It isn’t so much about Indian or foreign anymore, so much as whether you are part of the global set or not, writes Venkatagiri Rao
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With India standing out stronger in the global markets, we should market our “Indianness” more happily, writes Prachi Tiwari
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Clients wish to capitalise on the ingrained belief that international products are better, especially in the area of technology, cosmetics and fashion, writes Ashu Sabharwal
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Be Yourself. Everyone else is taken — Oscar Wilde A look at Indians' affinity for foreign brands and gloabal branding.
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“...but the airline industry forks over $40 billion — the same amount commercial carriers have lost since 2001 — on in-flight food” — Louise McCready Hart, in The Huffington Post, May 2011By Meera SethRuzbeh Kapadia slapped his head several times and cursed as he read the senseless news item on the front pages that screamed about a pest having been found in a passenger’s food tray. The newspaper had just been brought to him by his team at SwiftAir, the domestic airline that flew to 17 destinations. SwiftAir was four years old in the market with seven carriers. While business was growing, costs always stared them in the face and had to be contained.Looking up at Duleep Sanyal, SwiftAir’s commercial head, Ruzbeh said, “This is really bad. One irresponsible headline and your brand is mud! Lizard in the food tray? Seriously? There is not a paisa’s worth of investigation done. Not one. Not half.Lizards do not get onto planes, for God’s sake! And these jokers have published it as if it is true? When will our governors treat companies like social citizens with respect? I am so mad! Say, you have been in the industry for 28 years, have you encountered pests in the food tray?Duleep: It is always possible for the lizard thing to happen — that is the reality of India. I was reading a letter in one of the neighbouring country newspapers some time ago and a passenger wrote of a rat running around in the plane! But our national carrier does have good food, and all our netas travel on it. So, I would take all this with a bag of salt.The larger problem is that such one-off incidents tend to get blown out of proportion by the media. It’s grist for their mill. Funny thing Ruzbeh, hygiene standards in a five-star hotel kitchen may be worse than on an aircraft, but diners do not get to see the restaurant kitchen.Ruzbeh: We are in the business of carrying people to their destinations, but we are always in the dog house over food. This is the national carrier, if the press is carrying false stories just to stay relevant, it is very sad.Duleep: What are you thinking?Ruzbeh: However much we train people, attitudes cannot be trained. You get what you get. But brand equity has to be protected…they were now looking at each other….Duleep: No, Ruzbeh… don’t do that, I know what you are thinking...Ruzbeh: I have been thinking on these lines ever since that noodle company drama. It takes just a careless match stick to burn down a brand. Stopping food on SwiftAir will prevent costs that we will incur thanks to mindless damage to brand equity. Our media is unrestrained. As it is my brand building costs are going through the roof. One irresponsible news report without giving the brand time to check and respond will wipe us out. If they could put a lizard in an Air India food tray, they will put an elephant into ours!Duleep: Not offering ANY food would be a bigger problem. Passengers will complain. You should not worry about hygiene; Hygiene standards on a flight are very high — we can’t have the pilot suffering from food poisoning, now can we?Ambi Iyer, the chief of accounts and finance, walked in. “Did you read the news? These guys are mad… Oh, you have seen it!”Duleep told him what Ruzbeh was suggesting and what he thought.Ambi: I don’t think passengers will complain. But I will be a happy man, the cost of food per head is very high. Remove the food and we will be posting profits.Ruzbeh: No, Ambi, Duleep is right, passengers will crib. Ask me. I have a few letters here cribbing about the food tray mix; surely they care about being fed on a flight. Let me show you one that came yesterday from my cousin, Dilshad. She says, “Dada, what airline have you joined?” With three exclamation marks. As if we must choose our employers by the food they serve. This letter is worth reading. She goes on, “ On a recent SwiftAir flight (since the family is supposed to patronise your company): there was an unusual combination of vegetarian food served — uttapam with either paneer masala or chole. Seriously dada? Dilshad is the only Parsi in the whole world who is vegetarian, please.