FlyerTalk Forums - Outperform Program to Conclude and Transition on June 30

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Originally Posted by alex_b (Post 21010995)

I think this is a step backwards.

I hope that UA recognizes that there are both very good and very bad FAs and GAs out there. The badly performing ones shouldn't get rewarded because one of their coworkers was running round the cabin being outstanding whilst they sat in the galley reading Hello Magazine.

Also I mainly single out staff for praise when they go above and beyond with service recovery or handle a negative issue extremely well, my overall satisfaction with UA in those cases is rock bottom, but the FA or GA will have at least kept me flying with you. This will be completely lost by switching off the outperform program.

It would be nice if UA thought to consult about these things before announcing changes. I'm sure you'd have received plenty of feedback if you'd asked.

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Originally Posted by mitchmu (Post 21011062)

I agree. It's important to individually recognize both great and poor performers, to encourage the former, and deal with the latter.

A generalized program focused on rewarding all "co-workers" for an aggregate "satisfaction" score will do little to address the root causes of the horrible customer service that leaves UA at the bottom of nearly every airline ranking there is.

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Originally Posted by iflyuaaa (Post 21011890)

The problem is smiseks definition of great service is different than ours so the measurement is problematic. We may give if there's a big delay and they ola us and give a hotel voucher without begging and pleading. New ua frowns on that behavior. They will reward if employee says no, sleep on floor 2 days and ill put you on ua metal in 2 days

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Originally Posted by mitchmu (Post 21012054)

That is precisely the reason why $mi$ek does not want us to be commending his "co-workers" for providing great service. Now, he has greater control over what is rewarded, and he will reward activity that increases the margin metrics that result in his multi-million dollar bonuses.

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Originally Posted by twtrvl (Post 21012621)

Team grading doesn't work well as incentive to increase excellence.

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Originally Posted by Baze (Post 21013958)

Don't like the idea of the new program. You get great service from 1 FA/GA/TA.CSR and the grumpy/snarky/irritable one gets a bonus for it. Not good. I know you are just the messenger UA Insider so none of these comments are directed at you. Just wish you could actually messenger some good news for a change (pun intended).

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Originally Posted by EsquireFlyer (Post 21015837)

Wow, UA really doesn't care about employee performance anymore.

+1 to all of the above.

While Outperform was a cumbersome, poorly designed program, the notion of reporting great (and lousy) individual customer service is essential for improving such overall service.

That being said, I agree with iflyuaaa's point that under many circumstances what passengers would appropriately consider good customer service is a far cry from what Smisek wants his "co-workers" to deliver.

And while on that topic, I wish Smisek would drop the "co-worker" c**p. It's a pretty Orwellian way of labeling folks for whom he's provided little support and lots of blame in their efforts to cope with the systemic problems he's created.