InkUnderNails

Acronym: SAD.



Appropriate.

It dawned on me while writing these that the objections to the procedures runs the breadth of political ideology. There is something to dislike by everyone. It is very few issues that are this way and it may be our one hope for success.

gatelouse

Sent the following brief e-mail to 1PVoice late last week:

Note what I did here; I'm interpreting the airlines' silence or general support for the TSA as specific support for the NoS and full-service massage (FSM). A handy rhetorical trick for your next debate or letter.

UA responded today with a form letter that suggests that they're counting complaints, much as a legislator would.

We want the airlines to see a sharp uptick in the number of TSA complaints from frequent flyers that correlates to the expansion of NoS and FSM. Assume that they're counting these letters (with higher weight given to flyers of higher status or revenue). Even an e-mail—keep these brief—can help.

barbell

This is a very good strategy.

As someone who has received these reports, this is exactly what will get senior management's attention. Remember that as you write Congress and whoever else you deem appropriate.

TXagogo

Hey Barbell,
You might be a good person to answer this question but I invite anyone with this knowledge to please answer:

Do letters sent to Presidents and/or CEOs of large corporations or to Congressmen/women actually get read by the recipient?

Thanks...

michellemck99

Thank you so much gatelouse for your post yesterday on what you sent to United. I used it to send an email to AA yesterday; overnight I got the following response:

divemistressofthedark

Awesome. I have edited the sample letter to the airlines in the OP to reflect this assumption that airlines are approving current TSA procedures, and will work on the Congressional letter shortly. Thanks BB.

barbell

Sorry that I missed this question earlier.

Unless you have an individual's specific mail code, everything, and I mean everything, will first go to Customer Relations, or some other such named department. They then determine whether it should be handled there or forwarded on through internal mail. More often than not, that's where it stays.

I don't know of a single executive or manager that reads the actual email/letter unless it's a specific issue that requires a specific response. I've heard anecdotal stories that such-and-so reads so many customer letters a week. They most likely get a list of pertinent sentences so they can keep a finger on the pulse of customer reaction if they are seen in public/on a plane/in the club. They are most likely offered a list of standard responses so the company is giving a consistent response. Or they determine the response and send it over to customer relations for dissemenation.

As a point of reference I once sent a letter to the CEO of Chase regarding a regulatory matter I felt they hadn't handled correctly on one of my accounts. The corporate address is in Manhatten. The response came from the "executive support team", postmarked from Houston. It just so happens that the customer response division of the banking industry's regulator is also in Houston, facilitating easier face-to-face meetings between these two groups. I only point this out to indicate that executives likely don't ever see these letters.

So, here's the exact process:

1. Letter received and processed by customer relations (or Congressional staffer).
2. Point of letter determined (so it helps to be direct, polite, and brief).
3. Customer relations then records the nature of the complaint/compliment in a database by a series of defined groups. So, in this instance there is likely a series of categories and subcategores labled something like "TSA/security, complaint, process" or "TSA/security, complaint, wait time" or "Loyalty, complaint, redemption" or "Airport Customer Service, complaint, behavior".
4. Category totals are then tallied for the month and sent to department analysts for comment/review. At this point, an executive summary is also sent to the executive team with a bell-curve analysis. For example, following a merger there is very likely to be an uptick in complaints regarding the frequent flyer benefits that are lost when the programs are integrated. So the report will show a huge uptick in those complaints, and all of the other categories will appear to be not as important to customers.
5. Department analysts may decide to dig into the numbers and determine if an increase in complaints is significant to warrant action or further review. Depending on the process they either go back to customer relations for specific comments from the letters, or customer relations has already filtered pertinent sentences out and included them somewhere in the report.
6. If an analyst sees a trend they feel needs to be addressed, they then bubble it up to their management who then may, or may not take it to the division VP and then start doing something about it.
7. If a division VP or higher sees a number in their purview that they think needs to be addressed, they then go to the department manager to find out why there are so many complaints. Hopefully, for the sake of the analyst's long term job prospects, they have already alerted their local management of the situation and how to respond. Middle managers hate to be caught off guard and embarrassed by their VPs. It was sport for me because my manager is an idiot.

So, specific to our cause, if there is a statistically significant increase in the number of complaints detailing a specific policy or action, it will likely get noticed. The question is whether or not the opinion of the middle manager matches ours. In the case of my airline, the security department thought TSA was an absolute joke. At that airline, if a significant uptick in complaints is noticed the manager will likely work with the appropriate VPs to start applying pressure to their contacts at TSA. They will not do it until they have determined enough of their own customers are complaining about a specific issue, and that it will negatively impact the bottom line. In this case it helps to be organized, which I think we are here.

The trick is that these numbers have to be high enough to stand out against rude customer service, flight delay, and frequent flyer redemption problems. It may also have to be sustained for a few months to get someone's attention. I can see an analyst noticing an uptick in November and deciding that it is only because the policy is new and people are caught off guard. If the numbers remain high enough through December and January, they then may decide that it is actually because people actually are ticked.

We also have at our advantage the very high likelihood that these analysts are also encountering this nonsense and are not happy about it. On their own there really isn't anything they can do. With statistical analysis they can push an agenda. Note the CNN story yesterday morning as an example. Prior to that the media reports by and large seemed to dismiss the Patriot Michael Roberts story as a whiny pilot with a select few tin foil hat nutjobs weighing in on the comments and poll sections railing against the gubment. After Rosemary Fitzgerald got her titties fondled, there was an immediate and noticeable change in the tone of the media against the new policy. The TSA then predictably rolled out a bomb plot to quash it, and Rosemary's report was replaced with one about terrorists coming to get us. I know I'm not the only one who wasn't surprised.

