jp12687

phkc070408

Here's a good article from the WSJ about Customer Lifetime Values. Basically, companies assign scores to customers relative to how profitable the customer is expected to be for the company, and it specifically states, under the Air Travel section, that complaints affect your score.

WSJ - On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

narvik

My CLV with WSJ is too low to be able to read the article!

phkc070408

seat38a

Well I can't read the whole article but the concept is interesting. With all the complaints I hear from people about the wait time when they call United or Marriott but when I call either one, I get connected instantly, I always thought I was just lucking out. Only silver with MP and Titanium with Marriott but I get connected to a rep near instantaneously at both. With United, I may not have enough butt in seat miles myself, to reach 1K but definitely spend enough annually by buying FC and BC tickets x3 or x4 multiple times a year all via my MP account. That must be being recorded positively in my favor. Same with Marriott, all purchased directly via their website. Except one time in 2017 for flight on AC, I don't use miles or points. All paid. Oh and I don't complain.

david_oz

I'm no marketing guru, but my understanding is that CLV is as much a theoretical / predictive score rather than an actual? For example, United might try to assign a CLV to a typical mid 40's male who lives in Houston and flies latin american routes. ie. Not necessarily trying to assign a CLV value specifically to Mr Joe Average, but to his demographic or behavioural grouping instead. They would then use these groupings of customers to determine where a new customer might fall into that grouping, or more likely where to target their marketing spend and promotional offers.

Maybe someone with a marketing background can comment more specifically if I'm on the right track?

exerda

I feel like I used to complain a lot more (when I spent less on UA) than I do now. But this is because in general I have had less problematic experiences. I've never held back, either in praise or complaint, when warranted. But I do admit that as a Gold, I seemed to have more go wrong than as a 1k...

Yaddablahblah

lincolnjkc

Every time I get one -- which is spasmodic at best and rarely when things are disappointing.

transportprof

That has been my experience too, and is as it should be, in my humble opinion.

Aussienarelle

I suspect it also depends upon the nature of your complaints. I send both compliments and complaints - but both are very things that are very out of the norm. Either exceptional or way above and beyond what I expect - either way. I have had comments made that they can see I have contacted them about complimenting their colleagues previously, and I have also seen my WiFi compensation decrease as there was a spate where it failed every flight. So I believe they do track - I suspect this is the norm for UA. I am more curious what it now shows on the handheld devices the FAs have.

HNLbasedFlyer

They certainly track - the airline I worked for did not have a huge IT budget like UA, we used a customized version of Salesforce - it tracked every single correspondence (phone/email) - it even had its own specialized department. This particular airline rarely gave out compensation though like UA does - it just wasn't in the business model.

lincolnjkc

I'm not sure how different the FA tool is from the GA ("In the Moment") tool or how the GA tool may have changed in the 9 months since an agent showed it to me while generating comp but no "history" is exposed to the front line in the GA tool -- they scan the BP (using the phone camera) which identifies the customer by name/status, they select the category tree for the problem and assign an order of magnitude (IIRC, "minor", "moderate", "severe" or something along those lines) and it does calculations behind the scene and pops out an offer [which will change if any of the input values are changed] -- if you're a MP member you're asked to choose miles or ETC, if you're a non member you're offered an ETC.

In my case I had the same agent comp me for two different issues about an hour apart, both generated an offer of a $150 ETC. (though the second one she initially flagged as 'minor' and it was either a $75 or $100 ETC which she thought wasn't acceptable so bumped it up to moderate) and $40 in meal vouchers. Right behind me for the 2nd time around was a non-MP member, comped for the same issue again as moderate, and the algorithm spat out a $50 ETC and $10 in meal vouchers.

I wouldn't doubt over time that the algorithm behind the scenes may be adjusting offers based on individual customer lifetime value/compensation history but that's not something that the phone app appears to reveal to the agent.

OTOH, I've had an agent, now one of my favorites but at the time unknown to me, slip a note to the duty manager while I was having a (positive) conversation with her that included my MP status, YTD spend/PQM and some other metrics indicating my rough value so clearly at lease some front-line airport agents have access to more detailed dossiers via SHARES.

Oregonflyer

I think you can complain as much as you want about United WiFi ... but I don't.

FlyingHoustonian

Does UAL have a rating system for customers like WN's planes, BA CIV, AA helix, etc? If so what is it called?