“It was a mid-morning flight, 10.30 a.m. or so, so people would have left home after a breakfast. The foil container looked crushed and my neighbour remarked that it looked like somebody had already tasted the food. There was salad, which I think is a bad idea. I have often told you about cut fruit and veggies getting oxidised, and then all that handling, ewww…!”Sorry guys, she is my older cousin sister and she is allowed to say stuff about my work. That’s life.Anyway, I asked Aarti in PR to reply to her and this is what she wrote... Parts of which was news to even me. Ok, so she replies. ‘The inflight catering department decides the different types of meal (breakfast /refreshment / lunch / dinner) then they decide on the catering agency (TajSATS / Oberoi flight kitchen, etc.) The next step involves meal selection out of a huge menu. In your case, the meal selection was done by the inflight department and uplifted from one of the stations … da da da ...was reheated and given to you. The Swift airline oven has 24 slots for reheating….”I wonder why she told her all this. Knowing my Dilshad, she will write and ask: ‘Why 24 and not 25?’ Ok, chaps let us call Larry from F&B if he is around. I am sure he is again tasting some culinary expertise somewhere and wasting my money.so it was. Larry was at a tasting session at Klassica.Ruzbeh: All this is clinical aspects of catering food: who, what, when, which flight kitchen, selecting meal, budget... these are not critical to Dilshad’s real question. The real drama unfolds when the tray reaches the customer’s table and the foil is peeled off. It is here that the real customer experience is felt, whereas all that happened up until now is meant to make this moment a happy one. I am not even saying this moment has to be breathtaking. No, not at all. But food must seem like food!And that is why I am waiting for Larry, once he is done sending me those food pictures on WhatsApp. Yes, I was right. He is at this super premium new flight kitchen Klassica tasting some pointlessly gorgeous food. Why?This Klassica kind of event ends up being more a tasting ceremony than about the end-consumer experience. The accent is on variety, mix of foods, experimental/creative cooking. So, what does young Larry have to say? Hear this message from him: “The Ginger-Pistachio Encrusted Chicken with Tangerine Sauce was served with honey roasted pan seared carrots, and on the side, you have Roasted Rosemary Fingerling Potatoes and a helping of Vegetable Minestrone Soup with Fava Beans and Mint”? You see our MLAs lovin’ it?Duleep: Fusion foods won’t work in air. Nor will mixing northern and southern cuisine. It’s blasphemy. I would be offended too if someone served paneer with uttappam.Ruzbeh: Here I am wanting to do away with food, and Larry wants smoked chicken? Here is another image, spotlight on ‘Slash of basil pesto, drippings of vinaigrette ….! How beautiful and appetising is that smoked chicken going to look when it crawls out of a foil box? Who tests this in the usage situation?Polished cutlery, starched napkins, bright white porcelain.... pistachio gremolata and pomegranate reduction just dotting the borders, a slash of chutney smearing the plate to set off the red of the pomegranate... all very pretty and just right for a media intervention.Devyani Khare (marketing): …But now you take a look at Mr Anshuman Kaviratne, a finance manager rushing to Madurai to examine a broken down ERP system, with three days to audit finalisation.Kaviratne’s wife, who is monitoring his cholestrol, feeds him oats with milk at 7 a.m. and packs him off to the airport. He does not mind, he waits for the airline food tray.It comes, he peels off the foil and presto! What he sees can dampen the appetite of the strongest willed person: uttapam with paneer mush, where the mush (once gravy) has caked up against the paneer and the uttapam, heated to death, but saltless and tough.... You have to experience this sight on an empty stomach to know frustration!But for arguments’ sake, if we agree that the airline is not promising you a home meal but food to see you through, then I can see Kaviratne pulling the foil back upon the uttapam and pressing the bell for the lady to take his plate away.Therefore tell me, all that happens in a Klassica kind of set up, how does the Klassica tasting session help the man who is going to eat that 10 hours and many levels of freezing and reheating later?Larry (having just walked in): You guys talking about me?Duleep: Let us forget Larry’s events. It is part of his job to check out flight kitchens and it is part of their job to impress him. Now...Larry: You guys are not getting it. What I take away is a certain something about their ability. You saw those images? When that smoked chicken and gremolata is placed before me, I get to know what Klassica is capable of and all capability holds the essence of efficiency and skill. Just looking at their chef’s body language I can tell if he can handle our orders placed 48 hours before departure. The food caterer is aware that he needs to cook 10 hours prior to despatch and cooling below 0°C for four hours before despatch. This food has to be foil packed to enable heating on the flight and it must stay moist! This is included in capability.The flight kitchen that can spend time showing off its smoked