CD Traveller » customer satisfaction.

Air Canada Says Thanks

adrian — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 06:40:28 +0000

As you’ll recall, there was some industrial issues at Air Canada last week with check-in staff and call centre people. That has now been resolved. So Air Canada sent an e-mail to its customers thanking them for their understanding.
But this was a proper thank you, not just PR generated words which had little meaning. All recipients also received a code so that, provided they booked by last Sunday, (which is why I haven’t publicised it until know) they received a 15% discount off their next flight. The discount was off any flight within Canada or to the US and could apply up until December 9th so it included the peak Summer season and Canadian Thanksgiving Day which is October 10th this year.
I can’t recall many airlines doing this after a problem so it’s nice to able to congratulate an airline – indeed any company – that treats its customers with something extra.

The Longest Holiday?

Editor — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 08:18:24 +0000

In the US holidays of a week are common. Here the week or fortnight is more like the norm. In winter some seniors go away for a couple of months. But how do you fancy a year long holiday? All in the one place.
One of Sydney’s Sunday newspapers, The Sun-Herald, has reported today that a couple, Chris and Sally Allison, from the Sydney suburb of Mosman liked the place so much that they have booked accommodation for a whole year at a B&B in Rhyl in North Wales.
Admittedly the lady involved came from North Wales so she might be a bit biased in liking the place. But she has been living in Australia for getting on for 40 years, having left the UK when she was in early 20’s. The newspaper doesn’t say where he comes from. It seems that it is the accommodation and the scenery that attracts the couple. The accommodation, a guesthouse called Barratt’s and named after the owners, has managed to achieve what all accommodation providers want. A satisfaction rating that is so good that guests stay. And stay. And stay. The Barratt’s are not interviewed. It would have been nice to get their views on what they have done to achieve such loyalty. Is it the food, the service, the location, the feeling of being part of a family or even the fact that, the article says, they help in the garden? Whatever it is works. If they could bottle it, accommodation providers the world over would buy it. And we, as visitors, would want it.
The scenery, the couple say, is breathtaking. And that they love it there. So the tourist board will be delighted and should consider using the Allison’s in their next promotion. Something like, “We love it so much, it needs a year to enjoy!” The only thing they might object to is The Sun-Herald’s description of Rhyl as being “remote.”

Goodbye Wrexham & Shropshire

adrian — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 14:36:50 +0000

Wrexham Town Centre

In just under 5 hours the last ever service by the Wrexham & Shropshire railway will leave London’s Marylebone station on its final journey. Why get so concerned by a train service you might ask. After all, Virgin Trains run a direct service down to London even if it is only once a day.
The concern is because this little railway achieved so much in its short 3 year life. The satisfaction ratings given to it by passengers were better than anything ever seen since the ratings began. At 99% you can’t really get any better. And I doubt whether other train lines will. The service was good too. The staff would come through the train, address and treat you politely and then be there when you got off to thank you for travelling (at least on the few times I travelled with them.) And that’s part of the problem. I used them a few times; how often did others?
The owners, Deutsche Bahn have closed the railway because it was losing money. Too few passengers were cited as the reason. The recession was another. They got the service spot-on. And it took day trippers to a lovely part of the world where it was a short hop you see Pontcysyllte Viaduct, Chirk Castle or the second most popular stately home in the country, Erddig. Imagine how many travellers would have used it the summer to go to the National Eisteddfod which is being held in the town? Last week, Wrexham began its year of culture with over 300 events. How many people would have travelled by the W & C because of their prices? Could anything have been done? Cheaper engines and rolling stock? An agreement to stop at larger stations and pick up more passengers? Certainly Virgin’s contract effectively cut Wolverhampton out of their possible revenue sources.
For the day tripper and the visitor, the W & S provided a reasonably priced way to get to North Wales. You started your break with good staff service so you were in the right frame of mind. Compare that to Virgin Trains. It also means that another element of competition is removed in a rail industry where most routes are monopolies. All that remains is a single web page with a he red label announcing that the railway will cease. And a final sentence of thanks to passengers. Fares are higher as a result of the withdrawl of the service. The cheapest fare I could find two months from now was £73.50 or £78 if I wanted a decent time in the town. Compare that to the £40 I paid last time with just a few weeks notice.
Will this near doubling ot the fare deter day trippers and those wanting a short break? Yes Will Wrexham and the area suffer? Yes

image courtesy of Wrexham County Borough Council

Hotel Guests Being Treated Better

adrian — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 08:37:58 +0000

This isn’t the way that that the authors of a US report on hotels worded their announcement. They said that the satisfaction levels of hotel visitors had increased over the last year. Does it mean the same thing? But if hotel guests are more satisfied surely that comes as a result of feeling that they are being treated better?
The next question is whether we should believe what we read. After all how many of us have stayed at a place after checking reviews and then decided that the reviews must have been written by someone who was not too observant? Or blind as a bat. The same applies with research. If we understand it then we can accept or reject it.
This research comes from J D Powers, an American based company that regularly measures customer satisfaction. And the result comes from their 2010 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study which suggests that, for satisfied customers, guests should have wireless internet in their rooms and free breakfasts.
Think about it for a moment. 2009 was the worst year of the recession. The number of guests staying in hotels was declining. In response to that wouldn’t any good hotelier work harder to keep you happy so that you’ll return? So the economic crisis could be one reason for an increase in our satisfaction levels. The other thing about satisfaction is that you seem to get better service when there are fewer other guests about. If there are only 10 of you staying somewhere or if it is a small hotel, then the service is better. There are fewer things for hotel staff to be concerned with so they have more time for you – if you need it. In my experience, as a general rule of thumb, the larger the hotel, the less likely you are to get high satisfaction levels. There are exceptions of course.
So when you see press stories like this one that seem to suggest there have been improvements, look and think about what it says. A little bit of common sense can sometimes give an answer that isn’t given on the media.

