Two letters:
And the response:
Ouch!!!
March 30, 2004
To: All Flight Attendants – BOS/JFK/LGA/EWR/DCA
As our competitive landscape intensifies, and the rapid growth and expansion of our low cost competitors, such as JetBlue, Southwest and Airtran threatens our survival, I thought it would be appropriate for me to share with you some "eye opening" feedback we've received from some of our corporate accounts. This feedback comes directly from customers through various focus group sessions we routinely host in various locations around the system, and from joint visits we conduct with our Sales Department to our largest revenue producing corporate accounts.
By the way, what is particularly alarming about this feedback, is that the key individuals at these corporations that are responsible for choosing the carrier their company's employees will use, are being pressured by their employees to seek an alternate carrier to do business with instead of American. These are corporate accounts that are worth millions of dollars in revenue to American, which we quite frankly cannot afford to lose to a competitor. As the Managing Director of Global Operations for one of our accounts told us, "you are making it very difficult for us to make our people fly AA, because of your poor service."
Customers have told us repeatedly that were it not for our extensive global network, our schedule frequency, and our AAdvantage program, they would likely choose another airline to serve their needs, because they are dissatisfied with our overall service and lack of consistency.
The following is a sampling of comments and feedback we've received from two of our bigger corporate accounts in the Northeast, one of which, came on board as a corporate account one year ago following a long relationship with United Airlines.
· Flight Attendants are not enthusiastic, friendly, or helpful.
· "Galley-talk" is distracting, annoying, and makes it difficult to sleep
· As a customer, we do not want or need to hear AA's dirty laundry. All companies have internal issues. However, it is inappropriate to discuss internal issues with your customers that have to do with minimum rest, crew meals and salary reductions.
· Salary cuts – all businesses have had them. Why do your F/A's think it's appropriate to discuss with customers?
· A response to a customer's request is that we are unable to accommodate the customer due to cost cutting by AA.
· After the service is accomplished the Flight Attendant disappears.
· Making a positive impression when you first board an airplane is really important.
· We are afraid of you Flight Attendants and afraid to ask for anything, as they seem annoyed when we do ask for something.
· We'd like some personal recognition, such as being greeted by name.
· First impressions are very important. As you board the airplane, you want to feel welcomed. Often you feel as though you're imposing on the Flight Attendant.
· Flight Attendants should consider each Flight as a client meeting. It is improper to discuss internal problems in a client meeting. We've also had salary reductions, but we don't discuss with our clients.
With the continued development and enhancement of our automation capabilities, our customers rarely need to stop and check-in with an agent anymore, or call reservations to book their flight. Our Flight Attendants are very often the first "face of American Airlines" that the customers come in contact with, whether it's at the gate reader or on board our airplanes.
Our customers have told us there are four elements that they value: a clean aircraft, dependability, customer service excellence and consistency. We're aggressively matching prices, increasing advertising and promotions, promoting the strength of our extensive global network and AAdvantage program, but at the end of the day, it all comes back to delivering the service our customers expect and deserve that makes the difference. Our brand begins and ends with our people, and it is our people, and the service you provide, that will ultimately determine our future.
My purpose in sharing this feedback with you is to solicit your help in changing this perception. Our Flight Attendants are without question the very best in our industry, and I genuinely believe that the majority of our Flight Attendants perform a superb job serving our customers on our airplanes, everyday. Your professionalism and your attention to detail in the safety and service you provide to our customers are unmatched.
Thank you for everything you do, everyday, for our customers, and for each other.
Sincerely,
John M. Tiliacos
Managing Director
Flight Service
Northeast Region
And the response:
John M. Tiliacos
Managing Director
Flight Service
Northeast Region
11 April 2004
Dear John,
Since your letter of 30 March 2004 indicates your "purpose in sharing this feedback with [us] is to solicit [our] help in changing this perception," we feel compelled to respond to you now as we have had time to hear from the base we represent.
We are gratified that you believe "our Flight Attendants are without question the very best in our industry, and [you] genuinely believe that the majority of our Flight Attendants perform a superb job serving our customers on our airplanes, everyday." We are further honored that you agree "our professionalism and [our] attention to detail in the safety and service [we] provide to our customers are unmatched."
Having said that, it would be hard to locate in our records a letter from management that has caused such a major nosedive in the already low morale of the rank-and-file, not to speak of the disappointment we three feel after having just met with you in person less than two weeks ago along with Lauri Curtis and local management. To say your letter disappoints us would be a gross understatement of just how disheartened we feel after what we perceived to be a productive meeting we had on 1 April 2004.
You quote that "the Managing Director of Global Operations for one of our accounts told us … [American is] making it very difficult for us to make our people fly AA, because of your poor service." Let us discuss those eleven points of concern, based on your opinion of the professional Flight Attendants of AA and the position of such high-level customers. First, to review these, they were listed as:
1. Flight Attendants are not enthusiastic, friendly, or helpful.
2. "Galley-talk" is distracting, annoying, and makes it difficult to sleep.
3. As a customer, we do not want or need to hear AA's dirty laundry. All companies have internal issues. However, it is inappropriate to discuss internal issues with your customers that have to do with minimum rest, crew meals and salary reductions.
4. Salary cuts – all businesses have had them. Why do your F/A's think it's appropriate to discuss with customers?
5. A response to a customer's request is that we are unable to accommodate the customer due to cost cutting by AA.
6. After the service is accomplished the Flight Attendant disappears.
7. Making a positive impression when you first board an airplane is really important.
8. We are afraid of your Flight Attendants and afraid to ask for anything, as they seem annoyed when we do ask for something.
