Are the Customer Service Problems at the Airlines mostly connected to low pay?
 

It seems like the quality of people who work at the Airlines is going down fast. As a regular business traveler I see so many cases of rude and indifferent service and employees who seem to lack any type of public relations or customer service skills. In many cases it seems like the people who have the most connection with the customer come from welfare to work programs and lack any work skills at all.

I am shocked how poorly the Airlines pays its employee's and have to believe that this causes a poor quality worker. Many of the people are no better than someone who is working at a fast food restaurant.

I was talking to a worker at the ticket window at American Airlines and she told me she has never received any training in customer service at any time. She said most workers are part time and turnover is incredible.

I remember the days when workers for the Airlines were the best customer service professionals America had. I can understand keeping costs down but I suspect the poor quality and untrained staff is really costing more in the long run as bad decisions are made.

Management wants cheap labor, customers want low prices. Unfortunately, it rings the old adage, "you get what you pay for"!:mad:

Amen
When you sell a million in tkts a year, do customer service WELL, then fall and can't work for a while and then find you need to work from home and are turned down. Just doesn't make any sense.

It's not just low pay. Nearly all the airlines have required give-backs from their employees while they were in or avoiding bankruptcy. Now that many are turning a profit, the employees are seeing the profits distributed to upper management in the form of large bonuses, rather than to compensate the employees for the sacrifices they made.

Ding-ding-ding! Winner!

JP

Before "deregulation" working for the airlines in service positions such as flight attendant, ticket agent etc. was prestigious and pretty pleasant. The FAs didn't make a lot, but the job had some glamor and most of the FAs got married and quit (or were pushed out as too old--before age discrimination laws) without trying to make a career in the airlines. The better working conditions were supported by government controlled fares. Competition was on service, not fares.

This all has ended. But, I suspect many of the service problems in the airline industry are related an overall decline in civility in society. Folks are just louder and crasser and worse mannered than they used to be in US. Can anyone old enough to remember imagine dirty word loaded music being played over a PA system twenty or forty years ago?

Of course, cutting pay and staffing to the bone and beyond didn't help.

If low pay is the problem, why are the people in the grocery stores in my area so darn nice? If I ask where something is, they stop what they're doing and WALK with me to show me where it is. I can think of plenty of minimum-wage workers (i.e., making less than FAs) who don't treat customers like a nuisance.

I think it's because the airlines tolerate that kind of crappy attitude. It's also the wacky compensation system that requires you to start out at the bottom of the seniority and pay ladder if you get disgusted with Airline A and move to Airline B. I know that's what their unions negotiated, but the result is a lot of FAs who hate their jobs but don't want to move.

I often wonder if it's the chicken or the egg: ie. whether the service is so bad because they have to spend all day covering up and making excuses for a poorly run airline OR whether the service is just bad to begin with because of poor training and wages.

Sure pay can effect performance (their pay, as well as seeing those above them get those bonuses), as can cutting costs result in cuts in training.

But another thing to think about - YOU might be a courteous and well behaved traveller, but just think about how often you've seen someone else in an airport behaving rudely and irrationally. Now multiply that. Some passengers may act that way due to poor service, but odds are it's a result of the opposite...

Um...great post by the OP. :rolleyes:

I second that. I would have soooooo much to say on this subject and maybe later I will but the whole issue makes me boil in fury. I think, basically, that CS sucks industry wide. Once, long ago, you'd maybe find one bad apple once and a while. Now it's the other way around. Once and a while you get a good CSR. There are so few now though.

For those who know me in here, this issue hits the nail on the head and I now DO hope airlines are lulrking in here watching THIS thread! I am trying to stay calm here... but man oh man do I hate how service has become! We NEED to fix it! Business-wide, not even just airlines! It comes from how people view themselves and the world around them too. It comes from customers who should be more able to deal with the fact that they are not THE only person in the universe, and it comes from companies who want to do business for the long term and do not mortgage their own helpers!!!!!!!:D

And so PT traveler is probably right about the money thing.

:mad:MM

when you (plr) see someone upset at the airport, ever wonder these things in your (plr) mind?

1) wow, what a loser/jerk

2) bummer, I had the same thing happen to me (but it's a good thing HE is having the problem today and not me! a haaaa!)

3) why doesnt someone in this lobby get up and do something about this?

4) I wont get up and concur with that person but someone else will.

5) call security, his loud outburst at the desk agent is bothering me. that only happens to other people, not me.

6) if more people DID try to help, this would maybe go away. But hey, maybe that person arguing with the airline employee IS irrational and so I would stay away.

Can anyone find anything wrong or right with any of these? I think unfortunately, many of us secretly admit to thinking this a lot, and we really should try to change it: "it's a good thing HE is having the problem today and not me! a haaaa!"

