How does Delta self-evaluate its service etc?
 

Do Delta employees fly "under cover" on actual Delta flights and take notes and make a report? Does anyone ever just wander though DL hubs and observe things and make notes for improvement? This is a serious question (I know people are already forming facetious responses...;)).

I've just been in enough situations where I wonder if ANYONE managing anything knows whats really going on on the ground and in the air.

I haven't heard of anybody that goes around or any "mystery flyers" evaluating operations.

I agree, this methodology would be a great way to identify deficiencies and ultimately improve product quality. It requires that the management be honest enough to admit, we don't have a best-in-class product, but we'd like to know where we don't, by how much, and we can use that info to determine how to get there.

The OP's suggestion is a good one. I wasn't being facetious either when I suggested that DL senior managers be compelled to experience the shortcomings of their own product from a customer viewpoint.

I'd bet that a contract provision that stipulates all DL managers over a certain level must use DL.COM to book their travel would very soon incentivize radical improvements.

The more layers of middle management insulate airline execs from the front line passenger experience, the more difficult it becomes a. to know what the real issues are and b. to understand how to address them in meaningful ways. DL seems to have some serious difficulties in this respect.

I think this is giving upper management too much of an "out" so to speak...

ANY Delta employee who goes through JFK will know what a total PIT it is...and I am assuming that all Delta management has to go through the same security that we all do, as they are not airport workers.

Thus they should KNOW how badly run/organized security is at JFK (for instance).

Also, all their friends and family should be telling them the good and bad of their own experiences with Delta. A GOOD manager will be happy to take input from ANY source....

All one has to do is look at Delta's home base of ATL to know that their corporate culture is deficient. When your homebase/headquarters openly and flagrantly treats customers indifferently or badly, it can only mean that management condones the behavior by looking the other way...

A quick story...in college a worked at a coffee shop to help pay for books. The owner came in one day on her off day to drop something off and from the back could hear something was going on at the register. She came out, asked what was the problem and then spent a long time (her own personal time) listening to the customer's complaint (which was valid but they were blowing WAY out of proportion...) and handled the situation in a way such that the customer would probably still come back in someday and didn't swear off the shop forever...

Can ANYONE imagine a Delta management type going through an airport stopping to help/intervene on the behalf of a passenger being treated badly?
Yeah...didn't think so...

I think these folks spend a lot more time on planes than we realize. I happened to end up on a flight with Jeff Robertson and Bob Soukup - one in coach one in first, both were in street clothes and wearing no visible DL/NW ID. I was seated next to Bob and he definitely didnt get any special treatment (not even any extra biscoffs *smile*), and from how we got Jeff in trouble *smile* for standing in the FA's way talking to us I'm guessing the cabin crew didnt know who they were!

This is probably one good side effect of the merger, meetings going on at more places than ATL and that putting more DL employees on planes as passengers more often - especially between ATL and MSP.