What is Customer service?

We all know that when you use the services of a provider such as an airline that things can go wrong, right? For this reason, big organizations have a department in place which they call Customer service. The name sounds amazing, and you would easily think that they are there for you. But are they? What is their main task, and do they actually serve the customer?

In this blog I will go into that, using a recent real-life case of SWISS as an example of how NOT to do it.

Let me paint you this scenario, without too much detail in order to keep it simple;

A girl travelling alone from London to Singapore trying to check-in for a flight of SWISS at the check-in desk, is refused access by the ground stewardess of SWISS, who is having a bad and stressful day and doesn’t properly check the provided Visa card and documents, required to travel to Singapore. She even rudely dismisses the girl (who is now in tears and begs her to look at the paperwork again) and asks her to leave the queue as she is holding up other passengers. Shit happens, right? The girl, who suffers from severe anxiety is then left stranded at the airport and her family in Singapore is trying to mobilize SWISS, first line Customer service to act in order to solve this worrisome and unacceptable situation.

Hours and hours later and after calling and explaining the same thing to 10 different SWISS operators (“this call maybe recorded for training purposes”), nobody is able to help. At extra costs the family manages to get her on a flight the next day, using the same Visa and documents, with SWISS! So far for the case description. Now it’s time to launch an official complaint and get it rectified.

This is where you stumble on the next line of Customer service. Going online and filling in a feedback form, where there is no description for a case like this. sending numerous emails to different email addresses and receiving a standard reply of 4 lines as a result. SWISS then concludes that there is no basis for any compensation, nor does SWISS admit to any wrongdoing from their side. What next? Try again and make them understand that they really have to read their customer’s complaint.

2 days later another standard one-liner is the final reply of SWISS, stating that they have handled this adequately and consider the case closed. Ok, I hear you think, enough already about SWISS! Book at a decent airline next time! But is it just SWISS? Over the years I have seen this kind of service from many Customer Service centres. What is their actual function? Is it a commercial position, where they simply protect their company from any liabilities and have KPIs for rejecting a certain number of requests for compensation? Is it a Public Relations position, where they are simply there to mechanically log a complaint and pretend to have looked at it, with the same KPI as an operative? Do they really care about the Customer or is their main job damage control?

How should this be done differently? It is actually quite easy. I know that a lot of travellers are moaners nowadays and that they have rights to be compensated in case of delays, within regulatory limits. And they do complain in great numbers, so this must lead to an overload at these Customer service centres! As an airline it would be really nice to look at it, case by case from a customer perspective. Listening to your customer and actually trying to understand the situation would help as well. I understand that this would require better trained and therefore more expensive personnel. Choices, choices…do you go for cheap damage control or higher customer satisfaction and returning customers? Tough choice, right?

Always keep this in mind as it applies to any type of business: “Sometimes correcting a wrong is better than always getting it right”

Swissair went bankrupt in 2001 after it had antagonized passengers by cutting the quality of its service and still charging high prices. Under the new name of SWISS, being part of Lufthansa, it is now a low budget airline, where service is still low but this time at lower costs.

As for SWISS; Please listen to the tapes that you recorded for training purposes and actually start the training.?