Issues with AC
 

Hey everyone,

I'm taking a marketing class this summer, and my prof gave me a brand assignment. I have to highlight THREE things that a brand needs to improve on (I chose Air Canada). So what are the top three things that Air Canada needs to work on? He recommended this forum to me, so I was hoping I could get some feedback- I've never flown Air Canada before!

Thank-you in advance,

Katie N.

Consistency, consistency, and consistency.

Katie - good luck in your course.

One of the ways to gain insights into customer needs is to ask them. You did that with your posting. Another is to observe their behavior and infer their needs. This forum provides a huge record - by reading through the history - of what is important to flyertalkers. I would suggest you form a hypothesis based on what you read and then - if you wish - summarize and ask for feedback on what you have found.

+1 Great idea, will make Katie actually earn the help of all of us. ;) :p

1. Learn from Industry leaders like SQ
2. Engage the customer(not isolate the customer)
3. Inculcate a Corporate Culture

wait wait wait.....isnt too much consistency too boring? (like the SQ forums)?

I only started flying AC about three years ago. Compared to EU and US airlines, they have great cabin interiors (esp inflight entertainment), good customer service and an excellent route network.

However, the perception among most Canadians is that Air Canada has bad service and is a poor airline. My experience (from flying 100k miles in the last 12 months on AC and having flown similar distances on a few other airlines) doesn't match that perception - and when I challenge people who have that perception, they generally can't back it up, and in fact admit AC is a pretty good airline.

My hypothesis is that people's experience/perception of AC is either outdated or so fixed as to be difficult to change (or perhaps both). AC needs to work to change the perception, and it's not going to be an easy task. Perception becomes reality all too quickly.

^^Very insightful and I agree 100%. Perhaps the problem is that those who fly infrequently blame everything on the airline. I have been SE for years and I love AC. They are good to me, good to pax as far as I can see but get delayed during de-icing and other winter issues. As a FF, I know these are out of their control, but pax that go for vacation once a year on March Break hate the line-ups, hate sitting in the Y cabin, hate waiting for de-icing, hate that it can take long to take-off if only 1 runway is operating but these are not airline issues but being our national airline, they take the brunt of it.

On another note, why would you choose to improve a company when you have never even tried their service? you should have picked Tim Hortons or something, would have made your life easier and would have made for a more realistic paper. Here you are going to take the advice of a couple of AC haters or AC lovers...you have virtually no way of doing any actual analysis unless you buy a 3 month unlimited flight pass and try to get on as many planes as possible to sample the service yourself.

What is too much consistency, there is no CONSISTENCY!!!

They are very consistent...what are you talking about? Pulling out one-off situations that were a slight deviation from your last flight? Are you one of those that thinks things are inconsistent because you board a flight and you hear:
1. Welcome Mr. djjaguar.
2. Welcome aboard Mr. djjaguar


what an awful airline if that happens...what am I to expect to next time? Maybe I'll get
3. Good afternoon, welcome aboard Mr. djjaguar

That would send me into a tizzy!!!

i thought we always joke about SQ being operated by robots :p

I would say:

1) engage the customer. They used to do this by having FT events where some AC execs would attend. I'm not sure why this stopped, but it made people who attended feel good about AC. Just listening to a customer can make them feel better about the brand, even if you don't do anything about it, it buys you some short term goodwill.

2) Employee attitude. All too often the response from an employee is I can't do anything about it. WS employees have a much different attitude and are a lot more positive. The entire culture at AC needs a change.

3) Transparency. With all inclusive pricing they are better now, but I still have an issue with them charging operating costs as part of a "reward". Most airlines do this, but I wish they would all just do away with fuel surcharges altogether.

I think they could improve their brand if they started offering tickets for 4 miles + taxes to HKG.

Ok, fine, 4 miles + taxes + YQ

1. they do a better job of this now with the AC listens panel. they are reaching out to more people than just FT'ers..
2. the attitude is great. I have not had anyone tell me they can't do anything abou it. if I am trying to re-route somewhere they try and try, sometimes they can, sometimes they can't. i don't expect them to fly a plane for me.
3. you are complaining about an industry issue, not an AC issue.

This is probably the biggest branding problem AC has, and perhaps the most difficult element of it is that it is perpetuated by the media. If there is snowstorm shutting down airports, inevitably the media report how AC has inconvenienced customers and often somehow imply that it is only AC leaving people stranded somewhere. How do you fix that? Figure that out and AC will probably hire you!

An industry wide problem is how the majority of (North American) airline customers always choose the cheapest fare causing the inevitable race to the bottom between airlines to be the cheapest by cutting service to a bare-bones minimum. And then customers get upset at the lack of service they get when paying $150 for a 5h flight across the continent. This behavior not only causes all airlines to have a branding issue but also drives them to the brink of bankruptcy (obviously there are other reasons for that too).


It would be very interesting to read your final report. If you do publish it on the web once it is completed, it would be great if you posted a link here.