chicken already knows the act of tossing up 175 meals eight hours in advance and cooking below 15°C. They have mastered the logistics Ruzbeh, and logistics is key to deciding between a smoked chicken and a choley. And… ensuring that the food tray opens moist, not caked up and dead.Ruzbeh: I don’t think the end user cares where you tested the food. You are SpiceJet, Jet Airways, Air India… they have an estimate of your brand name. All that you say is process. She wants the end-product to be to her liking. Let me give you an example:Customer: Coffee is bad. Hostess: I used the best coffee we have … Customer: It has no body, no taste. Hostess: I will tell the chef/ It must be the powdered milk / This is what we serve even the pilot…See? You are giving explanations. Whereas what she wants is good coffee. So, when you say fresh/moist, I say, tasty, good looking!Devyani: This is not entirely about the passenger. It is not about logistics or efficiency. It is about what the hell am I in the business of!Duleep: I am not buying that. Why then do we fuss with Business Class passengers. Isn’t that different? Then again, they use bone china not foil boxes, real cups with silver trimmings, not disposable plastic cups that bend to the touch. Half the selling is in the packaging. In the delivery. You serve that same bad coffee in porcelain and then see…Ruzbeh: So, have we got our act mixed up. We spend on tasting ceremonies but the end-consumer is scowling. I am not wishing to offer a fine dining experience. Klassica is doing that for an audience that is NOT the end-consumer of that food. Two, THAT is not the condition of the food that the end-user experiences when he opens his foil box.Devyani: So, see how apart the supplier and the buyer are. The supplier is addressing only the man who will pay or not pay for his services. That airline official, like Larry, can be pleased if the kofta still retains shape, is hot, fluffy and dancing in the gravy. Whereas that same kofta comes all soaked up and a glop when it climbs out of the foil box to the end-user — Mr Kaviratne’s tray.The important question here is this: do the food tasters at the stage of Klassica marketing taste their offering in the usage situation, 10 hours later? The amount of preparation and planning and ideating that goes on until the food is frozen at below 0 degrees is fabulous. No airline traveller may know the effort that goes into this. But it is heartbreaking that all that effort remains disconnected from giving the end consumer a great food experience.Larry: Completely agree. Food tasters do not taste the same food. There are few places in the world that have facilities to analyse effects of different pressure and atmospheric conditions on food; They employ star chefs to create signature dishes, even accommodate religious and dietary requests and they have better-equipped galleys. Etihad’s economy class also provides surprise popcorn, cappuccino and espresso!These airlines have invested a lot in getting their passenger-food relationship right. These are also airlines that see very high repeat customer rate and people willing to pay a premium, while our home airlines are still fighting costs to attract international passengers.Devyani: The real question is this: Why is food so important on a flight? And I will answer. The air is a surreal experience that is unmatched by any other. On a flight, near the clouds, there is an unusual soundlessness. Food gets served with just one question: Vegetarian or non-vegetarian? None of the, ‘How is the galouti kebab, sir?’ There is a niceness to eating silently on a plane, a tiny uncomfortable table, your chomping neighbour and the cramped tray notwithstanding, the consumer has his personal joy that he will not express, for it is a personal moment of acute hunger and being served and being satisfied. Unless, of course, he orders coffee, which is unilaterally, across every airline the most insufferable experience, because coffee is made with the lowest grade of coffee, badly, and in plastic cups.So, tell me, why do they even bother to serve bad coffee?Duleep: Coffee is as crucial as food on a flight. And good coffee, I agree. Powdered milk should be banned. But on the domestic sector, you must have food because competition has it too. For example, Jet had to return to full-service model and give free catering since the buy-on-board did not work. Air India after the Dholakia committees report had cut back on food but had to reintroduce food to attract more passengers.Larry: So, can an airline do without food? And can airline food be good? Yes, it can be good. I have had some of the best meals in the airline (economy class) and people continue to praise airline meals (Emirates / Lufthansa / Singapore Airlines). On the other hand, some of the worst meals are also on flight. So, it is a function of cost, selection and choice offered.Ruzbeh: Tell me, what per cent of operating costs is food cost? Give me a comparative…Larry: What per cent is very difficult to tell, but roughly the whole meal for a full-service carrier is Rs 750, which