FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - AIR FRANCE and KLM invite you to join the Quality Observer Program
Old Jan 13, 2014, 6:27 am
  #14  
San Gottardo
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Programs: Eurostar Carte Blanche, SBB-CFF-FFS GA-AG, SNCF Grand Voyageur LeClub
Posts: 7,831
Originally Posted by nicolas75
AF would certainly love to understand how can a customer be so loyal and unhappy with them (just to make sure not to change anything as any investment would be a pure loss of money).
So the logic is that there is no need for AF to change anything because in any case I use that route very often?

Believing that a frequent customer is a loyal customer is a fallacy. Believing that frequent custom equals high share of wallet is a fallacy.

Let's apply your logic to a hypothetical passenger. Someone who commutes every week between Paris and New York, in premium classes. Out of his >50 roundtrips per year he makes 12 on Air France. The passenger's feedback on AF is always underwhelming. But with 12 return trips a year you/AF would say "so what, he flies with us a lot despite not liking the product. So why try to loyalize him or why invest into the product, he flies with us anyway. Any investment would be a waste of money". Of course what AF doesn't see that this passenger uses AF only when he has no other choice, for instance because of scheduling constraints or because he has a connecting flight to a place that he would otherwise not reach or only with an airline he'd like even less. In those cases he is a captive customer. All the other 40 times when he does not have any constraints but a choice he flies on American Airlines, usually buys First Class, and also uses them and oneworld airlines because he likes their product, their lounges, their FFP. You/AF would not see those other 40 flights and you/AF would not see that this passenger can be even much more attractive than you believe he is. And because there is no effort to loyalize that customer the probability of you/AF getting more of that business is zero.

Not wanting to chase unconquered share of wallet is something that companies usually cannot afford. Sure, there are choices to be made about which customers are worthwhile to be pursued and with certain customers there comes a point where the marketing/loyalization costs exceed the added benefit. But that analysis is different than just concluding that the offer is good enough for a frequent user only because he is a frequent user. It ignores that he could be an even more frequent user.

To come back to me as the passengers whose behaviour/assessment you commented: I do fly CDG-ZRH quite a bit on AF, but it's not more than 5% of my flying on that route which I use sometimes several times a week. Even those 5% represent many flights and enough to make substantiated comments about their product. But to believe that I am loyal is a conclusion that you have made, and it's wrong.

It's always amusing to see how smarta## observations are mistaken for a major revelation, whilst the observer does not see the intellectual trap in which he just walked.
San Gottardo is online now