Meanwhile, customer relations/Congressional staffer has a boiler plate form letter that says, "We cooperate with the TSA. Please contact the TSA for further information on how to be safe."

That's a really long response, and I'm sorry for that. But now you know how the process works (or is broken depending on your vantage point ). There are a lot of other variables that go into the process, but this is what happens.

I really like those letters! INK's shorter versions are also appropriate for those who prefer to be a little more direct.

InkUnderNails

Great info, and thanks. The pointedness may be due to my meds. (According to Mrs. Ink) I was working on a series of regional ones when my meds wore off. I may get back to them later.

You mention the statistical trends. If the long term reasons stay flat, while the new complaints trend up, is the system designed to pull these out of the noise? For example, if they consistently, every month get 1000 emails on lost baggage and suddenly the screening complaints go from 100, 200, to 250 and continue to trend up, will that be seen as significant?

barbell

In a word: yes.

The system is designed, though, to exclude certain populations. If you are a chronic complainer, you are likely sent a bone (voucher, miles, whatever), but you are excluded from the data, even if you are complaining about something new. Say you always complain about scheduling/on time performance, and now you're complaining about security. Well, you'll just complain about anything won't you? It's too time intensive to take you seriously, so we're just going to write you off altogether. It's therefore important to not send in the missive every week, or every day. It also means we need to change the letters for December, and then again in January to stay ahead of evolving threats.

The baggage is a great example. Those 1000 emails will be coded to specifc airport locations. If the majority of complaints are specific to a certain location (most likely a hub), they'll dig in to find out what infrastructure is causing this number because ultimately the bottom line is impacted by these numbers, and there's a formula for it.

Likewise, when security complaints creep up, they'll dig in to see why. They already expect a spike in November because of yesterday's announcement. That increase, or sustained number going forward will get their attention.

What they also are already doing is tracking booking trends and most likely comparing them against the trend curve of these complaints against last year's booking trends. I would be very surprised if a manager hasn't already assigned an analyst to specifically track security complaints against load factor forecasts, and they are likely pulling this data daily. Once January comes they expect a drop in bookings, but if the drop is statistically significant against last year and the complaint data remain high, then they absolutely will act. What their response will be is anybody's guess based on department politics, individual agenda, and relationship w/ local and/or hub FSD and TSA HQ.

InkUnderNails

Thanks again. I foresee a plan for the future. ^

barbell

Here's a real world example involving TSA and baggage delays. It's really just FYI.

A particular hub was notorious for delayed baggage that impacted the entire system. Senior management sat on local management and made them detail every single thing that was wrong with the infrastructure, from staffing levels, to training, to procedures, to facilities, down to whether or not there were any physical obstacles between the ticket counter and the ramp.

They already knew that the facilities were outdated and broken. For example, the new TSA requirements for checked baggage to go through the big screening machines didn't work with the airport's existing conveyor system behind the check-in counters. In fact, bags would literally be stacked behind the counter because there was a logjam getting them through the TSA's machines, and some of them would sit there for days.

When they dug in a little deeper, they discovered that the TSA wasn't processing the bags fast enough because they put a little sticker on every, single bag tag. Every. Single. One. Whether it got an additional search or not. Whether it was an orginator or a connection. So there was an issue of capacity processing capability over which the airline had zero control. Mind you, this is one of 3 airports I know of where they pracitce this stupid and totally useless procedure.

The head of security worked with the local security manager, and they met with the FSD for that airport several times. At the end of the day they were told to pound sand because that FSD wanted everyone to know that his airport screened all bags. Apparently putting a sticker on them proves that somehow.

So, at the airline's expense, a bigger system with greater capacity had to be built to accomodate this ego. Since they had problems of their own to fix, they were able to hide it in a larger project. One of several examples why that particular security deparmtment thinks TSA is stupid.

coachrowsey

barbell without going into details with some differences this is what happens here & we mis connect a lot of luggage thanks to TSA & of course the customer blames the airline.

ewick12

My biggest gripes with these policies are that they are required even for children and victims of sexual assault.

How do you think a rape victim would feel if the TSA frisked them? And how would you like seeing a man touch your children's genitalia? This really disgusts me.

I wrote a personalized letter to one of my Senators and will keep sending them. Thanks for the encouragement!

Thanks for that very thorough response. What about faxes? Should I do that instead of emails? What is most likely to get noticed?

barbell

Airlines prefer email. It's easier to track, less likely to get lost, and cheaper to respond. If you send the same letter in different formats it likely will get ignored, and gum up the system. They really hate that, and you may get flagged and thereby excluded from the data.

As for Congress, one staffer I spoke w/ indicated that different forms of communication are given different weight in determining their importance. I posted this info somewhere else, but as best I remember an email represents 10 constituents, a phone call represents 100 constituents, a letter represetns 500, and an in-person visit represents 1,000. They figure that only a motivated few will actually contact the office, but they assume that person's view is representative of others. They then assign importance based on ease of making the contact. As for faxes, I don't recall that information ever being discussed. Keep in mind that an actual letter will take considerably longer to reach Congress because of the post-9/11 anthrax scare. So far as I know, they don't track multiple contacts. It's all just tallied.

If you really want to make an impact, continue writing. You may also want to consider joining us on an organized citizen lobbying effort that has been discussed over here. Watch for details later in November/early December if you'd like to join us.

LV702

Don't forget to write hotel and rental car companies about you cutting back on travel.

Also contact local media outlets (forget the national ones), about how unsafe the machines are, and the fact the screeners can't wear the dosimeters. Also mention the words of nude children, seniors, disabled vets etc...