Improve Like the Airlines
Most of us would agree that, if we were to vote on one industry that businesses should not use as a model to emulate, the airline industry should be at or near the top of that list.
The airline industry is widely held up as a poster child for
disappointing or infuriating customers in so many ways I don’t
have time or space to list them.
Now the airline industry is at the end of the “summer travel
season” and it looks like the powers that be are working hard to
develop plans to improve their many customer service issues
before their next peak travel period, Thanksgiving, rolls
around. It is this effort to improve that I am writing about
because every business can improve their customer service.
Instead of sitting back and accepting that fact that an
overloaded system becomes overwhelmed every time there is a
thunderstorm, they are working at adding capacity, developing
options, and rethinking their processes.
The starting point of this effort is metrics, documenting and
measuring the problems. How much baggage was misplaced at each
airport? How many flights were overbooked? Where were flights
delayed because planes waiting in line at filled gates?
After accumulating and hopefully understanding this data the
effort becomes one of determining what can be done about each
issue, who will be responsible for planning it, who will
implement it to reduce delay, increase accuracy, and improve
overall performance.
Every business has to deal with the same issues. Many times we
do very little and just disappoint our customers. They defect to
the competition and we never know why because few businesses
gather the metrics and seek to understand the depth of the
problem.
So I suggest that we all look at our customer service issues and
start measuring them. Create metrics from the number of times a
telephone rings before it is answered to the number of times a
shipment is delayed. Start developing methods of reducing delay,
increasing accuracy, and improving overall performance.
Maybe we’ll all learn something good from the airlines as they rush to improve before Thanksgiving. Me? I’m going enjoy my turkey at home in November.
About the Author
Larry Galler coaches and consults with high-performance executives, professionals, and small businesses since 1993. He is the writer of the long-running (every Sunday since November 2001) business column, "Front Lines with Larry Galler" For a free coaching session, email Larry for an appointment - Larry@larrygaller.com. Sign up for his free newsletter at http://www.larrygaller.com.
