Customer Service?

[JAFA]

They were just following orders.
AT $9.59 an hour what the heck do you expect from them..honestly!

I'm with the Art and the OP here. Short version? We all knew what we were getting into when we got into this biz. We knew the hours would be hell, the pay sucked, and that weather/ATC/job actions/mechanicals/etc would make even the worse day true hell on Earth. So why are we all still here? I would hope a passion, if not then I can think of no other good reason to stay. It is just plain wrong to walk away nd leave the postion unattended. We're not talking running to grab an on the ground and returning, we're talking, "gee I was told I was done at 10, so I'm gone". To borrow from the Marines, "5. To quit my post only when properly relieved."

If you did not want to wait in the long line why did you not just go to a hotel, settle down, and call reservations. You knew at that time of the evening that there were no more flights leaving for your destination, and if you were not sure then just look at the monitors. YOU CHOSE TO WAIT IN LINE!! Go sit down and call the 1-800 number. The wait would have been about the same length of time. The time you spent waiting in line, being unproductive, was your falt.

QUIT STANDING IN LINE AND CALL THE 1-800 NUMBER.

This could have been put better, but in reality that is why the weather letter was created. In many cases, walking the line, talking to the customers, and offering the letter will cut it in half. Usually being honest and upfront about the reality and offering the letter with a softer version of PSA's sage advice is appreciated by the customers.

 

[gso-crew]

To borrow from the Marines, "5. To quit my post only when properly relieved."

The Marines have leadership, that cares about their men and woman, they don't leave comrades hung out night after night, year after year. :down:

 

[wildirishrose]

There indeed is the key isn't it??

Leadership versus Management.

They are different, often quite different. For example take Gordon Bethune, Great leader, CO's track record speaks for itself. However if you also look at who Gordon surrounded himself with they were generally top people in their area of expertise.

Just one way to quantify the above would be SHARES, CO's version WORKS, while the US Airways version???????? Look around the business world and the Gordon Bethune's, Ross Perot's and Iacocca's of the world are fading fast and what we are left with is the intellectual ferment types with their MBA's and credentials who've never lifted a bag or twisted a wrench or done one single thing to add value to the customer or employee experience that might build loyalty and esprit de corp.

Good morale can move mountains, Look to WWII and Patton's efforts to free Bastogne.

Bad morale conversely builds mountains and obstacles that often take years and millions to undo. This concept the Spreadsheet boys should be able to figure out. Good morale, makes for good business, but alas we see no evidence do we?

Bob,
I feel I need to mention that one thing which surprised me. Since merging with the West is the fact that not only the supervisors but the Ticket Counter Managager will come out and start helping out the agents checking in Passengers. They do this consistantly. I don't know about anybody else, but it sure does alot for my morale.

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

Along the lines of standards being lowered: Word is that the city code test in the CSA new hire class is being dumbed down. Apparently some or all of the questions are now multiple choice!

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

Questions on evaluations must be "Legally Defensible" in terms of how the test questions are developed. They need to be directly linked to a task or concept that is a bona fide condition of employement. T

Being familiar with city codes would seem to be a bone fide condition of working for airline.

The old city test consisted of two portions, encoding and decoding. Ex: "What is the airport code for Kansas Ciry?" or
"What airport is MCI?"

I haven't seen the new test, but understand it's something like: The airport code for Kansas City is:
A. KAN
B. MCI
C. ACY
D. MSY


Don't know if there is a decoding portion in the "new and improved" format. The airport code portion had been a a tough one for many students to pass.

 

[avion]

many years ago i went to airline school which was a big time thing back then. you did homestudy and of course you cheated at home but went to resident school for a month and learned the basics of airline/travel agency/freight the whole thing. they even helped you with placement and back then working in the travel biz WAS a big thing especially with an airline. the city code thing was a big deal. but you know they cut you slack. with the folks they are training now want 20.00 per hour they are not going to do this for 8.72 per hour and if they do they will stick it out because once they get some exprerince they are going elsewhere like DL SW and the others who pay more and will give you quick payscales. this company does not. the money that US spends in Express training alone will run in the millions training kids with this PIG system and giving them a level to acheive when even the company gave the SENIOR agents of the east team 2 days and told them.. go back and learn the rest on your own. and they are flunking these folks because they cant remember 100 city codes.. give some of them some slack...

 

[USCREW]

...they are flunking these folks because they cant remember 100 city codes.. give some of them some slack...

You mean, dummy down the training requirements?

 

[tadjr]

You mean, dummy down the training requirements?

Might as well, we could use the bodies.
Are they going to call back anyone that recently flunked out of city codes? We had two agents who worked instation for about 2 weeks before they were sent to training and seemed to be doing fairly well. City codes got them both the first day of training and they were gone. Meanwhile, we still have openings to cover. :down:

PS- It doesnt appear that HP US believes in training other than new hires. There are "memos" galore littering the break room, but no real training that I've seen. Even the two day cutover training was done by volunteers from the station (who were kind of "asked" to do it since no one would really volunteer). Until they do something about retraining those who didnt get the training in the first place, I say bring on anyone who wants to stand there and take the abuse on a daily basis. If they make it thru the first week of canx/reroutes you're tenured.

 

[john john]

I learned city codes by studying and drilling with my girl friend
And writing out city codes on a daily bases with manual bag tags (something we rarely do now) had a copy of the AOG city codes.
We had in house test and had to know all system city codes

 

[LCC_#1]

Back to the topic of refusing a bonus. How big of him. And I bet he warns his wife before he upchucks his jack and coke in bed.

 

[BuffaloJoe]

Back to the topic of refusing a bonus. How big of him. And I bet he warns his wife before he upchucks his jack and coke in bed.

The only three letter DoUgIe knows is LYH. Maybe he may know ATL as he needs the Coke with that, sometimes!