includes tea/coffee, salad, dessert and the main course. The complex logistics makes it expensive. If you see the supply chain: Selection ->Actual cooking ->Security Clearance ->Dispatch to airport ->Loading and then, the reverse logistics from aircraft -> Airport security ->Back to flight kitchen ->Segregation/Disposal -> Cleaning / Washing and disposal of trays and other reusable containers.So, let’s see. Air India domestic meal and Jet Airways domestic meal will roughly be Rs 750. It could also be similar for smaller sectors like Delhi-Kathmandu, Kolkata-Dhaka where the flight time is comparable to domestic. Sorry? Yes, sector does determine cost; because the meal to be served is determined based on the sector length. In India, it is on an average 90 minutes; with a time of 22 minutes for climb and 18 minutes for descend, the service time is considerably reduced. This actually makes logistics more tedious. For example, Jet Airways that operates the same narrowbody aircraft (B737) on Mumbai-Delhi and Mumbai-Singapore will have a more elaborate meal to Singapore as Mumbai Singapore is a longer sector; hence it will have two meals and drinks, while Delhi will serve only one meal. Delhi-Kathmandu will have one meal similar to the one served on Delhi-Mumbai.Devyani: Then, it seems, we are spending disproportionate time and attention on food, which ends up occupying so much logistics time, is expensive and worse, is not our business purpose? And at the end of it all, we get brickbats. Ok, forget the brickbats, but this ‘lizard in my food tray’ kind of damaging nonsense?Duleep: Ok, much as I resist the no-food idea, I want to share with you some findings from a study we conducted some years ago at my earlier employers, AirLift. What I would depend on is a key finding that the quality of food was the least important factor among several that influenced how passengers rated an airline. Having better quality food increases costs without a commensurate improvement in customer satisfaction. Yet getting a really good supplier of food for airlines is limited due to the multiple clearances required. This reduces flexibility and adds costs. Even a simple menu is costly (to the passenger) and airlines do not profit a great deal on the sale of food items.Don’t forget, reheating food on an aircraft adds weight (and fuel costs). Keeping more menu items adds space (again a scarce commodity) both of which increase cost. There is also a premium on the serving cabin attendant’s time. Despite all this, airlines do research meal options. Again, my experience at AirLift, there are a miniscule number of complaints related to food. And again, the pilots and cabin crew eat the same food, so their feedback is monitored regularly as well, since they are ‘repeat customers’.The problem with airline food is a global phenomena. In India, it is prominent as we have very diverse food habits, not to mention social norms where serving good food is traditionally a measure of your goodness! But NOT serving food is definitely a dampener. So I feel!casestudymeera@gmail.com Businessworld case studies(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 02-11-2015)
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The way to address the problem is not to remove the problem but to find a sustainable and balanced solutionBy Ameya JoshiThis case beautifully describes the challenges faced by airlines in managing expectations of internal stakeholders for cost and of passengers for service quality. Airlines are a mix of transportation and hospitality industry. While the core business is to take people from one place to another, most of the time passengers take the transportation part for granted and look forward to the hospitality part.The case depicts how the management of SwiftAir tracks good and bad publicity of competition to learn and be prepared for any eventuality at its own airline. The bigger issue is response of media. A booming media industry has led to increased competition and catchy headlines with the buzzword being “narrow escape”. Media is quick to remove the word “suspect” from the headline and thus “Rat suspected on board” could becomes “Rat on board”.Chief of accounts and finance Ambi Iyer’s argument is unreasonable since the food cost is less than Rs 1,000 per passenger and the average losses of airlines exceed this. However, discontinuation of food will also result in fewer passengers.The letter from Ruzbeh’s cousin Dilshad represents the ignorance of family and frequent fliers regarding food in an airline. People, at times, expect a fine-dining experience onboard by paying much lesser than that which also includes the cost of travel from A to B.While fusion foods don’t go down well, as mentioned by Duleep, it is easier in a space-constrained airplane and offers some variety. The choice is to make some people happy, unhappy or to have everybody 50 per cent satisfied. More often than not airlines opt for the latter. The way to address the problem is not to remove the problem but to find a sustainable and balanced solution and that is how