I honestly think that some of the airlines (if not all) are trying to de-sensitize people to the point where people have very low / or no expectations at all.

I often feel that airlines have given up on the "let's have great service & have great amenities to be competitive against others" to a "let's just cut prices to win market share". Obviously, cutting prices is at the expense of the quality of service.

JP

yes, and in time it will work because the masses are like sheep. One day you will get a smile from a FA and as a result you will start to tell everybody to fly on that airline because they were so great.

I think that low pay is only part of it. When a GA or FA is dealing with more and more vulgar and rude paxs (sometimes paying a fare that does not even operating costs), a system that is broken, indifferent senior management, insufficient resources, their pay cuts only make the situation worse.

Still, some of the particularly older GAs and FAs still have a high standard of customer service despite all of the challenges. You could not pay me enough to do their jobs.

I have to throw some of the responsibility for passengers' bad behavior back on the airlines, too. Remember the experiments you read about in Psych 101 where they put a lot of rats in a small space and they started biting each other and getting into fights? What do you think would happen if they strapped them into tiny, cramped seats in a little Rat Plane, restricted their ability to take bathroom breaks by making the aisle too small to hold anything but a beverage cart (and making rats in the window seat have to ask their seatmates to move so they could get out), didn't feed them, limited the circulation of fresh air, and kept them on the tarmac for an hour or two? They would not be happy, well-behaved rats.

This was really driven home to me once as I watched people on an Amtrak train. The children were positively serene. They could get out, stand in the aisles, even take short walks. Anyone who wanted to get up to stretch their legs or use the bathroom could do it- easily. Food was available in the dining car. You could enjoy it and use your laptop at the same time without endangering your laptop.

Of course the rats- uh, I mean the passengers- are responsible for keeping their behavior under control and being polite and civilized. But the current conditions in Coach make it very difficult.

I think it's a definite turning point that some airlines are now advertising jobs on their websites! A few years ago you never saw that...jobs were all taken. Back when I was going through college you really had to have luck and connections to work at Delta, which then had a sterling reputation and very low turnover.

Once a job gets marginalized in pay to where you can't make it a career or part of a career track, the quality of those who'll take it really nosedives. Airport security pre-9/11 was a good case in point; the private contractors were paying screeners about what McDonald's was paying. People in those jobs will understandably reason that they're "not being paid to put up with the pax" and they can just take another McJob in another area if conditions don't improve. Higher turnover also puts more pressure on training, which is another thing the airlines don't really like to pay for. And seat downsizings and seat-pitch reductions aren't just imaginary.

Steerage class and failing customer service
 

Outsourcing customer service to India was done to make money. Quality of service has decreased and not just b/c English isn't the first language but also because of poor training. As long as airlines still offer cheap fares customers will continue to fly even with poor customer service.

Additionally, less gate agents means less people to resolve problems faster making people wait longer, get more upset, etc.

and waiting longer and being more upset makes you go elsewhere and that costs them the money they tried to save!

It's a matter of short vs long money. Many companies are going for the short money, sadly. It's trickling down from the similar attitude of the 8 year administration in my opinion.

As for India, etc, I think the CSRs are trained very well... in the way of policy and by the book rule-oriented speak. They know not, however, of special circumstances, one-off issues, and many of our detailed mileage issues and promos. I think it's partly because our culture is more in tune with the whole world of mile deals being done the way we do them, and the ways to fix problems that may come up with these offers. I find the agents from overseas have NO CONCEPT of what all that even is! To them, it's " you sign up for X and get the miles. If you did not, oh well. Sorry." To us, we'd complain and maybe rightfully so. They don't complain enough over there. Airlines like them.

Alot of great comments here so not much I can add. I've worked in the airline industry since 1979 & you would not believe how long it took me to get that first airline job.(Well heck I'll tell you it took 1974-1979) I applied to every airline I could think of & probably some I couldn't think of LOL. It was an honor to be an airline employee, now I will not tell anyone or wear anything that hints I may even work for an airline. I make less money now than I did 10 years ago with everything much higher in costs. So why do I stay ? Well if I'm lucky will "retire" in a year or so & move on from there.
Also as far as hiring goes now imo my airline hires anyone walking & breathing who can pass the background checks & they have a very hard time doing that.

A lot of it seems to vary by airport, not just airline or class of service. There are some airports where every employee seem competent, nice, helpful and others where nobody seems to care at all. My impression is that different airports have cultures which encourage or discourage professional behavior. It could also have something to do with the pool of people in the area available for hire and the economic conditions of that area, in general.

