Service Recovery

Service Failure Prevention & Recovery

Customer Service for

Airlines Processes

© Sudeshna Chatterjee

Three faces of service delivery Customer needs Total customer experience Preventing service failure Recovering from service failure Engineering customer experience Case studies

In this module…


Think about it

95% of complaining customers will remain loyal if their problems are resolved immediately and to their satisfaction.

On average, companies have a 20-40% chance of selling to lost customers, and only a 5 – 20% probability of selling to new prospects.

It costs 4 – 10 times more to win a customer than it does to keep a customer.

Long-term customers tend to spend more with a company than new customers (and they are easier to serve than new customers.

Customer loyalty to airlines is a thing of the past: now it’s all about the customer experience.


Why customers leave

Source: CRMGuru© Sudeshna Chatterjee

Three faces of service delivery

Service Excellence

Customer is:

Satisfied/happy

Delighted

Service Failure

Customer is:

Dissatisfied

Has to call back to follow up on service

Service Recovery

Agent:

Prevents/pre-empts service failure

Makes a dissatisfied customer happy againMeet or exceed

customer expectations

Not meet customer

expectations

Meet or exceed expectations after causing distress

Key to Customer Retention!


Think about it

Product

Service

Price

People

Service

Other

Convenience

Location

What makes you stay loyal to a store, restaurant, or airline?


Typical customer needs ‘Listen to

me’ ‘Be sensitive

to my needs’ ‘Treat me like

a human being’

‘Resolve my issue’


Typical agent behaviors

Answer questions

Act on customer requests

Follow procedure

Resolve the issue

Customer service agents: Meet the customer’s STATED needs

But… what about the UNSTATED needs?


Customer experience

Total Customer Experience

The Functional Needs

The Emotional Needs

ProductServiceResolution

ToneChoice of wordsBody language


The Singapore girl

Evokes an emotional response

in customers


Think about it

Review Case Study #1.

At which points did service fail? Could the service have been recovered?


A different approach

1. Ground staff at the point of departure

2. Ground staff at the point arrival

3. Bus driver

4. Flight attendant

How could the customer experience have been different?

1. Could have informed the customer about the delay

2. Been there to receive the guests

3. Shown more urgency in communicating with airline staff

4. Been professional and empathetic


Customer service roadmap

1. Prevent Service Failure

2. Recover (Failed)Service

3. Engineer Customer Experience


1. Preventing service failure

• Keep your promises• Be on top of process knowledge• Offer a solution

Pre-empt Failure

• Repeated calls-backs & confirmations

• Anxiety• Special/unusual requests

Recognize Triggers


2. Recovering from service failure

Apologize

Own up

Understand

Seek solution

Fix


3. Engineering customer experience

Lateral Thinking

• Think out of the box: explore unusual options (within process scope)

Old Wine in New Bottle

• Soften the blow by tweaking your words and tone

Create an Experienc

e• Make a big

deal; manipulate the experience


Old wine in a new bottle

Explaining Policy

Instead of:

‘‘I’m sorry, we can only upgrade you to First Class if you’ve flown 3000 miles in the last six months. You’re short of 25 miles.’’

Try saying:

‘‘I’d love to upgrade you to First Class but our records show that you’ll become eligible before the next flight. We’d be happy to serve you in First Class on your next flight with us!’’



Saying No

Instead of:

‘‘All the seats on the evening flight are booked. You’ll have to fly out tomorrow morning. There is nothing that I can do. I’m sorry.’’

Try saying:

‘‘I’m sorry, there are no seats available on the flight this evening. However, I can book a seat of your choice on the first flight out tomorrow morning. You will be able to reach Bangalore in time for the meeting. Would you like me to go ahead and book a seat on that flight?’’



Explaining Procedures

Instead of:

‘‘You can update your contact details on the website. Just go to the Customer Information page and enter the new information.’’

Try saying:

‘‘You can update your address and other contact details in the Customer Information page on our website. If you are at your computer, I could walk you through the steps to do so.’’


Case Studies

Summary

Let’s recap!


Thank you for your time!


Documents

Service Recovery