TrojanTraveler

Completely agree. Although the great people part is starting to slip.

Perhaps this could be more related to disappointment. DL used to be much better than AA and UA, and that's increasingly not the case. Delta's decline is more recent (whereas UA has sucked for years), so its fresher in people's minds.

pbarnette

It isn't clear they were even rated. Perhaps someone is willing to give these guys their phone number to get a copy of the report? Myself, I don't want salespeople calling me, so will rely on someone else to report back.

cardood

This. Although I would not say their products are great. Good maybe.

To list contributing factors:
- SkyPiles
- Crappy website
- Award Engine on DL.dum
- Increases in mileage required for awards (+25% for Europe)
- SkyKlub booze downgrade
- SkyKlub over-crowdedness
- SkyKlub higher fees
- SDC bend-over (although recent slight improvements could help)
- FO as the new Kettle
- FCM
- Ridiculous fare increases (to this Hub captive anyway)

It's really not hard to see how they scored so poorly.

c|d

AA_EXP09

Certainly, they have earned it thanks to SkyPesos and MQD.

pbarnette

I take it from the responses that nobody read the article? At the very least, I have to be the only one that read the "methodology" section of the original article. Because most of the comments are quite off point.

GUWonder

.... and have as large a business customer base as DL has that end up with devalued SkyMiles.

tonypct

Would you care to elaborate?

tonypct

Yep. You can pretty much manipulate data to have it come out anyway you'd like.

telloh

Because the survey in question wasn't about customer experience.

"How favorable a firm rated was derived from remarks on a company's reputation, how its management is perceived and its investment potential."

tonypct

That's interesting. I'd love to see the actual questions that were asked.

pbarnette

Sure.

This survey isn't about customer impressions or favorability of the product. As I previously noted, it is a survey of a "senior business audience" (this is in quotes both because that is how they say it and also because I doubt those polled are actually overly impressive) measuring on "overall reputation, perception of management, and investment potential". It is more akin to the Fortune ranking than anything else.

Given that it isn't about customer impressions, I fail to understand all the discussion about stuff like the booze in the SCs. I mean, do you really think a "senior" businessperson at company X is saying to himself: "well, I like DL's financial performance, but they recently downgraded the vodka in their SCs, so I'm going to have to mark them down a notch"?

What is funniest, though, is that DL doesn't actually rank the lowest! Frankly, it isn't clear what criteria they used to call out DL as "worst" when there are 810 companies ranked lower than them (they vaguely say something about them being well-known, but don't actually elaborate). Heck, Southwest is ranked lower than DL. Ditto for Amgen, Philips, Siemens, Telefonica, and even BERKSHIRE F****ING HATHAWAY!

It isn't just that they seemed to have picked DL as the "worst" with no real basis in methodology, but that they also seemed to have polled some people of exceptionally limited intellect judging by the placement of many of the firms.

My guess as to why they decided to include DL as the "worst" is that they are trying to sell something to DL. This is a branding firm after all.

People are approaching this as if it is some sort of customer satisfaction survey, when it isn't. If people want to debate where DL stands in the pecking order of customer satisfaction, might I suggest they discuss, you know, an actual customer satisfaction survey? Might I further suggest they do so by discussing surveys from organizations that are good at survey design and execution? The ACSI would be my recommendation, but if others want to offer up other surveys, we can discuss the merits of their methodology.

Panam Clipper

This may explain how this survey was done.

http://www.thestreet.com/story/12015...o&cm_ven=YAHOO

pbarnette

Thanks. That is helpful, to a point. It reinforces my assumption that DL was killed on investment potential, not customer satisfaction. It also seems like DL got hurt simply by being well-known.

I'm also still a little unclear who these "senior" businesspeople are that they polled who don't know Berkshire Hathaway, Siemens, or Philips. Seriously, who are these people?

tonypct

Thank you! Well said. I also had one same thought as you, that CoreBrand has as an ultimate goal, to sell their services to Delta.

Canarsie

The results for 2014 have just been released by CoreBrand.

You will need to register free of charge to see the results.

Delta Air Lines slipped one point: from 215 in 2013 to 216 in 2014.

That is down from 185 in 2009...