PrimaVista

I emailed YouFirst back on the 13th of this month, requesting the First Menus for one trip I have coming up at the end of the month.

I received a reply that the Menus were not yet available and that they would be emailed to me once they became available.

I mentally filed it in the "Email them again yourself" file.

Today, the same person, Leila, has been in touch with Menus both for the outbound and return, with an apology for me having to wait.

The whole tenor of the emails are quite different to my recent experiences with Cathay, Qatar and Emirates; I feel valued, and isn't that the differential between average and excellent customer service?

marshy11

The things that cost nothing are generally the easiest to get right and most valued when done so.

orbitmic

I think that the GGL team/You First are typically excellent, and indeed, access to the GGL line is one of the reason I often continue to fly BA in priority. It is less good than it used to be (ie there have been many recent recruits and I don't find them all as good as the earlier, smaller team, and o course nowadays, the GGL line is closed during the night) but some individuals out there are outstanding.

However, I would disagree with the suggestion that BA customer service is good otherwise. I find the customer relations' approach one of the worst in the industry in my experience. They either do not read the contents of the letters, or merely paraphrase (or technically plagiarise) what you write nearly word for word to show you that they have and follow a completely empty 'set in stone'' formula which is hilariously supposed to come across as personalised. (It starts by fake empathy [I realise that you have been very disappointed by - insert plagiarised bit - etc, continues with a pretence to forward your message to relevant services, and ends with wishing you a good flight to [insert next BA destination on your profile]. UNlike other airlines, they are never solution oriented, ie if you are lucky, you'll get some avios, if you are unlucky, you'll be disturbed by a phone call at some random time aimed at saying outloud what they would put in the email and ending with a random apology. My experience of customer support with various other branches of BA from their Bremen team to BA holidays has also typically been extremely poor, the only major exception beyond the GGL/You First team is actually the Flyertalk team whom I have not been in touch often but when I was, they were also truly excellent.

Since you mention CX, I must say that my recent experiences with them in cases of problems have been spectacular in case of issues. In one case that was a bit more unpleasant, the station manager contacted me and followed up throughout and kept me informed regularly, even writing to apologise that I wouldn't hear for a while at one point because she was on annual leave till date x. I am a nobody with CX and I was only flying J, and while annoying the issue was not major/unusual by any standard. My customer relations experience with AF and KL (which I fly much less than BA nowadays) or even the disorganised AZ is also vastly superior than with BA. In fact, even my experience of U2 customer service has typically been excellent.

I do however share your view that anything back-office related with QR is typically very poor. They mean well but are unprofessional and largely disorganised. QR is great on board and when all goes well, but good luck to you when something goes pear-shaped with your booking. I don't fly EK except when it would be really counter-productive not to, and as it happens I've never had much need to depend on their back office so can't comment on those.

So in short, I share your enthusiasm for some of the great staff in the GGL/You First team (as well as the FT BA team) but unfortunately, in my experience, this is not representative of the BA customer relations approach which whilst indeed better than QR and other "nightmarish back office" airlines in my view lags significantly behind many competitors.

T8191

My few communications with BA CS have been ‘<shift F5> <<ctrl/shift F7>.

I disregard them completely ... there is no ‘Customer’ in the process,

AnaTravel

I agree that Qatar Airways' 'back-office' is not up to scratch. From bookings to the loyalty programme and customer feedback service, British Airways shine compared to rival QR. In the air and in flagship lounges, Qatar offers a better product. You First don't always get it right but they are accessible and try to get answers to questions. Orbitmic's experience of CX, I relate to.

FlyerTalker39574

V10

The best test of an airline's customer service is when you're a nobody flying at the back of the plane, and a technical problem has stranded you at a remote outstation.

Then you can see how much they really value their customers.

Ancient Observer

In Aviation, things will go wrong. The real check of a decent airline is "Service Recovery". When an airline does that well, it is a good airline.
BA has been bad at service recovery, except for a few instances, for some time.

HMPS

BA needs to clone Leila a thousand fold.

HMPS

Strange, you take me back a couple of years when I used to say customer as CUSTOMER ( TO REMIND ALL THE IMPORTANCE)in all my communications to my dept. to impress upon them that without CUSTOMERS we would sell nothing and have no jobs ! Alas I was shouted down. Good CUSTOMER service allows a business to recover lost or about to be lost business. Proven fact.

BearX220

I would say the true mark of an excellent service provider is when every customer feels valued, whether Gold, Silver, or Charcoal. OP is at the apex of the customer pyramid. I have had interactions with the BA Avios people that honestly drove me to the brink of tears; they were like dealing with a malfunctioning, sparking, brutally irrational android. Gold tier people may feel differently, but I do not think BA is at all a customer-centric organization. It tolerates customers.

EuropeanPete

I'd say the mark of a passable customer service organisation is when they've read your email and respond to you on a topic which at least makes some vague sense, and I have to say that BA mess that one up a little too often for me (and apparently countless other people from the comedy customer support emails reported here over the years). It's not like BA even has the excuse of them not having enough international staff who can speak English which can be a concern in other countries with other languages.

firstlight

While service levels do vary on the plane, I can say that the BA holidays team have always been excellent when I occasionally have had to call them.

binman

HIDDY

Care to expand? I'm not sure what your point is T8191.