How much do airlines' Customer Relations staff care about problems that customer have
Jul 1, 2022, 11:58 am
#1
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Join Date: Sep 2019
Posts: 2,094
How much do airlines' Customer Relations staff care about problems that customer have
Seeing the many upset passengers who post about their experiences on Flyertalk, I would guess that airlines' customer relations employees' days must be filled with receiving and dealing with these types of situations.
Question: If you ever have worked in a customer relations office of an airline, or if you know someone who has, how much do airline customer relations employees care about passengers who deal with situations such as the ones on Flyertalk: delays, unexpected overnight stays, downgrades, etc.?
I would figure that it would be easy to be desensitized to individual passengers' experiences once a person has read and responded to thousands of them, and I would figure that nice passengers would get more compensation than nasty ones. But I am curious.
Thanks.
Question: If you ever have worked in a customer relations office of an airline, or if you know someone who has, how much do airline customer relations employees care about passengers who deal with situations such as the ones on Flyertalk: delays, unexpected overnight stays, downgrades, etc.?
I would figure that it would be easy to be desensitized to individual passengers' experiences once a person has read and responded to thousands of them, and I would figure that nice passengers would get more compensation than nasty ones. But I am curious.
Thanks.
Jul 1, 2022, 9:49 pm
#2
Join Date: Dec 2019
Posts: 177
How much status has one bought?
Some see status as where their place on the upgrade list is or amount of free bags they get, but I like to think of status as the percentage that one will be treated as an actual person/customer (and not just a number/annoyance to clear) when things go wrong.
Dont work there but between personal experience on different carriers with/without status, plus reading these boards I would guesstimate:
No status 0%-0.5%
Low status 0.5%-5%
Mid tiers 5%-30% & 30-50%
Top published 50%-80%+ (more if this is the last level)
Invite & secret handshake status ~80%+
** add 10-20% for treating the CSRs as you wish to be treated and/or as people also
Some see status as where their place on the upgrade list is or amount of free bags they get, but I like to think of status as the percentage that one will be treated as an actual person/customer (and not just a number/annoyance to clear) when things go wrong.
Dont work there but between personal experience on different carriers with/without status, plus reading these boards I would guesstimate:
No status 0%-0.5%
Low status 0.5%-5%
Mid tiers 5%-30% & 30-50%
Top published 50%-80%+ (more if this is the last level)
Invite & secret handshake status ~80%+
** add 10-20% for treating the CSRs as you wish to be treated and/or as people also
Jul 2, 2022, 12:55 pm
#3
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Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: SEA (the REAL Washington); occasionally in the other Washington (DCA area)
Programs: DL PM 1.57MM; AS MVPG 100K
Posts: 21,358
this is probably a good time to reiterate that FTers are not anywhere near a representative sample of the traveling public, and I strongly suspect that a majority of social media posts, TV spots, newsfeed items, etc about passengers dissatisfied with the airline customer service experience are not about FTers
this is 10000% the case
this is 10000% the case
Jul 2, 2022, 2:12 pm
#4
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Join Date: Sep 2019
Posts: 2,094
Sure, and thanks. My question is more geared at people who work for airlines.
When they see passenger complaint after passenger complaint, even for serious things such as maybe missing a wedding because of some type of airline screwup, do they just see so many of these stories that they laugh, give whatever compensation is within airline guidelines, and move on to the next one? Or do they truly feel badly about what happened, and they're caring people who are in this line of work because they truly want to help passengers?
I guess it's a subjective question, hard to give concrete feedback about, but I'd be curious.
When they see passenger complaint after passenger complaint, even for serious things such as maybe missing a wedding because of some type of airline screwup, do they just see so many of these stories that they laugh, give whatever compensation is within airline guidelines, and move on to the next one? Or do they truly feel badly about what happened, and they're caring people who are in this line of work because they truly want to help passengers?
I guess it's a subjective question, hard to give concrete feedback about, but I'd be curious.
Jul 2, 2022, 4:33 pm
#5
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Houston, TX, USA
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During one of the CO do's in the 200x's, I toured the call center that handles inbound calls for lost baggage. Talk about a thankless job! Every single person that calls has a lost bag. Imagine having to answer the phone for those as your full-time job? I would have to think that they become desensitized almost immediately, as I don't see how you could become as wound up about lost bags as many of the callers probably are.