Ancient Observer

I have searched, but been unable to find where BA's service standards are.
All the Companies that I know/have worked for have service standards for dealing with b2b and end customers. One boutique hotel in Surrey that I stayed in proudly displayed its enormously detailed service standards, complete with photos and timings for just about everything..
I imagine BA has them aswell.

There are a lot of complaints on here about service standards. However, they can only be a "complaint" if the airline is not delivering its promises.

For instance, what is the standard for replying to an e-mail? What is the standard for re-ticketing? What are the onboard service standards in each class?
How long are non-status folk supposed to wait for a telephone to be answered?
Is one supposed to be shown to one's seat in F? (Why??? It isn't exactly a large area, and would be difficult to get lost....)
Is one supposed to get a pre-dinner drink in J?
How long is the meal service in J supposed to take?

etc etc.

Thanks for help in pointing me where to look for BA's service standards........

dddc

Be interesting to see, but some of them I can see being split into operational procedure as opposed to service standard, like how long to serve a meal to me would be an operational procedure, answering a phone would be a service standard if you can see my split.

Can I help you

I could answer all the cabin questions as they are all detailed in our Service Standards but so is everything else so to be honest unless you have a particular reason for asking the above questions I'm not going to start going through these.

Ancient Observer

CIHY,
thanks. I thought they might be in the public domain.
The reason that I asked was I am never sure how to judge what is said on here. For instance, someone complained about not being shown to their seat in F, and then launched in to a series of tiny complaints. They also used the exaggerated language of the serial complainer.
Now, IMHO, not being shown your seat is hardly the reason for beginning a lengthy complaint.
If the service standards were in the public domain, we would know better what to expect.

Can I help you

That's probably why it isn't.

CommanderB

BA has no interest in advertising that its failing in the service standards it defined itself anymore than they already are.

carrotjuice

There's no service standard, as crew take care to constantly remind us, thus conveniently hide behind the assertion, that they exist primarily for our safety.

Can I help you

There are safety standards and service standards, they are there for completely different reasons.

JAXBA

As CIHY mentioned, there are cabin service standards but they're internal. Personally, I found them interesting to read.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ancient Observer

For instance, what is the standard for replying to an e-mail? What is the standard for re-ticketing? How long are non-status folk supposed to wait for a telephone to be answered?

Answer: whenever they can eventually get to it... they might still measure how long it takes, but for all intents and purposes, they gave up on targets years ago.

Most services other than inflight are simply documented as how to do it, not a particular standard to do it to. I'd imagine that contractors like BaxterStorey (LHR Lounges) have contractual service standards they're expected to maintain, but BA publicise standards they themselves are meant to meet? Why, everyone would try and hold BA to them...

orbitmic

To be honest, being pragmatic here, I'd say it is probably best that BA do not publish their service standards openly, because their enhancement 'rhythm' is such that if they did, they'd probably need to update them every month or so!

that would require hiring people just to update the service standards, which would cost more money, which in turn would be used as rationale to further decline 'simplify' the service offerings, thereby leading to a need to further revise the service standard documents etc.

NWIFlyer

I would suspect there's a practical difference between a single, non-chain, hotel publishing a service standard and an organisation the size of BA - with so many different operational issues to contend with - doing so. That's hardly unique - I don't recall seeing IHG's standards, for example, wholly written down anywhere either, and arguably that would be far more useful to the consumer in holding an individual hotel to account when they fail to meet the corporate expectation.

In the end, what the customer or business experiences in reality is what makes up their mind as to whether or not they want to continue to engage with any company. So if, say, BA mandated that the pre-departure beverage would be offered within 5 minutes but never achieved it, but QF didn't set a time limit at all but consistently delivered within 5 minutes, then the vast majority of customers are going to think that QF's on board service is better and make qualitative judgments based on that. They're not going to go searching for what's written down and stored in a dusty corner of Waterside because it's not relevant to them on the ground (or in the air).

simons1

I sent something to the AA the other day by email.

I got an automated reply acknowledging receipt and saying they would respond in a max of 48 hours. Of course it was actually less.

Basic rule of customer services - first manage expectations then exceed them.

kaizenflying

Probably easier to split different levels of service into soft and hard standards. Responding to an email within a published time frame is a performance indicator for the business and should be published. Showing someone to their seat is a softer standard because the customer may prefer not to be escorted. Softer standards are internal indicators rather than measures. Turning softer standards into harder ones (no carry on film pun intended) is dangerous as it tends to make the service robotic and insincere. BA softer standards tend to be available under their "Information " tab of the website.

My biggest groan about BA has been inconsistency across hard and soft standards. The customer never really knows what to expect and BA's advertised 'experience' is not really of the higher standard many passengers expect of one of the world's key airline players. But I also believe customers have become a nightmare and their behaviours/expectations feed this to some extent. Not being shown to a seat suggests more of an emotionally damaged and needy individual rather than a serious failure in standards, as such.

JAXBA

In terms of hard and soft standards then, a published BA hard standard would be check-in/boarding closing times. Hard, published and a type of service standard - it avoids delaying everyone else if/when broken.

Email response time? Ha! *You get it when we say you get it...* or *How long is piece o' string?*

Soft standards/guidelines on how to do it, yes, those exist internally.

Littlegirl

The service standards are constantly updated and would be out of date within a month of being publicised.

They are a guide and varrious reasons could require them to be altered on the day.