Airline Experience: End-to-End Design

By Dominique Trempont, Guest Author

When I think of a service, I think of it in the same way as a product, with a set of features/functions that are clear. It is about creatively visualizing a customer experience in all its aspects, end-to-end. A service can be broken down into pieces, into a process, with process owners. Each piece can be carefully defined, measured and improved.

Airlines are an interesting example.

My best customer experience has been on Singapore Airlines (SA), ranging from their on-line experience, the arrival at the airport, the customer service at check-in, the crew on board, the entertainment, the food, the room to stretch my legs.

I discussed with people connected to the airline: it is clear that they design every facet of their service in utmost detail. It comes across in their advertising.

They establish a service standard on which they evaluate existing crews and train new crews.

Examples.

Compare the flight attendants’ uniforms: that sets the tone from the get go.

How many US carrier flight attendants do you see cleaning the restrooms several times during a long flight? Compare that attitude to the run of the mill flight attendant in the US.

Try to consolidate your frequent miles balance with your spouse’s in the US, see how long it takes (7 days?), see how much it costs you (five hundred dollars?). See if your seats are still available, by the time the system processes all this.

Now compare with well thought through customer experience at Singapore Airlines.

How many pleasant interactions have you had with a US carrier check-in staff in the last year? Try the SA staff and watch them try to delight you.

I am sure there are exceptions, but my point is that Singapore Airlines (SA) designs an end-to-end system to maximize customer satisfaction.

This is a standard of excellence: it is led from the top.

SA measures where they need to make changes and they do. They do not accept rough check-in personnel, lousy customer service, screwed up on line user experience, antiquated planes.

Compare the food, the entertainment, the seats, the space for your legs, the attention of the cabin crew, the age of the aircrafts.

For SA, this leads to a very strong market position, higher margins, high customer loyalty, and low staff turnover.

Why do the US carriers not get this? Why do they treat their customers as a necessary evil? Why aren’t they going back to more of a heydays PanAm model, where the customer experience was everything?

The CEOs of US carriers should relearn the value of designing a great end-to-end customer experience. The market response may surprise them and Wall Street will become friendly skies.