Which? Airline for Short Haul?

Editor — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 10:16:40 +0000

The media are fixated by best and worst lists, top 10 lists and anything that seems to imply a rating. Some are just the works of individuals, some have research behind them and some are people adding their thoughts to a website. And if one person says this destination is the best thing since sliced bread do you believe them?
In their July issue Which? have published the results of their survey into short-haul airline routes based on what their members think. As CD-Traveller has written before, the readers of Which? are not the most representative of average Britons. They tend to be up-market, and not very young. Having said that, the research is well conducted and they do tell you how many responders there are to each of the key questions so you can make your own judgement on the results.
Measuring airline satisfaction, their readers believe that Swiss narrowly wins over Aer Lingus as the best airline for short-haul travel. This is calculated by taking the opinions across 8 different ratings; cabin staff, cleanliness, seating arrangements, leg room, cabin baggage allowance, checked bags allowance, value for money and how delays are handled. If you look at the individual ratings then jet 2 is the clear leader in satisfaction for dealing with delays. Satisfaction with the cabin crew was uniformly pretty good, unless you travelled with Ryanair. For leg room, Thomas Cook Airlines scored the worst, even over Ryanair.
Ryanair scores pretty well for value for money but even there it is beaten by Swiss.
And the worst? Thomas Cook Airlines gets that accolade with Ryanair not that far away. Beleaguered British Airways is about midway in the table just behind bmi. The survey was conducted in March which might explain why so few people had travelled on BA, just 671, which was when the strike issue was rearing its head there. The airline most used by the responders was easyJet. Over a fifth of all responders rated a flight with that airline. And maybe that’s the most interesting thing about the survey. Which? readers – some 60% of them-have become big users of no-frills or charter airlines..
There are some airlines missing from the survey perhaps due to a smaller number of responses because it would seem strange to omit them. There is nothing about Air France or its Cityjet brand. Iberia isn’t there nor is Alitalia or closer to home airlines like Aer Arann, Aurigny , Eastern, or Loganair.
And maybe Which? readers are becoming more representative than I thought they were.

Railways and Customer Satisfaction

adrian — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:51:59 +0000

It is unusual that customer satisfaction gets mentioned by a government. It merits interest especially if it looks as though there is genuine interest rather than lip service in what passengers think.

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

Customer Satisfaction Among Tour Operators

adrian — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 08:59:34 +0000

Looking out of the window at the large dollop of snow that has fallen overnight, it is easy to think of warmer parts of the world and getting away from the cold and bleak view I see. Where to go is one issue but who I go with is another.

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

Hotel Service

adrian — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:19:11 +0000

As you might gather, I have been back on the road as we look at the entrants for our 2010 Tourism Awards, (More about that in a few days time,) so I have been staying in hotels again.

The current hotel is a fairly old fashioned 3 star hotel, conveniently located right in the centre. You can guess that I chose it because I can easily get to some of the places I want to visit. I certainly didn’t choose it for the food which seems largely to be frozen food oven cooked. The lift is broken and the wifi access ( so I can upload this piece and see where I should be next) is not available today.

So should I be annoyed or at least unsatisfied?

The receptionist had been pleasant as she mentioned the problems. She has apologised profusely and dropped her head and smiled coyly in that way that customer service professionals tell you to do in order to get the customer at ease. The restaurant staff were efficient but limited in what they could offer and the waiter apologised for only having lager and one bitter on tap. Referring to one pudding, he said that it was very popular but didn’t seem to taste of much. How can you criticise that honesty?

Clearly this hotel is helped by its staff. The hotel chain is getting away with things that shouldn’t, and wouldn’t be tolerated, if the staff weren’t playing such a key role.

The question is whether I will stay here again? My thought is that I might because the lift and wifi can be mended but I probably wouldn’t eat here again. But maybe the hotel chain is relying on that staff training and loyalty to keep guests happy.

No, on second thoughts, I shan’t stay again.

Customer Service in Travel

adrian — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 10:20:46 +0000

This is the time of the year when the National Customer Service Awards are announced. In any industry service is important. Good service leads to satisfaction. Satisfaction can lead to loyalty and repeat business. No customer likes being ill treated, ignored, patronised or fobbed off with meaningless official waffle so awards that support good service are welcome. But travel and tourism doesn’t seem to have done to well in this year’s awards. Is that because they didn’t enter or they did, but weren’t shortlisted for the final?

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.

Customers Come Second Place With Airlines.

Editor — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:02:15 +0000

That’s the conclusion from a company called Collinson Latitude. This company specialises in finding other ways for airlines to make money out of you other than just from ticket sales. It can be travel insurance or entry into airport lounges or a host of other things. The important thing is that they are successful in developing these services for travel companies.

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!