Training seems to be a huge issue, as well. When employees are not trained, you can expect inconsistencies, mistakes that cause you unpleasant experiences, contradictory information, and general incompetence, even from people who would like to be doing a good job. I suspect that airlines/airports are not only not paying as well as they once used to, but that they are also severely cutting back on training budgets. When I know more about the policies and processes than they do, it is clear they've not been trained adequately. There are countless times when I've been able to avoid bad situations simply by knowing that what they are telling me is incorrect and insisting on something different.

On top of everything else, there also are simply not enough crews available, flights scheduled, and gate agents working to accommodate natural disruptions that are bound to occur.

The system is stretched so thin that any incompetence aggravates the situation in extreme and noticeable ways.

No. low fares

Show me another industry where its acceptable to use the excuse that customer service is poor because customers are rude.

There are two types of "rude" customers: Difficult people, and people experiencing difficulty. While someone determined to be difficult maybe unaffected by spectacular service - there are truly very few of these people. I'd guess it's less than 0.5% of customers in any given industry.

Most unhappy or "rude" customers are those who have experienced great pain and inconvenience. These customers can be EASILY turned around by even good customer service and can be converted to lifetime loyal customers with spectacular service. Fix their problem and exceed their expectations and it is amazing the effect you have on your customers.

The truth is really quite simple. There's only one reason for the horrible customer service in the airline industry. Unions.

In fact, I would be willing to stake my net worth on a bet that if we eliminated unions from ALL sectors (public service, government, airlines, auto makers, etc), not only would the customer experience DRAMATICALLY improve in these industries - they might actually become profitable again.

Do Congress or the State Legislatures have unions? @:-)

Think part of the problem is that sophisticated marketing licenses unrealistic expectations. Even at a basic level, a slogan such as "putting the customer first" will license some pax into thinking they are owed the earth (including being "put into First").

As schemes get more complicated - a multitude of fare buckets, special rules, FF programmes, partner deals, codeshares, etc. etc. its no surprise that customers get on the phone and are frustrated to discover that the CS rep understands less about the particular situation than they do.

I can cope very well with a CS rep who does not understand something and needs the time to go and check and come back. Problem is that so many of them seem hardened by less patient people and go into defensive/fib mode. Or that the systems are not in place - so its not even possible for them to call me back or for me to email them etc.

Many/most of the posts on this issue reflect on the CS issues with US airlines. Most people agree that (for example) Asian airlines have far better CS - one should ask why. It certainly is not the pay - but more likely training and culture and lack of job protection from union contracts IMO.

Gosh, back when US Airlines were the best (remember First Class, or even coach, Trans-Atlantic on Pan Am or TWA before deregulation) they were heavily unionized. :D

So, I suspect, there must be other factors here. @:-)

I think part of it is it's a unique service environment where the front-line staff aren't actually empowered to *do* anything about complaints.

If you buy a cheeseburger and it's cold or tastes bad, if you complain you'll likely an apology and a new cheesburger, or your money back pretty fast.

If you buy a shirt and the buttons fall off and you return it reasonably you'll get a new shirt or a store credit.

If you rent a car and there's no car, they'll upgrade you

If there's a problem on your bill at a hotel upon check-out, the counter staff will correct it.

- etc. etc.

These are all functions handled by front-line low-level service staff, not 'customer care' 25 weeks later in the head office.

I think airline staff are unique in that they're no longer empowered to do any of this stuff - Which leads to hostility.

Cheers,
Geoff Glave
Vancouver, Canada

in every business there are so many competitors just down the road they maybe want to help you out quickly to save themselves. In airlines, they know they gotcha because there are only a few, say, that fly to your destination, etc.

Why else would they allow their customer base to potentially resort to hostility because their own policy-ridden zeal prevents anyone from helping to fix anything anymore? How does this make them money?

Although you raise some correct examples, I also think that airline staff is not necessarily unique in terms of the lack of empowerment of front-line employees. There are so many other businesses where front-line staff basically "lives in fear for their jobs" if they dare to even THINK of going outside the tightly-defined procedures for which they've been trained. That's also why you never can get the first and last name of any CS rep you deal with (in most any industry)..."I'm the only Jane here"...utter lack/fear of accountability.

I did customer service for four years (which is a lifetime in customer service) and think that this is an extraordinary explanation of how customer service could and should work.

Mike

I was looking at airline jobs last night. One airline was looking for multilingual customer service agents. Pay - $7.35 an hour.

Given the choice of working in the fields harvesting tomatoes, and doing customer service for the same pay... Which would you chose?

Customer service is not a highly skilled job, I dare to say.

JP

Do you honestly think that a gate agent should make the same as the fry cook at the McDonalds in the same terminal?

