Lord Bradshaw who worked for various parts of British Rail in his career asked whether additional measures of customer satisfaction would be added to the requirements when companies bid for new rail franchises.

Since 1999 passengers have been asked twice a year on behalf of the rail consumer watchdog, Passenger Focus, a series of questions including being asked to rate satisfaction with a number of elements of the service provided. Called the National Passenger Survey, they ask about 25,000 passengers twice a year what they think of the services provided by the different rail companies. The survey results for last autumn are due to be published in early February and, as previously, we will let you know the results.

Anyway back to the plot. It appears additional targets on satisfaction were included in the September 2009 renewal franchise to Southern Railway. And Lord Adonis has said that these wider, exacting targets will be included in all future franchise targets.

It is quite difficult to measure satisfaction. The week that you ask people shouldn’t be one where there is snow creating major delays otherwise satisfaction levels slump and you are not being fair to the railway company. Equally, you don’t want it be just in quiet times so Passenger Focus tries to do it throughout the day to try and achieve fairness.

But remember the National Passenger Survey is not the be all end all. Each franchised railway company has a passenger panel that you can try and join as well.

And when you get approached over the next few months to fill in the Spring 2010 survey do just that. Because what Passenger Focus can’t measure is what you think of the rail service if you don’t tell them

You could be forgiven for thinking, after seeing the Which? Holiday report on tour operators that you should avoid the big companies like Thomson, First Choice, Thomas Cook, Cosmos and Virgin because they haven’t done very well in the report.

You would be wrong.

This is not to say that the survey is wrong. The Consumers Association, (CA), publishers of the different Which? Reports has strict and solid research techniques and knowledge. No the problem is the sample. It is drawn from members of the CA which is largely upmarket, middle class. These are not the sort of people who tend to book package holidays with the large tour operators so the number of people surveyed who have holidayed with those I mentioned earlier is proportionately much lower. Low response means a few positive or negative responses can affect results.

The whole survey is only 4,507 responders so the  people responding per tour operator could be low.  A minimum of only 30 have to reply for each tour operator to be included. Thirdly, smaller tour operators like VFB, which came top (and congratulations to them), move comparatively small numbers of people compared to the millions moved by the big companies. It is always easier to get better customer satisfaction ratings from smaller companies than larger ones and that applies to whichever industry you survey. And to be fair, Rochelle Turner, head of research at the CA said that it might be harder to provide the attention to detail in big companies. Finally it should be said that the tour operators interview people during their holiday. The CA interviewed people after they had returned home and, in some cases, holidays could have been quite a long time ago. Answers may vary as time elapses.

I should make an admission. I have worked with most of the big tour operators over the years on their customer satisfaction programmes so I know how much time effort and money goes in to it and the responses they make to problems.

The big tour operators try as hard as the little ones to make your holidays as enjoyable as they can. And if there is a problem, they will try, by and large, to resolve it. I cannot remember, over the last 10 or so years, of any of the biggest tour operators ever being voted number 1. And I wouldn’t expect them to in any survey of CA members

Before looking at that subject, I should congratulate those from travel and tourism who did walk off with trophies. Butlins were awarded Best Service Employer of the Year and Pauline Wilson from Virgin Holidays was named Customer Service Manager of the Year. Manchester Airport, Chiltern Railways, Cross Country and the National Maritime Museum all made the shortlist but were pipped at the last moment. In the case of Manchester Airport they lost out in two categories and the Group (which also owns East Midlands and Humberside airports) lost out as well.

Last year 13 different companies related to travel and tourism were shortlisted so the number has halved. As I said earlier, this could be because companies decided not to enter. But last year there was a category for Customer Service Team of the Year for Leisure & Tourism and not this year. There was also a similar award for airlines, transport and distribution which failed to survive into 2009. So it could be that travel and tourism companies saw little reason to enter.

This week there was the news story about the person who requested a complaint form from the guard on a train. As the journey ended, the guard came over the tannoy apologising for not managing to get the form to the passenger because  overcrowding made it difficult to get through the train! Enough said. An attempt at customer service defeated by the very reason for it.

Customer service needs rewarding in whichever industry it is in.

So when they say that two thirds of airlines around the world have systems to increase revenue but that they still don’t focus on the customer you are inclined to believe them. If we take one airline, the one that says it is the favourite airline of Europe, Britain, Ireland and probably countless other places, which earns a lot of extra money from passengers. It would say that helps keep fares low. It would say that is what it has done for the passenger.

Yet Collinson Latitude says that an appreciation of customer needs delivers better commercial results in the long term. The trouble is that lots of airlines, and train companies, hotels and tour operators don’t view the passenger or guest as pre-eminent. If we don’t get reasonably well looked after, we walk to rivals. The key is that there is a point at which price will persuade us to change our minds. We will accept less than acceptable service because of a price. And acceptable service changes for each and every one of us. What is acceptable to me may not be acceptable to another. Finding that dividing line is what airlines, hotels, cruise lines have to do.

At least now they have a company who they might listen to!

So if we are so important how is it that the airlines are trying to relieve us of every penny they possibly can?

Airlines now consider ancillary revenue, the money they make from selling us merchandise, insurance, hotels or car hire as a vital revenue source. The problem is that with fewer passengers that means fewer ways for them to bolster revenue. So I come back to the question. Why aren’t they nicer to us? Why don’t they dream up loyalty or retention schemes that are different rather than being so similar? Ryanair, who couldn’t care a jot about passenger satisfaction, rely on price and it works. To compete with them, other airlines have to offer the other thing that Ryanair doesn’t;- service and a feeling that they appreciate our business. It isn’t rocket science but to many of them still don’t see it. A new startup, Nimbus Airlines  which plans to become Scotland’s national carrier, wants to follow the ethos of the late lamented British Caledonian and put the passenger as the focus. Maybe that’s one potential airline that does see it.

Is holiday customer service better in the UK than overseas? Do we feel because we speak the same language we believe that if an issue arose it can be resolved more easily? Do we just bask in the familiarity of being in our own country in terms of food, shopping and the like?
There has to be something behind this because in my experience, generally, holiday customer satisfaction abroad is better than in the UK.

A little while ago, I did some research for a tourist group and to all our surprise, we had a similar result when we broke down the survey responders into those that holidayed abroad and those that had holidayed overseas. So just as if one survey shows something you have difficulty believing you tend to treat it cautiously, if you get two then you begin to believe.
So are we happier holidaying in the UK? Any ideas would be welcome.

Well one no frills airline, probably one you haven’t heard of, seems to be working hard to marry the two ideas together. Tiger Airlines is an Australian airline that claims to offer the lowest fares there. But it has another claim as well. It wants to put passengers first in the belief by doing that it can grow its business.

It has set up a new customer services team, it surveys and listens to its passengers and it claims that complaints have dropped by 75%.

With so many no frills airlines around trying to justify why you should travel on one rather than others will come down to the offer they make you, the passenger. What will tempt you to fly on one rather than others when all fly the same route, charge roughly the same and have similar schedules? The answer, I suggest, is the quality of service that they offer you and how they treat you. And on that basis some existing no frills airlines will fail, some will adjust and some will concentrate on that.
It will be interesting to see which ones are around in 10 years time. It seems that Tiger Airlines may be one.