the case ends.Passengers hate airline food yet they eagerly wait for the food tray. Seasoned fliers choose seats based on where the food trolley starts service from to get food first! Even when the coffee does not taste good, most want to try it. It is either a sign of eternal hope, genuine desire or an attitude of having everything on offer because it’s free. The airline ought to select its menu that is palatable and presentable. The shift towards low-cost carriers denotes that a sandwich or a small meal is better than the free meal of soggy rice and mush.In the US, the largest aviation market in the world, airlines offer only water and non-alcoholic beverages for free in economy class while the meals available for purchase; but in Asia, especially in India, meal seems to be an integral part of airline travel.Food review websites incentivise people to post photos since people tend to like something more if it looks nice and a possible solution to the food problem could lie in suitably packaging the food.There is a cue for customer services here. When a passenger complains, he wants to know if his complaint matters enough for the airline to improve its services. Whereas, at SwiftAir, the PR ends up giving unwanted explanations.Airlines need in-flight audit team, which travels randomly, speaks to co-passengers, photographs the food and compares what was served on ground and how that tastes in-flight.My experience in the airline industry tells me that Indian customers are cost sensitive and will shift loyalty for cheaper tickets. IndiGo does not offer hot meals yet attracts corporate and VFR (visiting friends & relatives) traffic because of affordable fares, connectivity and on-time performance. SpiceJet offers hot meals onboard but has high loads due to cheaper fares and innovative discount offers. A recent entry in the category, AirAsia India, even after introducing its popular hot meals to India, is struggling to make profits. So does Vistara (the TATA-Singapore Airlines joint venture), which recognised the importance of food and introduced gourmet food onboard. While its food is the best among the competition, the airline has lowest occupancy as the tickets are expensive.While it is true that food remains an important factor, it is clearly not the only factor. People say food is the least important aspect in flight selection yet they talk the most about it post-flight and that’s where the airlines need to find the balance. The writer is a management professional having worked with leading full service and low-cost carriers in the country. He currently works as a solutions consultant in aviation, travel and hospitality industry(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 02-11-2015)
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Airlines should accept and passengers need to understand that there will always be limitations around an in-flight meal experienceBy Rahul DeansThis case study on swiftair goes to the heart of a problem faced by the airline industry — particularly in India. Two sets of stakeholders — the passengers and the press — have a perception about the industry that is significantly different from reality. Airlines only seem to reinforce these perceptions rather than correct them.Passengers often feel that service levels in airlines should be very superior since “we pay so much” and because even now, barely 2 per cent of the Indian population flies. This year’s estimate of nearly 70 million domestic passengers that the industry seems excited about is really 35 million return trips. Assuming just 1.5 trips per person per year, that is just 24 million passengers, or 2 per cent of the Indian population. Thus flying is still seen as something for the elite.Passengers tend to be more demanding and while airlines struggle to please them in an adverse operating environment, they make little effort to communicate proactively with them, despite passengers being more understanding of problems that airlines might face.In the West, by contrast, a two-hour flight is seen as just another form of transport, no different from a train or bus journey and expectations around food that a passenger has during the journey, for all these modes of transport, are the same.Similarly, aviation seems to be a high profile sector for the press to write about — often with a lot of hyperbole. Headlines like ‘Miraculous Escape For (Air) Passengers’ are given for incidents where no one had a chance of getting injured — with more coverage compared to a rail accident with fatalities! The fog season brings stories of air passengers getting stranded, without the media displaying any understanding of how the country’s poor airport infrastructure makes that inevitable. Yet, the media is receptive to transparent communication and would be happy to report from an airline’s point of view if it believes the story is newsworthy.When I worked for a domestic airline, we conducted surveys among passengers which consistently showed that the quality of in-flight food was the least important factor in determining their preference for an