Yep, it isn't any wonder why the Usairways board is so busy. Note though that over time it's more employees? You don't see as many customers posting here as in the past. Hmmmm now why would that be? This management team is out of their minds and has no idea how to please people. They are here to "condition" the customer. This management team is here to "train" you to learn their way of thinking, which in their mind is BRILLIANT. They have taken the "human element" out of this job and force upon the customer and employee their way of doing business. They basically told the high end customer to hit the road a few years back. Guess what, THEY DID and in droves. Now you see this "spruce up" of service in Envoy and a few simple items like a GLASS on domestic meal flights. A GLASS PEOPLE! ! ! Until we are swallowed by a larger carrier or turn the lights off this will continue. ENJOY!
Travelpro, as always, you hit the nail on the head...
While we appreciate the company's efforts (regardless of how long it took for them to realize they were needed) to "spruce" up the service a little, I think it may be too little too late. Your comments in bold above are so accurate, I could have said them myself. The majority of the higher value customers who still fly US are captive to the hubs and or focus cities. Some of the newer business travelers think US is okay because they really have nothing to compare them to....but when they try another airline, more often than not a light goes on in their heads..
To illustrate your point, the breaking point for me was when the then-managing director of customer relations, when presented with an opportunity to save the business of over 300 high value customers (AVERAGE spend $18K per year on US), asked me for contact information for the top 10 and assured me that they would be personally contacted within a week. I provided 64 names along with phone numbers and email addresses (with EACH member's permission I might add), and upon following up 30 days later, found that NOT ONE of the folks I referred was contacted. In fact, 5 of them had had poor customer service issues which had been unresolved for 60 days or more (unresolved in this case meaning NO response whatsoever). From that time forward, in 2007, I have flown 1 trip on US, and credited my miles to UA/CO. I will also add that since that lie, over 100 of our members asked to be status matched to other carriers, with the vast majority to CO, and after facilitating such arrangements for our members, most have never looked back. We estimated that the first year loss in revenue from customers we helped to "defect" were between $8 and $10M. This was not a big number unto itself, but if you realize that this is just between 100 and 150 people, who chose to speak up, when extrapolated over the general passenger population it is most likely considerably higher.
The key to providing good customer service is to invest in the product AND the employees. Invest in the employees and give them the tools to do their job well. Stop offering early outs to senior employees--they are more productive and knowledgeable, and the money they save in unnecessary mistakes due to inexperience more than makes up for their salaries.
We have said this ad nauseum, but ANY other WELL RUN airline is proof of this:
It takes HAPPY employees to have HAPPY customers.
It takes HAPPY customers to have HAPPY investors.
Regardless of what the spreadsheets tell the brain trust at Tempe, it DOES NOT work the other way around. Until they realize that employees and customers are ASSETS rather than liabilities, the long term future of US, standalone or otherwise is questionable. As long as they continue to step over dollars to pick up pennies, it won't get any better.
It is very frustrating to see long time friends who still work for US try to help customers solve legitimate issues when they KNOW how to do it, but are blocked by the company from doing so. I guess it's not worth an extra few $$ to keep a customer and guarantee further revenue....
My BEST to you all....
