a book club director, magazine publisher, advertising copywriter/designer, editor, journalist and marketing consultant. He is the author of four published novels and seven books on business and marketing.

CONTACT
Denny Hatch
The St. James
200 West Washington Square, #3007
Philadelphia, PA 19106
215-644-9526 (Rings on my desk)
dennyhatch@yahoo.com

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9 comments:

  1. Denny, you once again show your mastery with this article. As a bonus, you've evoked (mostly) pleasant memories of air travel in the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's. Only downside, ya gotta be somewhat old to remember Pan Am flights to "London Airport" in 1957. Prop plane. Exciting as hell. I was eight. Sat with the pilot for an hour during the 15 hour flight--per my mother. I remembered it as 10 minutes (I was so enthralled).

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    1. Dear David Jack G,

      Many thanks for taking the time to comment and for your kind words.

      Eisenhower said the three most important weapons he had were the C-47, the Jeep and the Higgins Boat. I loved the C-47—used to take them on purpose via Ozark Air from Milwaukee to Minneapolis back when I was selling books. I knew then they would not be around forever. Here’s a happy story about the C-47.
      https://www.cbsnews.com/news/d-day-75th-anniversary-miss-montana-flight-to-normandy/

      Thanks again.

      Do keep in touch.

      Cheers.

      Delete
  2. Denny, As a Brit who has enjoyed your interesting, informative and profit-laden articles for many years (you may remember me writing to you about my Grandfather who was a pallbearer at Baron von Richthofen's funeral) - and who used to work for the airline in question (in the mid 1990s), please will you call the company by its correct name i.e. British Airways - there's no such company as 'British Air' (unless that's what the staff told you to put you off the scent?!) I'm certainly no evangelist for British Airways, having seen it warts and all from the inside, dealing with flight delays and being on the receiving end of extremely aggressive customers screaming at you from inches away - I'm sorry you had a bad experience. Agree 100% with tackling customer complaints head-on and immediately, something I always do. 99.9% of these customers are reasonable and all remark on how rare it is a) for someone to speak to them at all, let alone a rapid response (especially these days) and b) that you want to make it right ASAP. Anyway, keep up the good work. Best wishes, Nick

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    1. Hey Nick,
      Thanks for taking the time to comment.
      Sorry you took offense at my calling it British Air. Do Brits resent being referred to as Brits?
      On Long Island after the War we had a renter in our garage apartment who worked for BOAC at Idlewild Airport (it became JFK in the 60s). The departure and arrivals building was an old WWII Quonset hut. It was all deliciously primitive and glamorous.
      Do keep in touch.
      Cheers.

      Delete
    2. Hey Denny, Nice to hear from you. Don't worry - it takes a lot more than British Airways being called Brit Air to offend me! Besides, given what day it is tomorrow (D-Day) we have a lot of things - and shared heritage - in common. Speaking of which... you may be interested in the story of a very special local 'GI' adopted by the US troops where I grew up near Alresford in Hampshire. He was called 'Hambone Jr' and was a local terrier, mascot and friend to all the US infantry soldiers over this side of the 'pond' prior to the D-Day landings. Sadly, like so many brave soldiers, we didn't survive the war. I think it would make a good story for you (see the link below written by a US jornalist visiting Alresford whose grandfather was stationed there - I worked at the Swan Hotel mentioned in the article):
      https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/77086515/hambone
      On a more personal level, my father as a little boy lived near to an 8th Air Force base, and US aircrews often visited his house (he also saw them flying to and from Germany), and GIs gave my mother's mother some olive oil (unobtainable in rationed wartime Britain) to treat my then baby mother's cradle cap.
      And today, President Trump is visiting the historic port of Portsmouth to meet 300 or so British D-Day veterans.
      So yes, we have plenty in common - and we certainly don't resent being called Brits!
      Already kept in touch and will continue to do so!
      Best wishes, Nick
      P.S. Have you heard about GDPR (a new and draconian 'consumer protection' set of laws for direct marketing here in the UK?) The good news is that it's not too bad for direct mail promotions (a few extra lines of legalese) and the volumes have thinned right down, leaving the field open for enterprising Brits - and overseas mailers - to profit from my bulging rolodex of listbrokers, listowners and more. Of interest to you/your colleagues? If so, then let me know and we can take things from there...
      P.P.S My Uncle has lived in Chelsea (Manhattan not London) since he went to the World's Fair in 1965 and never came back! I've been to the Big Apple several times.
      P.P.P.S. I agree we could do with more deliciously primitive and glamorous things in an increasingly AI-drive world. "Open the pod bay doors Hal"? No thank you!

      Delete
    3. Reading this post sparked a memory -- that this very issue was one my brother was dealing with 15 years ago with BA. I checked and confirmed this with him. Here's what he reports:

      I actually wrote a letter to the Financial Times back in 2004 and they published it. It used to be searchable on Google but I can’t find it. Fortunately I saved the letter exactly as it was published; see below.

      LETTER TO THE EDITOR: I will not choose BA again even if the flight is free
      Published: Sep 02, 2004

      Sir, I affirm from long experience Lex’s observation about British Airways (August 26) that there is “no end in sight to . . . the lack of concern among staff for customer discomfort”. BA’s management and employees should heed the FT Summer School article in the same edition, “How to deal with decline”, which blames Pan-American’s insolvency on its failure to diagnose low customer satisfaction as the root cause of the airline’s steady decline.

      On my last BA flight, the staff were so indifferent even to simple requests that I felt compelled to turn in my frequent flyer card, which carried many thousands of redeemable miles, with instructions to cancel my account. Although the purser on board begged me to reconsider, and a hand-wringing supervisor greeted me upon arrival in Los Angeles to apologise, it came as no surprise to me that BA never followed up to make things right.

      These are symptoms of wider structural problems that transcend the well-known need to make employees more productive. Rod Eddington, BA’s chief executive, should take note that at least one of his customers has “rightly come to expect” such poor service that he will not choose BA again, even if the flight is free. Indeed, because of BA’s unwillingness or inability to deal with complaints, it appears that the airline may not “desire to be healed”. If that is so, your Summer School article teaches that no one is likely to save the company in the longer term.

      Delete
    4. Dear American Observer
      Great hearing from you and thank you for your long and thoughtful comment.
      My take:
      "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."
      —Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (1808-1890)
      BTW, cannot find you in my list of readers. Kindly send me your e-mail address so I can send you an alert when a new weekly post is published. Join me!
      And do keep in touch!
      Thank you.
      dennyhatch@yahoo.com

      Delete
  3. Great examples of just how low the customer experience (CX) bar is and why every company who does not focus on providing a decent, not even great, CX is doomed to be surpassed by those who give a damn about their customers.

    ReplyDelete
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