airline. Since food is not prepared by the airline but by specialist caterers who cater to multiple airlines, it is also most difficult to differentiate the airline based on the quality of food. The multiple steps and agencies involved, coupled with a high tax structure, make it difficult to make a significant profit on food and beverage sales, while the limitations imposed by the aircraft in flight make serving a tasty meal very difficult. For a domestic airline, trying to differentiate on the basis of superior inflight food (and not for example, convenience, on time performance, or fares), is neither possible nor desirable. Apart from the problems around the food served in an aircraft that the case study mentions, a problem all airlines face is that once in the air, the pressure and humidity in the cabin, along with background noise, diminish one’s sense of taste by around 30 per cent. For example, a meal would have to have 30 per cent more salt to taste as salty as it does on the ground. Food has to be precooked and preheated. Cutlery has to be plastic. Add to this, people eating in close proximity to each other (a non-veg meal would be inches away from someone eating a veg meal), food smell circulating around the cabin, often inadequate time to clean food spills between halts, eating with your elbows tucked in, while the kid behind you kicks the seat, all make for an experience that is far less pleasurable than eating in a restaurant — even if the quality of food is as good and the quality checks arguably more stringent. In this context, SwiftAir should look at reducing passenger expectations around food and the role of food itself. In the past, the food and beverage service on an airline — particularly on long-haul sectors, was considered a substitute to entertainment. Today, with inflight movies and music and passengers having their Kindles, they are entertained by entertainment and not food. A limited, easy to understand menu of non-smelly, non-messy food which the passenger pays for is probably the most efficient option — something Indigo does well. Many airlines including British Airways and American Airlines do not serve meals on short-haul flights.The incident, where a lizard was seen around a meal, is a serious lapse (albeit a seemingly one-off incident) and while the airline should unconditionally apologise, and study the incident to understand why it happened, it would provide a good opportunity for the airline to engage with the media and consumer groups to explain to them how food is prepared and what some of the problems are.Along with the menu, a note on ‘Inflight meal FAQs’ could be made available to passengers, who will then show more understanding of the constraints an airline faces around its inflight food. The media too shows understanding when an organisation facing a problem comes clean, is seen to be transparent and engages in a fact-based discussion. The airline can offer interested passengers and the media a tour of the in-flight caterers’ facilities, or a behind-the-scenes look at how a meal gets on an aircraft and is served.This would be a good opportunity for the airline to discuss broader issues with the media. For example, while there is a lot of praise for the swanky new terminal in Mumbai airport, the larger problem is that the airport is saturated and cannot accommodate more flights (Delhi airport too will soon be in the same position). Building new terminals sharing the same runway does not add capacity. The larger question the media should be asking is how the industry can grow when the two biggest airports (accounting for over 40 per cent of India’s departures) cannot grow and restrictions exist for other major airports. That question will be asked if airlines have a healthy dialogue with the media, rather than react defensively when a problem occurs.Similarly, rather than reporting on ‘near miss’ incidents, about which the media often lacks technical knowledge, airlines could get the media to highlight, for instance, how the slums and garbage outside airports greatly increase the chance of a bird strike, or why airports in India are still unable to operate when there is fog. These are more newsworthy, but are not reported because neither side makes the effort to get the story out. There is more that can be done with food if airlines accept and passengers understand that there will always be limitations around an in-flight meal experience. When pre-booking meals, passengers can be given the option of customising their meal. Customers are always more satisfied with something they have co-created and the complexity is easily managed by a flight kitchen. Why can’t an airline sell food coupons, redeemable in outlets in the food court of an airport, prior to departure. Outlets will be happy to provide discounts, part of which can be shared with the passenger buying a coupon. This would leave the airline with a similar margin to what they might have got selling a meal in-flight. The growth of e-wallets will facilitate this arrangement. The idea could be refined to offer, for example, a