9. We'd like some personal recognition, such as being greeted by name.
10. First impressions are very important. As you board the airplane, you want to feel welcomed. Often you feel as though you're imposing on the Flight Attendants.
11. Flight Attendants should consider each Flight as a client meeting. It is improper to discuss internal problems in a client meeting. We've also had salary reductions, but we don't discuss with our clients.
We are sure you have already disregarded any "across-the-board" validity to Points 1 and 7, as this would be diametrically opposed to your own impression and experience with our Flight Attendants.
Points 2, 3, 4, 10 and 11 are particularly troublesome for us. As we discussed with you, Lauri Curtis, Howard Fried and Verna Miller in our recent meeting, it is truly sad to see how even our most seasoned Flight Attendants are discouraged, exhausted and distraught over the present state of the Company. We will continue to admonish each other and the Flight Attendants to put "our best faces forward" not only to the customers, but to each other in what has proved to be one of the most trying, if not the most trying period in our history. Perhaps the suggestions Lauri and you have received to increase our layover times and minimum rest, and the clearer perspective AA management now has since our meeting about the circumstances under which New York-based Flight Attendants must work (long commutes by public transportation, excessive tolls, living outside the city to find affordable housing and no Company-sponsored transportation for many early-morning check-in, or late returns) will enable the Company to improve the distressing conditions our Flight Attendants are expected to work under – and still dress-up, show-up and stand-up as if everything was fabulous here at AA…when it is not yet.
Since we are a group of professionals, and AA has worked tirelessly to provide us with policy and procedures on every facet of our job, perhaps the following points might be addressed by you in a future letter as to exactly what our procedures should be – because there is nothing of note in our Flight Attendant Manual or any training to indicate what the Company would like us to do:
Point 5: When a customer's request truly is unfulfilled because of the Company's cutbacks, how would you like us to handle the situation? Exactly what should we say that would meet Management's expectations?
Point 9: We are happy to use customers' names when we have them – but that is frequently not the case. Because the CSAs are being so pressured by the Company and their respective CSMs to close the flight on or before the time allotted, our Purser/#1 Flight Attendant is often compelled to close the door before a PNL is provided either because: 1) the CSA was in such a hurry s/he didn't feel s/he had time; 2) the printer was not working or what was provided was illegible; or, 3) the CSA simply forgot to print it. In any of these cases, is the Purser/#1 supposed to delay the flight until a PNL is received? We realize that we can (and frequently must due to the problems noted above) take time to individually ask the names of our customers when we take their preferences after takeoff. But to do that for thirty customers in a two-class 767, or even twenty-two seats in a 757, inevitably places us outside the Company guidelines on the timeliness of the first beverage service delivery, thus leaving our Flight Attendants open to negative critique from our customers on the performance of our service and disciplinary action from the Company should this be reported to AA by a customer or observed by a FSM conducting an observational ride. Please advise the correct procedures we are to follow in the future in the absence of the PNL.
Last are Points 6 and 8. As to Point 6, we are wondering just "how" a Flight Attendant could disappear on any of aircraft with some regularity enough to make this an issue considering that we are operating on minimum crews, necessitating nearly constant aisle duty. If this is truly a legitimate issue, we are amazed that FSMs have not mentioned this in great detail during observational rides.
Then there is Point 8. This Point truly deserves to be repeated: We are afraid of your Flight Attendants and afraid to ask for anything, as they seem annoyed when we do ask for something. When you state these surveys were "received from two of our bigger corporate accounts in the Northeast," we assume that these two corporate accounts might be on the level of say, IBM or Citicorp. One must wonder how prominent and high-powered men and women who have achieved such success and notoriety in the business world can be so intimated and "afraid of [our] Flight Attendants" It certainly gives one pause for concern about the future of business in America if our customers are truly exercising this degree of timidity with service-oriented employees.
We have gone over in detail just how much stress, strain and personal sacrifice our Flight Attendants have made for our Company in our recent meeting. We are, as a group, more stretched to the limits of their patience than any other group of Company employees due to the fact that we are with the customers the longest. When one speaks of "the buck stopping here," the Flight Attendants of AA step up to the plate and do the very best and beyond to see that our customers are soothed from the TSA who nearly strip-searched them, the CSA that didn't have time to gate-check their stroller, as well as the customer next to them who is now dozing on their shoulder and snoring loud enough to wake the entire cabin. But afraid of us? This statement is difficult to understand, even with a considerable stretch of ones imagination.
Finally, we have certain questions to which we would like the answers, as well as an explanation of the matter in which you present this material:
If these surveys were from focus groups, what was the percentage of response on each of the eleven points? – a few negatives? Fifty percent? Ninety percent? Were the surveys implemented at an expense to the Company at a time of fiscal responsibility to find out what the customers thought was wrong with the service provided by AA? Were there any positive comments you might be able to share? If so, how dare you impose the problems shared by customers through your recent letter without giving Flight Attendants the commendation they so rightly deserve and were most likely given?
We appreciate your invitation to "solicit [our] help in changing this perception." We sincerely hope this letter helps to clarify our thoughts and give you and the Company further insight into these allegations from our perspective. We are encouraging Flight Attendants to contact the Company directly to supply their input on the eleven points of concern and we look forward to their participation. Please keep us informed of the process and progress!
Respectfully,
LGA APFA Base Chair
LGA APFA Vice Chair
Asst to the JFK Base Chair & OCR
Asst to the LGA Base Chair & OCR
Ouch!!!
