Outperform Program to Conclude and Transition on June 30
 

Hi everyone,

I know many of you have participated in the Outperform Recognition Program since we launched it last year. During this time, we’ve recognized thousands of individuals for excellent customer service across all areas of the airline. That said, as we implement new recognition programs and simplify others, I wanted to let you know that we will conclude the Outperform program at the end of the current nomination period, on June 30.

Looking ahead, we’re going to continue our focus on our overall satisfaction score, which is driven by contributions from everyone at UA. To that end, we recently launched a much broader Customer Satisfaction Bonus program that rewards co-workers when we meet our monthly and quarterly satisfaction score goals (kind of like our on-time bonus program).

As part of the sunset, Outperform nominations will be disabled on the mobile app and online after June 30. However, if you’ve nominated anyone until that time, we’ll definitely make sure they are recognized. Additionally, you’re always welcome pass along positive experiences through united.com/feedback or the status-specific contact (e.g. 1KVoice for Premier 1Ks).

Winners for both nomination periods this year will also be announced soon—those from 1Q 2013 will be announced in July, and those from the 2Q 2013 period will be announced in September.

Aaron Goldberg
Sr. Manager - Customer Experience Planning
United Airlines

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.

Thanks, as always Aaron, for the information.

I typically simply send my comments about an employee to my contact at UA and ask that they be forwarded to the appropriate station manager, chief pilot, etc.

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.

I was never a fan of the outperform program. Asking staff for personal information was weird, and often not possible during the rush of irrops, when outperformance really was appreciated.

Outperform was also pretty self-serving from a UA PR perspective. Having customer contests where entry is submitting a compliment does nothing but falsely drive up numbers and stats.

I really liked the pmUA chits that we received in our packets. Quick and easy way to personally recognize outstanding service. Of course, I doubt we will see that return.

Here is a revolutionary idea....How about expanding the survey program so that all trips are eligible, instead of just direct, one-segment legs? Any reason these are excluded from feedback? I guess only the opinion of hub-dwellers is valuable?

Added: Aaron, I do appreciate you posting these things on FT as I tend to ignore most of the marketing drivel sent by UA via email and such. My posts are not meant to be a "shoot the messenger" thing....

The pmUA survey that was offered after every flight was a detailed effort, and gave us the opportunity to comment on specific aspects of the the flight experience from the start to finish. The current survey is a joke.

I use 1K voice to reward excellent and outstanding performance. I hope it is passed on to the right people, but who knows....

Can we just go back to GTEMs? Simple and easy.

I still hand out GTEMs.

I'd love to have that as an option. I do feel that outperform is far too over personal in the information it expects us to ask employees, but I think UA's new approach doesn't reward good employees, it will instead reward crew on better than average flights.

+1

GTEM's made a lot of sense. You didn't get a bonus or contest entry by giving one out, it was pretty painless for the customer to give one out when the situation called for one.
You didn't have to fumble around with a stupid mobile device or get employee's info, it had your name and MP# on it and you could write a blurb on there and give it to them.

I would really like to see something formal where I could individually recognize well handled situations, in a way that was meaningful to the employees. The mobile outperform app was great, in that it was extremely fast (camera on the badge bar code, ask for name), and I could do it in situations like irrops where I couldn't hang around to fill out and hand over a GTEM.

Several of employees I've given them too appreciated it in a way that a heartfelt thank you or I'll send a letter later doesn't.

This was never about the rewards entry, it was about me making a difference for someone else who is trying to make a difference. I'll still do that, but I would like the app and a recognition to continue, because it made it easy to do and the impact for the employee is more recognized when it's part of a program.

Yup! This was the way it worked but, it came from the wrong airline.

Good question. Next time you have such an opportunity, why don't you tell the "co-worker" up-front what your intentions are and ask to follow up? Tell the "co-worker" how much you appreciate what they did, tell them you want them to be recognized and that you will write to 1kvoice, then ask the "co-worker" if you can follow up to see if he/she was recognized.

Would be an interesting experiment.

+1