great deal on a south Indian breakfast, or a pizza-based meal for a family at lunchtime. Airlines could tie up with nearby hotels, which could offer passengers a discounted meal, while completing their check-in formalities and dropping them to the airport, which would provide the airline flexibility in their choice of hotels.A similar opportunity might exist, for example, for passengers arriving at their destination at breakfast time — too early to begin their business engagements. Such tie-ups between airlines and hotels/ restaurants already exist, with loyalty programmes, catering for off-loaded passengers, etc. This would need a mindset change by airlines, who should move away from maximising in-flight meal revenue to reducing dissatisfaction with in-flight meals. This can be done while ensuring that the sale of food and beverages, in whatever manner they are offered to passengers, is profitable and the quality consistent with the image of the airline.Will Ruzbeh tell his customers that rather than drink a poor quality instant coffee in-flight (which may spill if there is a turbulence), he would offer them a discount on a wide variety of coffee at the airport coffee shop? The writer is CEO of Cocoberry. He has worked in the FMCG, retail and airline sectors(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 02-11-2015)
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Understanding the basic needs of a traveller can go a long way in encouraging him to return for yet another culinary experience with youBy Ranbir BatraThe truth is, although we must eat to live, which one of us doesn’t live to eat? Ah…food. Just the word itself has an unparalleled ability to evoke reactions — emotional, physical and even spiritual — by nothing more than its mere mention.World over, family discussions, business meeting, social outings and even national and international debates are planned and designed around the communal consumption of food. Whether you are sitting at home inhaling the aroma of spices simmering around you, or in your office anticipating the unveiling of your lunch tiffin, or at a restaurant searching through a menu to find the dish that will hit your sweet spot, or in an airplane hoping the food service will sweeten your journey, we routinely hit the pause button on our busy lives to — yes, you guessed it — eat good food!As a student in a culinary school, developing a keen understanding of the relationship with food was as important a component of my course work as learning about the science and art of food itself.First, there are cultural norms and preferences to consider, then, of course, there is the seasonal availability of the ingredients. But above all, there is the inexplicable and completely unpredictable X-factor to be mastered — your customer’s mood!Years later, figuring out what will make my customer truly happy remains the most important question I address when I step into my kitchens day after day. And as a professional in the food service industry, I recognise that no matter how many varieties of food I offer on my menus, and no matter how much I may have learned about the preparation of good food, ultimately each one of my customer will form their own, individual opinions about their meal they are served.Even before my customer has taken the first bite of his or her food, their eyes and nose have initiated the experience, and as a restaurateur, my primary goal is to ensure that the hundreds and thousands of these food critics that come my way leave with a positive review.The world has become more globalised and innovative in the last 20 years. Through continued innovation, more and more people across the globe are able to freely communicate with others with a mere touch of their phone pads and arrange travel itineraries within a couple of minutes. Through globalisation, more people are able to travel to all corners of the world in search of life-changing experiences, business opportunities, religious enlightenment, and better education. The trade association for the world’s airlines — International Air Transport Association (IATA) — released its first 20-year passenger growth forecast, projecting that passenger numbers are expected to reach 7.3 billion by 2034. That represents a 4.1 per cent average annual growth in demand for air connectivity that will result in more than a doubling of the 3.3 billion passengers expected to travel this year. In light of this information, many of the airlines need to ask themselves: How do we gain an upper hand over competition? How do we improve the quality of airline travel so we can increase our revenue? How do we offer all of our new and future customers an enjoyable travel experience so that they remain long-term customers? The answer may lie in appealing the palate, the tongue, and the stomach! Members of the airline industry may be able to distinguish themselves from their competition by improving their culinary offerings. Should an airline serve their passengers a full meal, but charge them no more than the cost of an airline ticket? Or should an airline