airbus320

The following is from an AC communique entitled "Building our success - one customer at a time"

"From a customer perspective, we want our customers to take away three things from their experience at Air Canada.

The people of Air Canada made my flight enjoyable.
I am proud of Air Canada, the national carrier of Canada.
I want to come back."

Talk about not practising what you are preaching....

SCMM

Looking on the positive side, at least management knows there is a problem and are trying to comunicate down the line that customers are important.

I don't envy their task, as changing a corporate culture that dates back many years is very very hard, but it can be done. Just look at BA now, and compare it to when it was government owned.


Stewart.

airbus320

Stewart: I recognize that changing corporate culture is a monumentous task. I was involved in organizational development for years before my retirement. I still bear the scars for facilitating the process.

My point is that I don't see much evidence at board and corporate level that customer service is high priority . The leadership is so focused on the bottom line that they miss the point: service impacts the bottom line. Yield management, cost cutting, fleet rationalization are essential components of returning to financial health. The softer isssues of employee morale and the human resources factors haven't received the attention that they deserve. AC needs a shake-up and it has to start with the board and the executive.

ALW

I agree with you both, it's very tough to change a corporate culture and it has to be done in small steps. But there's more to it than slogans.

"The people of Air Canada made my flight enjoyable." yet the people of Air Canada have limited ability to make the flight enjoyable since all flexibility is taken from their hands.

andrew


[This message has been edited by Andrew Webber (edited 08-01-2002).]

Carioca Canuck

Corporations all have boilerplate mission statements like this I think.....it's whether they try to actually carry them out....as opposed to just firing them off in a memo.

Ken hAAmer

It's my view that any corporation that needs a "boiler plate mission statement" is already behind in the game.

But I agree with Andrew -- if employees aren't able to do the minor things required to keep a customer happy because some bean counter has decided it's too expensive, then customer service by dictate will have no effect.

Shareholder

While I have always felt senior management and the board have been a world unto themselves and thoroughly unaccountable, this is not AC's biggest problem these days. It is the distrust of management by rank and file members, and the interncecine battles between ex-AC and ex-CP workers, abetted by a CUPE which is totally out of touch with the realities of the private sector.

Yes, Parnel, even in my new more mellow state, those four initiials represent a curse word, even in my pinko vocabulary. There is no more vile a union in this country than CUPE, or union leaders than its boasts.

But as I noted in an earlier post, my reading of an airline employee bulletin board, reflects just how bad the situation is at AC, and particularly among CUPE members to the company and their own leadership.

Also an interesting post about some of the trainning that is now going on at AC, particularly with respect to new standards for J service to be introduced this fall. Many of those FAs taking these courses were outraged at the marks they received, for reasons they could not fathom. I don't want to pass judgements on those posts or the people involved, just reflect that this is a sick company on both sides, which refuses to acknowledge the need for a fresh beginning.

As I've often noted when discussing the success of WestJet and others like JetBlue, it is a lot easier starting with a blank sheet of paper, than inheriting a legacy of distrust, suspicion and ongoing turmoil.

exAC

Don't sweep too broad a stroke and please treat each contact as individual.

While there is still a lot of behind the hand whispering about "That other group". There is a lot of merging going on. Particularily in the In-flight group there are many people who have been hired who did not belong to any legacy group. The latest flare up of the Pilot seniority situation has not seen the same level of rhetoric as before [although there is still some]. At the local level the passenger agents and ramp attendants and maintenance workers have to work with the same people every day and the barriers come down. The old saw of them versus us comes out when no other excuse can be found.

There is a little story from one of the medium size stations where a couple of cross culture romances have sprung up. This caused one wag from the former AC group to good naturedly exclaim:
"You took our seniority, you took our jobs, NOW you are taking our women". The joke was enjoyed by all former AC/CP/WD/PW/EPA/Nordair/CPA/and the guys from Winnipeg with the yellow and brown airplanes whose name excapes me at the moment.

AC*SE

I disagree, to a point, Ken. It's not a case of need--it's a case of use.

Consider McDonald's. Even the kid mopping the floors will tell you, "I help make the best hamburgers in the world." It's not that the mission statement is boiler plate; it's not that it is fanciful; it is that every single employee in the organization buys into it. If you can achieve that, then even a pat, boilerplate missiong statement can have a profound effect on motivation.

wombat

I was on a UA flight last week and the FA handed everyone a questionaire. The 100 questions covered everything from the check-in experience to the meal. As an inducement a completed form was an entry for a couple of system wide tickets.

I would love to see some evidence that AC is even feigning interest in customer opinions.

SCMM

I thinks its been said before that the biggest obstacle to major change is the lack of accountability of management to shareholders due to the limited ownership rule.

When management has no major incentive (like being given the proverbial boot) to effect change, then change takes forever (if at all).

Release AC from its bounds, replace senior management and watch the culture change.

But I don�t suppose its going to happen

Stewart.

MapleLeaf

I actually pitched this to both AC and WJ a couple of years ago (marketing consultant here) and both felt there was no need for this level of customer feedbac. Surprisingly the marketing head at WJ was the most arrogant individual I have ever come across. He takes the approach, we sell cheap flights who cares what our customers want - they buy on price. Clive Beddoe on the other hand thought our idea was brilliant.

As a result of his arrogance I have never set foot on a WJ plane since.

Shareholder

Surprising to hear ML. I recall receiving surveys to complete on many AC flights, though none in the recent past. I was offered one both ways on BA in June, on both legs: Concorde to LHR, A320 to FRA. And I have been approached a couple of times in the past two years in the BA Terraces lounge by someone conducting a short survey.

The WJ reaction is not totally surprising. I am sure this is not the first time you got that response in Alberta particularly. Their research, for too many companies, is in the gut of the senior managers and doesn't need to be validated by the likes of us folks.

sing-along

I flew from TPE (Taipei) to YOW this past week and heard that AC is coming out with a new customer service plan or program to empower front-line staff to make the necessary decisions to solve problems. Appartently this plan/program is for all employees...both front-line and back-office staff.

Cheers

Academic

I trust that they are going to be given the power to make positive decisions.
Actually, this should be an interesting process to watch. Given the previous corporate attitude of the customer is always wrong, I wonder how easy it will be for the front-line staff to adapt to a can-do approach? If there is a full buy-in, it could make a huge difference in the way people come to regard AC.