<div>This case illustrates how customer behaviour impacts organisational systems, and also gives an insight into the unique situations the front line employees from airlines industry experience in everyday operations.</div><div> </div><div>The airline industry is influenced by several factors that are beyond its control. It is capital-intensive, which impacts margins. It is people-intensive, which throws a challenge in delivering consistent service. It consumes a volatile commodity (fuel), which impacts business plans. Then there are other factors like safety, security, weather, government policies, taxes and airport infrastructure concerns.</div><div> </div><div>On top of all these, competition and limitless customer expectations exist. The combination of multiple touch points and services makes the airline processes prone to several fail points. Most airlines try to identify and address those fail points. In doing so, safety takes priority, which most customers don’t understand.</div><div> </div><div>From a traveller’s perspective, airline business may seem like a cakewalk wherein all that is required is to check-in the customers, board them and drop them to their destinations. It is also considered a glamorous business. Most customers don’t understand the inherent limitations and uncertainties of the business. </div><div> </div><div>With the increased competition, customers today have more choices. So organisations are spending time, money and effort in enriching the customer experience. While there is improvement in service and choice for customers, the tolerance levels have gone down. </div><div> </div><div>Our culture drives the way we interact with our environment. As a high power distance society, hierarchy among citizens is encouraged. People who have wealth and power expect a different treatment and often expect the frontline staff to be available at their beck and call. Competition within the industry ensures that passengers are pampered in all possible ways. This further fuels hierarchical behaviour. But the airlines’ safety rules are the same for everyone, whether a normal citizen or a celebrity. So when the so called superior people are treated the same as others, often a conflict is observed.</div><div> </div><div>Another aspect driving customer behaviour is the intangible nature of service. Customers often seek tangible value out of the transaction. Being transported from one location to another does not give a tangible result in customer’s mind. For a customer, Rs 5,000 spent on the flight ticket is not as important as the availability of his meal choice. This intangible aspect of service leads customers to claim everything possible during the travel, ranging from meals, pillows, blankets and cutlery to even claiming a life vest. While airline staff is trained to check pilferage, there is little they can do in most cases.</div><div> </div><div>People will always opt for safety over service when you ask them. But the same might not reflect in their behaviour. Most people adhere to rules when there is huge penalty for non-adherence and robust monitoring. The same set, when travelling on an international flight, will follow all the rules because there is a system to monitor non-adherence and huge penalties are in place. An instance of a pilot offloading a passenger who was not obeying rules, as mentioned in the case, may not happen in Indian skies. </div><div> </div><div>Airlines have to make huge investments in training the staff because of the safety and service requirements. A cabin crew undergoes several months of rigorous training program on safety, service, first aid, grooming, crowd management, fitness, anger management, etc. and has to clear regulatory examinations before getting cleared to fly.<br /> </div><div>While organisations and employees can make mistakes, customers are also not always correct. Southwest Airlines, known for its legendry service, follows the philosophy of ‘employees come first and customers come second’. The CEO has made it clear that a customer is not always right and in such scenarios the customer should be told to fly somewhere else rather then abusing the staff.</div><div> </div><div>Coming to Samoga Airlines, it definitely needs to focus on designing products and services that are simple, predictable, add value to the customer and can be delivered consistently, rather than adding services to the already complex business. There will always be certain customers who would be unfair and put pressure on the organisational systems. Similarly, there will always be a segment of staff who would not be customer centric. While Madhur may need to be guided on handling such scenarios more tactfully, Samoga management needs to spend more time in understanding the underlying factors before penalising the staff. </div><div> </div><div>The management must believe in treating the employees with care and concern so that they treat each other, and customers the same way. If one wants to offer legendry service, the employees need to be given a legendry service first. As they say great customer service begins at home.</div><div> </div><div><em>The author has over a decade of experience with three major airlines in India. Currently he is leading Customer Experience function at HCL Infosystems</em></div><div> </div><div>(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 05-11-2012)</div>