offer a wider range of meal options, and expect passengers to pay for the meal of their choice? Should airlines serve fancier, more exotic meals to appeal to their wanderlust-driven travelers? Or simpler meals that are nutritious, easy-to-serve, and less accident-prone 30,000 feet up in the air?As the airline industry continues to work its way through these questions, one thing is clear that as competition among airlines for market share continues to heat up, the question of which airlines serves the best food is becoming an increasingly important consideration in the race for customer loyalty and retention.Further, airline food is no longer viewed as simply a means of sustenance, aimed at tiding the passenger over until they’ve reached their destination and a real meal. On the contrary, given that there isn’t really much to distract a passenger through his journey, the question of when their meal will be served, and what they can expect to find under the foil covering their food trays is, in fact, one of the few things most passengers look forward to after take-off. And what they find under that layer or foil can, and does, define a passenger’s experience with any given airline.However, as passengers, we are often not aware of the myriad challenges faced by the airline industry. Airline food is cooked in professional industrial sized kitchens, cooled to below zero degrees within a fixed window of time in order to kill all bacteria before the meals are transported to the airline, stored on a plane and then reheated, once again within a fixed window of time to ensure that the food is kept out of the temperature danger zone, before it is finally served to the passenger. Airlines also follow extremely strict hygiene policies when it comes to serving food on a flight, and have to ensure that all food service areas remain extremely clean at all times.When you see the flight attendant bringing that food trolley towards you, already thoughts are flowing through your head and you wait for that question: “Sir/Madam, would you like to have our vegetarian option or non-vegetarian option?”Most often on domestic airlines, we have a pre-judged notion that we are going to get cold hard paneer, green peas, rice and potato or some dry, hard chicken curry, along with some yoghurt, cold salad, fruit and a dessert. When that is the case that smile immediately turns into a frown.Even before getting to how delicious their meal is, it is the simple things passengers are looking for: just a soft and warm bread roll can transform a traveller’s meal experience.Unlike restaurants, while airline meals cannot be prepared to cater to each individual’s unique taste, paying attention to the details can go a long way in meeting the expectations of a passenger. Every airline must strive to achieve basic criteria when it comes to serving meals: meals that are healthy, hot, and as importantly, pleasing to the eye once that layer of foil is peeled off the tray. In my opinion, if an airline can successfully meet these criteria, half the food battle is won.Is achieving all of the above a challenge? Absolutely. But do we passengers see things differently, and expect nothing but the best because “we have paid for it”? Absolutely. Survey after survey has shown that passengers are choosing their airline, and even paying for higher-priced tickets, if the airline has a reputation for serving delicious food.When it comes to the question of who pays for these meals, some argue that if the airline industry is expected to improve the selection of meals served on a flight, then the passengers should be expected to pay for their share of the meal.In my opinion, expecting passengers to pay for their meals on a short sector flight may, in fact, be a reasonable strategy. But on a longer sector flight, where meals are the one thing that keep the passenger going with hours left to landing, it is in the airlines’ best interest to up the ante and make their passengers’ journey as satisfying and memorable as possible.Furthermore, given the increasing costs of travel and some ungodly charges that airlines are beginning to impose on customers (for example, carry-on bag charges, excess baggage charges, and higher ticket costs), charging customers additional amounts for a hearty meal could only jeopardise maintaining the customer base. Through my experiences, I have learned that it may never be possible to satisfy everyone. And in the case of the airline industry, the task at hand is even more challenging, but understanding the basic needs of a traveller, and staying true to the question of “What will make my customer truly happy” can go a long way in retaining your customers’ loyalty and encouraging them to return for yet another culinary experience with you. The writer is a fourth generation restaurateur and owns Mumbai’s New Yorker and Pune’s Frisco. He studied at Kendall College, Chicago and graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Culinary Arts.(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 02-11-2015)
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