You'd stink working the deep fryer but you don't have to have hundreds of travelers angry at you for problems you didn't cause and aren't empowered to fix every week.

yup, you are right about that!
Why do they all also say things like, "Oh my computer is slow. Hold on please, sir." Well, it's because they (A) don't know sh*T and (B) can't do much about it anyway!

it bugs me to (A) do business with such places, although we often have to, and (B) to know that the person working there is somehow brainwashed into thinking that's all he or she can get for a job!

Of course the flying public doesn't "think" that. However, they do feel they should be able to fly transatlantic for $600, complete with free movies, free pillows, free blankets, tons of legroom, two free hot meals, 20K air miles and complete flexibility to change their tickets.

Ergo, by extension they think the a gate agent should make peanuts, they just don't extrapolate out that far.

no, I actually think the flight should cost me either $350 in low low season or $600 in high season, but the gate agents should be making $45,000 at the very least! All flight staff should be making more money. All airline employees should be making more money. CSRs should be highly trained not just in policy (where the overseas ones are so vibrantly into repeating back all the freakin CS speak in every single call to you) but in the ways of handling CUSTOMER NEEDS! You know, kinda what they would expect if THEY got the chance to fly without all the corporate restrictions that they have to endure.

Where does this money come from?
Well, make the service more relaiable and it will flow.

and oh, the next time you are going to have a terrorist attack, WARN EVERYONE! GROUND EVERYTHING that week! Lose a few mil that week, save a LOT more later on!

Ahhh... but that is the very problem. It is the attitude that "customer service is not a highly skilled job," that causes so many of the problems. It is the thought by airlines (and others... DMV comes to mind) that interacting with customers is not a very highly skilled job that is exactly the problem.

What is customer service? Well, generally speaking what it "is" with most airlines - and some other companies - is more or less "customer issue automation." It's a process designed to "handle" customer complaints in a manner that is most efficient for the corporation.

What it should be? Serving your customers. That's the "art" of customer service. It's also the definition. It's the idea that 'my job is to make this customer's experience outstanding.' It happens to be a very high skilled job.

Look at the spectacular examples of outstanding customer service:

FedEx: I pay more to ship FedEx than I could with UPS or USPS. Why? Because it always gets there on time. And in the INCREDIBLY rare time that it doesn't - they ALWAYS go way above and beyond to personally handle the situation. Their customer service people spend more time in training than their operations people.

Disney: It's not the most magical place on earth because a bunch of high school students are manning the shop. Disney recruits and trains the best of the best and insists on creating an outstanding experience.

Apple: I pay more for their "applecare" warranty because the service is impeccable. I also shop in their stores because they "get it." Their people are skilled and trained well.

Enterprise: Want to get promoted at Enterprise? It's TOTALLY based on your customer service quality score. Not on how much revenue you produce - but whether or not you are exceeding customer expectations. Sometimes it costs me more to rent from them, but I've never had a bad experience.

Outback Steakhouse: They train their people for an average of 10 days before they ever wait a table on their own. You pay a little more for a steak, but again, the service is always outstanding.

There are companies that get that serving customers, and providing outstanding service is not only the "right" way to run a business - it's also the profitable way!

opps... almost forgot to add... with the exception of the pilots at FedEx, not a single "customer service" related person in any of these companies are in a union.

lets say in the beggining, CSRs actually thought for themselves, liked their jobs, took pride in trying to solve things and basically satisfied customers as best they could, given the circumstances and a few rules.

I think over time, people scammed them whenever they could, some complained too much, and more rules got made. Then people got mad if the CSr said "black guy" instead of "African American" and stuff like that. Maybe some people complained that certain issues were handled differently depending on who you knew or something. So more policies and "say this in this way but dont say that in that way" types of things got initiated into the wording. Now it became more about HOW you present than what you present. Now they are trying to sell us on the theory that you get the same, consistent service, by a matter of policy everywhere you call in, but that's just not the case! the india call centers, in my opinion, give BETTER and more professional service if you need to deal with something that comes from the book, but when it comes to one off situations and extenuating circumstances, they are powerless. I think over time, the idea of trying to actually help people gave way to making them either help themselves or be given the impression that they should not call in. It is so hard to get thru sometimes I give up! So that's working. Plus, they still lose money. Why help anyone then?

I could go on, but like the above poster says, "what IS customer service anyway?"

I must add however, that in the opinion of at least 10 people I know, self and wife included, their food is not so great! Service or not, the eats is why I'd go out to, well, eat! Plus there's nothing except the pictures on the wall that is anything remotely australian about anything in the place whatsoever.

so does giving great service mean you need to sell out elsewhere in your business? maybe the fact that the airlines are still able to fly is because they did decide to get THAT right even if the service stinks surrounding travel! I dunno.

I dont know if Unions are always the blame, but I dont know why we need them in airlines. That's an old school model. Big companies that are successful and upbeat and progressive do not have union things, do they?