How NOT to provide Customer Service – An Air-India Experience
We recently flew on a trip to the USA with Air India as a family, and I would not recommend this airline to anyone unless they remedy their ways. Forget the fact that we were traveling in business class – it made no difference to the way you were treated. It’s a textbook example of how not to provide customer service. However, if the remedial actions below are followed, I’m sure Air India can take the corner. The remedial actions aren’t exhaustive – they are indicative and the resources at the bottom can provide a great deal more support than I ever could. ?
Let me explain.
1)???Arbitary Rescheduling: Our tickets were arbitrarily rescheduled days before our flight due to operational reasons – a new date appeared on our emailed itinerary, without our consent. We were asked to call a number to reschedule. And the date seemed arbitrary; my AI flight of 28 June was rescheduled arbitrarily to July 13 – i.e., not even the next available date. Excellent customer service would typically require Air India to call us to reschedule the flight, not burden the customer for its operational difficulties. Won’t you agree?
Remedial Action – First apologize for the inconvenience caused. Second, reschedule to the nearest next flight and not an arbitrary one. Third, try and call the customers individually if possible and provide options. If not, at least try and make the process as painless as possible.
2)???No Online Reschedule & Poor Call Center Experience: There was no way to manage the reschedule online on the Web – you were forced to call a number. It literally took me anywhere from 3-4 hours to finally reschedule the flight. I begged the agents to call me if my call was dropped in the interim as it happened 2-3 times, and the agents promised me that they would call, to no avail. Frustrating, but what was even worse was waiting for them to call back and wait an hour thinking they would fulfil the promise – I learned quickly not to trust them anymore.
Remedial Action – Provide online rescheduling options to cut down the call volume. It is an indispensable tool in today’s world and allows for travelers to self-adjust to their suitable times. Next, train the agents not to commit to something they cannot fulfil. Finally, give proper wait times and equip the call center with automatic recall capabilities in the order of their calls so that customers don’t waste their time.
3)???Always Rescheduled: I thought that the first time that this reschedule happened, it was an accident. But very soon, I realized that it was more the norm. The reason is that we had to fly on 2 different itineraries as a family – I was on a separate trip and the rest of my family was on a different itinerary. There were 4 opportunities for reschedules to happen. Guess what? All 4 times our itineraries were changed by Air India without consent and then we had to call back to get our tickets reissued.
Remedial Action – Be transparent with the customer regarding the reasons for reschedule. Explain to them and they are likely to understand even if they are agitated.
4)???Covid PCR Pre-Flight Testing – All international flights require PCR testing 72 hours before the flight as a safety precaution. On two of our flights, the arbitrary reschedules happened 48 hours before the flight. This meant that we had to take the PCR tests one more time. In the USA, these tests cost quite a bit ($100 - $400 depending on the urgency) and it was nerve-wracking to get these tests again before our rescheduled flights. There were no apologies from Air India and NO offers to pay for these new tests from Air India.
Remedial Action – Air India must offer to pay for the new Covid Tests if the reschedules happen within 72 hours of the flight. It’s simply the honorable thing to do.
5)???Lack of Emotional Empathy: My 13-year old daughter remarked: “They say that they are sorry on the phone but they do nothing different. Their “Sorries” don’t mean anything.” She experienced the reschedule twice and mentioned that the agents did not realize how the entire experience could be nerve wracking for the travelers no matter what.
Remedial Action – As my daughter eloquently said – The “Sorries” must result in some different action that the customer must feel, somehow. When you empathize with the customer’s situation, amazing things can happen, including repeat business and more.
In hindsight, we all felt cheated by Air India. The “Operational Reasons” were never explained. For example – could it be that some of the flights are running empty and therefore there is a need to bundle passengers together on a new date? It seemed arbitrary given that we were rescheduled NOT on the next available date. Anyways, it appears that Air India does not care if you miss meetings/appointments/weddings on account of their shortcomings. They simply DO NOT care.
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I also do not know if seats were being sold to passengers on the dates they do not fly. Is this a scam??I do not know, but it sure feels like one. I also do not know if this kind of rescheduling is legal by the IATA rules – it would be worth an investigation.
After our torrid experiences, we spoke to a number of people who mentioned similar experiences with Air India – I think an investigation would be appropriate. We were pained at the thought of families with young children or aged elders and how agonizing it would have been for such travelers if they were subject to such reschedules like ours.
As we left the aircraft on the final leg, the air hostess mentioned that “Air India aims to provide excellent hospitality and service.” The on-air experience was actually very pleasant except for a small slipup but the entire rescheduling experience was nothing short of a disaster.
The net result of this experience was the opposite of a Net Promoter Score – I managed to get my sister who was flying to the US to fly a different airline.?
As a Founder of a Learning Solutions Company (www.nuvedalearning.com), I can only fault the management for such a shabby experience. I wonder if anyone will even talk to me and find out more. I did post my issue on Twitter – no response yet.
If Air India is serious about fixing these issues, they would do well to engage the services of any of our esteemed customers below – they provide fantastic training to deal with customer issues – from the ground up. ?
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Balasubramanian, thanks for sharing!
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3 年Ministry Of Civil Aviation and Amber Dubey - Cc Amber Dubey who is trying hard to change the landscape of civil aviation in India with relentless focus. Maybe he can help
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3 年I flew AirIndia (Vande Bharat mission) from India to Canada, and the experience was nothing but a nightmare. Flights were operating only from Delhi and no feeder flights from Bangalore or Hyderabad, and since it was during peak lockdown, anyone who reached Delhi had to be quarantined for 15 days. There was no clarification from airport authorities or Air India about the intra-airport transfers, and I ended up being in quarantine (paid). My domestic flight was originally Air India, and they canceled 12 hours before the departure with no explanation whatsoever. I booked whatever was available by paying 2x at the airport, and to date, Air India never paid the refund.
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3 年Oh my late father would have been so so sad reading this. He worked fot air india during the Tata days and was terribly proud of the lineage. Was gutted since the govt took over and felt that his hands were tied down to babu-giri
My dad worked for Air India till 1998 . I have not flown AI for ages even though I am eligible for free staff tickets. So bad is the service.