Ancient Observer

Why would anyone complain about poor service from BA?
All that will happen is that you will get a cut-and-paste letter talking about treating people fairly on average.
If you request that your complaint should be escalated, in about 6 months time, you might get 5,000 airmiles.

Globaliser

What do you think ought to happen if someone makes a complaint about poor service?

Should there be a jangle of bells and a slot machine payout of Avios alongside the cut-and-paste letter?

Should BA give the complainant every last detail of what disciplinary or retraining processes the specific staff member has undergone?

Should managers make company-wide process changes in response to the complaint and then give the complainant a presentation on what has been done?

Just what do people expect the company to do? What do people expect other companies to do when they make complaints? And do people really think that other airlines actually do anything differently, even if their replies read like they are more spontaneous and heartfelt? Does anyone truly believe that other companies' responses to complaints are actually spontaneous and heartfelt?

frandrake

I do agree it is naive to expect a heartfelt, genuine followup to every complaint, but I think in the case of premium passengers given the 1) amount of money spent 2) often, the very personal nature of the hassle lamented, airlines could do more in trying to establish what happened and offer substantial goodwill gestures.

To this extent I quite like BA, as while they mess it up constantly and sometimes badly, their service agents try their best and it transpires they are often really stretching to help or amend.

On the other hand, I once had a terrible experience with LH on the ground, in the air and later on with their customer service, which led me to believe that company is a massive cockup and since then I never flew a single mile with them. If they had simply cared a bit more, said they were sorry and toss a little (yet meaningful) goodwill gesture at me I would have given them several thousands of Euros of customs, which they instead lost.

I am a big fan of proper customer service and CRM. Well done, it generates more revenues than the one you lose in the short term. Apple build an empire around customer service, and even now that has severely deteriorated still people are happy to pay huge premiums for sub-par devices on the back (also) of that premium service.

Ancient Observer

Having worked in big corps where Customer Service was the key differentiator, the one that allowed for premium pricing and premium profits, I am amazed at how poorly BA handle the best possible feedback. Real feedback from real customers.
A customer that has a bad experience that is rectified by Customer Service agents, (It is called Service Recovery for those not used to good service), is far more likely to come back and tell their friends/colleagues. That makes them worth caring for.

Being told that BA don't care about you as a person, but just wants to treat you fairly on average, and is not interested in Customer service shows that the Bureaucracy that Eddington tried to get rid of is alive and very well in BA.

ibmman69

I agree with you. When you fly in F the attendants should cater to you. That's part of the point when you fly F, but that doesn't abdicate your responsibility as a customer to stand up for yourself. Attendants are not mind readers. Should the attendant have offered OP another meal based on the way OP described the situation, and her interaction with the attendant? Yes. Absolutely, and at a minimum, especially if the attendant believed the lamb was bad. In fact, I'd go so far as to say the attendant should've recommended another option-even from Club if the attendant believed the lamb to be sub-par.

I always strive to be polite to folks in customer service, find that a little goes a long way, and once you set the tone for what you expect as a customer you will, more likely than not, receive what you expect. In those instances when you are still dissatisfied you can express to the company involved that you set your service expectations at the beginning, which were not out of line with their advertisements and stated level of service, and still did not receive proper service.

SaraJH

I haven’t taken many first class flights but of those that I have flown by far the best was MF to Vancouver, that’s not to say that WW was anything less that great, it’s just that that one leg really stands out as a memorable flight. Good and not so good crew members can be found in any fleet, be it MF, WW or any other airline. It’s the luck of the draw.

Jagboi

How about training their employees properly? Then having an apprenticeship program where they can be mentored and coached by more experienced employees. How many times have we heard the complaint that the cabin crew were "enthusiastic, but clueless". That's not taking a swipe at the crew, they can only do their best; but there isn't much they can do if they have been thrown in the deep end without adequate training.

Once the employees have been properly trained and mentored, how about BA actually providing them the tools to do the job? You know, things like loading the bedding, the specially ordered meals or more than one bottle of wine for a SIN-LHR flight to quote examples from the last few weeks. There should be no excuse for a crew to have to report "We did the best we could with what we had".

Next after giving them the tools and training, how about actually following up to make sure the service standards they have been trained on and demonstrated competent in are actually being delivered? We have seen many reports here of inconstancies from flight to flight, or left side of the plane to right side. This shouldn't happen when there is an agreed upon service procedure.

The reports here have been going on for years, with many people reporting they don't bother writing in anymore because nothing changes. I would expect BA to be able to invest in their people, training and quality control to be able to deliver a consistent product that is in line with what they advertise they will provide. Is that really too much to ask for? Especially in F?

Farwest

Jagboi, you are spot on with what BA should do. But what is the likelihood of them actually doing what they should?

FW

Globaliser

The question was: Just what do people expect BA to do in response to their complaint that things were not good (as they sometimes are)?

There's endless whingeing about copy-and-paste replies that seem insincere. But usually, the most you'll get out of a big company is an insincere copy-and-paste reply that only seems sincere. Is that really the difference? Do people really expect BA to up-end the business just because they have made a complaint? None of us is that important.

But if we don't complain when things are not good, on the grounds that all we'll get back is an insincere copy-and-paste reply, then how is BA going to know that there is dissatisfaction? The real value of complaints is when numbers of complaints about a certain aspect (poor food in CE, inexperienced crew in F, or whatever) is trending upwards. That is the signal that something needs to be done. And that - not the personalised reply - is why we should complain when things are bad.

Phil the Flyer

Flexible preferences

Yes, they did. For some reason I used to get selected quite a bit!

Globaliser

I think that these may have been migrated to post-flight electronic surveys.

In investor day and similar presentations, BA and IAG have publicly referred to the numbers on specific issues - and more importantly to trends in the numbers on specific issues - as triggers for action to be taken, or for showing that action already taken has improved performance in a certain area. The numbers referred to have not only been from the surveys but from complaints.

FT's real issues with complaints and BA's responses sometimes seems to be that the complainant wants action to be taken in response to their own specific complaint. Except in rare cases, I really doubt that will happen, as with any other big company. Action might get taken if the complainant makes one of (say) 20,000 similar complaints about some problem that's new or different - but having an effect through being one of a big crowd of complainants wouldn't satisfy some people's need to be made to feel special.

stevie

I agree entirely. My experience of MF in CW and F is that I am dealing with an intern or trianee. Young and enthusiastic but not really a clue what they are doing.

Phil the Flyer

710 77345

Your grips are all valid, but in terms of what BA F routinely delivers I'd mark such an experience down as being an above average First experience.

Many of the normal BA F problems didn't crop up - you had great service in the CCR (on some occasions you can be waiting ages for someone to serve you, or even to come back with condiments in the dining room), you were able to get a massage, you had a spotless plane (either you are very lucky or you didn't lower your footstool!), you got every bit of food you wanted, no drinks ran out and you weren't denied bedding, slippers or an amenity kit.

It sucks to have a demotivated or low-skilled crew member, but I'd have walked away from that flight fairly satisfied, knowing that I've had many worse flights.

Hopefully though your JFK trip is one which is even better - when you get everything advertised and also a motivated crew member then everything just rocks. Make sure you report back and let us know how it goes!