VoIP News

Home Page
Search

Advanced Search
Advertise with us
News Alerts/RSS Feeds
Free eNews
Free Magazines Worldwide
Content Submission
Buyers' Guide
CHANNELS
Contact Center Express
IVR
Voice Over Broadband
e-Business Solutions
Predictive Dialer
Session Border Control
Customer Experience
  Management
Selecting VoIP Solutions
Conference
  Call-Audio-Web
SIP
Virtual Contact Center
Workforce Optimization
Hosted Contact Center
Speech Applications
Speech Recognition
Multi-Site IP Contact
   Center
WiMAX
VoIP
Remote Call Monitoring
  & Analysis
CRM Solutions
Headsets
IP Contact Center
Triple Play
Business Relationship
  Software
IP-PBX
Contact Center Recording
   & Quality Solutions
3rd Party Remote Call
  Monitoring
Unified Contact
  Center Solutions
Web-Based Help Desk
VoIP Gateways
VoIP Developer
Call Center Software
BizWatch
Consumer Electronics
PR Resource
VoIP Contact Center
Wi-Fi Telephony
WHITEPAPERS
CRM
CTI
Handheld Devices
SIP
VoIP
Wi-FI
FORUMS
 
TMC Regulatory Guide
Free Industry Info
Order Reprints
Warren Buffet Writes TMC
 



abredenberg@tmc...
Manage Profile


Latest Stock Information



Contact Center Express

 
> Contact Center Express Home

David Sims - TMCnet CRM Alert Columnist[April 5, 2005]

Airline Customer Service: Wrong Again.

By David Sims, TMCnet CRM Alert Columnist


Scanning the news this morning (actually afternoon here on the Turkish Mediterranean) this reporter saw where airline service, if possible, got worse in 2004. According to news reports, airlines generally arrived later, lost more luggage and caused more consumer complaints in 2004 than they did the year before, an annual study of aviation quality finds.

In late February I remember doing an article on how airlines, desperate to stop losing passengers to competing low-fare carriers, were going to improve customer service. Or so thought Kevin Mitchell, a national business-travel expert and founder of the Business Travel Coalition.

Mitchell also warned that “some airlines may not survive the tectonic shift in the industry from traditional airlines to discount carriers.” He said that since Delta Air Lines and other carriers lowered their fares, “customer service is likely to be the next battleground.”

A battle of hara-kiri, evidently.

Customer service was supposed to be the one thing dinosaur carriers could do better than the low-fare boys who are eating Delta, American, United et al’s lunch these days. A quarter of all air travel is on low-fare airlines.

Ominously, of the four of the 14 major airlines rated in both 2003 and 2004 whose customer service improved, three – AirTran, Atlantic Southeast, JetBlue – are low-fare carriers. Among the major carriers only United managed to irritate their customers less frequently in 2004 than in 2003.

And here we were all so optimistic. According to the 2003 Air Travel Consumer Report, on-time arrivals are up and complaints are down. In fact, complaints logged in June 2003 were almost half those logged in June 2002.  (582 logged in 2003 vs. 339 logged in 2002.) 

Airline service is getting worse because more people are flying at a time when carriers have slashed their work forces, said Dean Headley, a co-author of the study and associate professor at Wichita State University. “Morale’s going to be down and they’re not going to care if they get the bags to the loading dock in five minutes, 10 minutes or 15 minutes,” Headley said.

The seven largest carriers, for example, employed 12 percent fewer people in January 2004 than they did the year before, according to the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

On-time performance worsened last year, with 78.3 percent of flights arriving on time, down from 82 percent in 2003. Skywest was on time the most, American Eagle the least.

The problem of deteriorating airline service came to a head over the Christmas holidays, when delays and cancellations inconvenienced more than 500,000 passengers. Regional carrier Comair canceled all its flights during the holiday weekend, and US Airways’ baggage system failed.

Complaints about airline service rose 27 percent last year, a much higher increase than the 3.3 percent growth in passengers. US Airways generated the most complaints, and Southwest the least.

All aboard Amtrak.


David Sims is contributing editor and CRM Alert columnist for TMCnet.

To discover how contact centers can save money and increase productivity by making the switch to IP Telephony, be sure to attend TMC's IP Contact Center Summit May 24-26, 2005, in Dallas, Texas.


Purchase reprints of this article by calling (800) 290-5460 or buy them directly online at www.reprintbuyer.com.

Respond to this article in our forums!


Contact Center Express Channel features FREE research on contact center software technology.


Mark Your Calendars! The SPEECH WORLD Conference is coming to Dallas on May 24-26, 2005! Reserve Your Space Now!

TMC's Customized Keymail Alert and RSS Service Usage Instructions
 To receive daily e-mail alerts and RSS URLs of stories posted on TMCnet.com, please enter keyword terms to match and your e-mail address.  
Keyword 1:
Keyword 2:
Keyword 3:
 
E-mail Address:

Search terms are case-insensitive.

Enclose in double-quotes for exact phrase match.

No password necessary!

Most Popular Pages
  • Toyota Unveils All-New Highlander Hybrid SUV and FTX Full-Size Pickup Concept
  • Symbol Rolls Out PDT 8146 Handheld Featuring Voice Over Wi-Fi
  • Internet Telephony WiFi Telephony
  • Internet Telephony WiFi Telephony
  • New York Institute of Tech Selects Symbol For Multi-Campus Wireless Backbone
  • IP Telephony for Small Business: When Failure Is Not an Option
  • Fixed Wireless, WiMAX, and WiFi Markets to Reach $12.4 billion by 2010
  • Cingular Unwraps Results From its Annual Electronic Gadget Gift Survey

  • Latest TMCnet Headlines
  • Premiere Global Services to Announce First Quarter Results on Thursday, April 21, 2005
  • Major Wholesale Customers Rank Verizon as Leading Full-Service Provider
  • SeaChange Powers World's First on-Demand Television Deployment Based On OCAP
  • Multiband Completes Sale of Business Solutions Group; Divestiture Will Allow Company to Focus on Growing Its Subscriber Services
  • YellowPepper to Present at Leadership Music's Digital Summit
  • Latest Company News
    3Com
    AT&T
    AveComm
    BellSouth
    CompUSA
    Fairchild Semiconductor
    Kintera
    Kyocera
    Left Bank Solutions
    MCI
    Motorola
    Nortel
    Partner Communications
    Philips
    SBC Communications
    Siebel Systems
    Siemens
    Siemens
    Telstra
    Toshiba
    Unisys
    Verizon
    VoIP Inc.
    Witness Systems
    Subscribe FREE to all of TMC's monthly magazines. Click here now.

    TMC LOGO
    The Authority on
    Contact Center Express, IVR, Voice Over Broadband, e-Business Solutions, Selecting VoIP Solutions, Multi-Site IP Contact Center, WiMAX, Triple Play, VoIP Gateways, VoIP Developer, Predictive Dialer, Session Border Control, Customer Experience Management, Conference Call-Audio-Web, SIP, Virtual Contact Center, Hosted Contact Center, CRM Solutions, VoIP, Speech Applications, Call Center Software, Communications, Call Centers, Teleservices, Web-Based Help Desk, Wi-Fi, Speech Recognition, Biometrics Voice Over IP and VoIP.

    Technology Marketing Corporation,
    One Technology Plaza, Norwalk, CT 06854 USA
    Ph: 800-243-6002, 203-852-6800; Fx: 203-853-2845
    General comments: tmc@tmcnet.com. Comments about this site: webmaster@tmcnet.com.
    Technology Marketing Corp. 1997-2005 Copyright. Privacy Policy Sitemap