taken from bassa forum
From the first time I took up a role in a customer service position, way back in the 80’s can you believe it; it was like a switch flicked inside of me. I spent four years at hotel school, trained to be a chef, worked around various parts of the world, and knew I was good at it (this post is not about modesty). I have always worked in top class establishments, hotels and restaurants, and earned good buck for my experience and knowledge. Now I had always wanted to fly, I swear the first time I saw Concorde gracefully fly over my home town I nearly pee-ed myself. I was a late starter getting into flying, only having been in the air for four years now, and loved it from the word go. I have taken my customer service experience, and tweaked it to the needs of being cabin crew. Long days don’t bother me, neither multi sector days and trips, working holidays, early mornings, weekends, being away from home, family and even my partner, these I can cope with. Ok, I don’t want to do night flights, but that’s just personal preference and so far I have managed to “beg, borrow and steal” my way out of the dreaded DME night duty.
99% of the time, I give 110% (I reserve the right to be human). The customers we fly around the Eurofleet network get seriously whacked in the face with warm welcomes, helpfulness, knowledge of our airline, routes, connections, our award winning website and all its features, our executive club, our product and our pride in working for our national flag carrier. I spend a lot of time keeping current with our ever changing airline. I try and see the rationale behind changes in product, pricing, challenges we face as a massive company in trying to balance the needs and expectations of our customers with the need to make a profit and those of a responsible employer. I make excuses for the disappointments our customers experience, from daily late departures and arrivals, lack of catering, lack of continuity in customer service between departments, bags not making flights, misinformation, appalling airport conditions, broken seats, tired looking aircraft (all the old airbus aircraft spring to mind), rank smelling aircraft and toilets, appalling food ( £1600 for a club ticket to Moscow and insufficient choices to go around of bad quality food!), running out of product, under-catering, warm wines and champagne, poor quality in-flight entertainment on Eurofleet.
I looked today and our latest customer satisfaction rating of cabin crew is 84%. This is fairly standard for us. We are constantly told that it’s our performance and outstanding customer service that keeps our customers coming back again and again. We seem to hit the right balance of care, respect, informality and genuine heartfelt desire to give a service experience that sees that our customers have the best flying experience we can give despite the daily disappointments our company keeps on throwing at our customers. All you need to do to know the feelings of our customers is to read some of the reviews that various airline internet review sites post as well as the board up in the compass centre with letters of appreciation from our customers. We shine compared to a lot of our competitors in customer service, the very nature of our jobs.
On another note, I promote our company in many ways. I question family and friends who chose to fly with other airlines so I can understand why they made that choice, I regularly check flight prices for people and most times we come up trumps, I extol the virtues of buying multi sector point to point tickets with BA instead of looking for the cheapest option on various carriers which could leave passengers in the deep should something go wrong, I reckon I have booked approximately £10 000 worth of tickets for family and friends in the last year alone, I explain and promote the use of ba.com and all its features such as online check in, I get upset when people I know ( and sometimes don’t know) tell me of bad experiences they have had with British Airways, I try and explain why it is that certain things happen and why they don’t live up to passengers expectations, win them round you may say. In other words, I fly the flag for this company.
Now you may ask where this is all going. Well, firstly, for those of you that may be thinking that Eurofleet crew are apathetic to the cause of the industrial action that we are currently facing, let me tell you that I have stressed out enormously about what is happening at the moment, I regularly keep my ears to the ground at work to see where the lands lies with my colleagues, I am saddened by the mud slinging between company and union, crew and management, individuals. I will be the first to stand up and say that there are times when I don’t know who to believe, is it company propaganda or the ugly side of union politics that I do not like one bit. I don’t know if I have the ‘bottle’ to stand up to intimidation, I also know that if I am to go the distance with this fight, it could put me in a serious short term financial dilemma.
But, I will tell you what I do know, that for all the things mentioned above that I put in to this job, not just the basic requirements of getting the job done, but the extras that come with it, for that I deserve a fair wage. At present I am happy with what I earn, I think the company gets incredible value for money from me. I don’t go sick unnecessarily, I don’t take dependency days unnecessarily, I work to the maximum hours our agreements dictate without question or complaint, I even think ( shock and horrors) that there is room for improvement to our productivity on Eurofleet and this should be approached and negotiated in a mutually beneficial way.
If British Airways wants to erode my terms and conditions of employment and ultimately pay me less, I will be faced with two choices: one I can leave a job I love and want to stay with for a number of years, or, two, I can change the way I work and this is how it will go: when a passenger walks on to the aircraft, I will not greet them by name, not recognise them from the flight the day before and welcome them back warmly, I will check their boarding card because that is a safety requirement, when I am standing at the overwings, I will not chat animatedly with passengers about their holidays, their tan or the book they are carrying, I will not bust a gut to move a passenger who wants to be seated elsewhere, I will not be caring about the bad customer experience they have had on their journey to the aircraft, I will not ‘find’ a newspaper for the person who hasn’t had a chance to read the Daily Mail in weeks, I will not recommend a wine, I will not pour champagne with grace and slip them another bottle because it is their anniversary, I will not move a passenger to the front of the aircraft to give them the best possible chance of making the connection to their next flight, I will not stand and talk a nervous passenger through the stages of flight that scares the living hell out of them, I will not make up cool, wet towels for the mother distraught at her child’s discomfort or illness; and I will not apologies for lack of catering, cleaning and late departure/arrival. I will also not promote British Airways as a full service airline, I will not inform passengers of the best way of getting the best deal out of their choice of airline, I will not explain new routes/destinations, I will not read up on changes to our airline to keep our customers informed and I certainly will not be booking flights for friends and family any more.
You see, the bottom line for me is that I was recruited by British Airways not just because I could open an aircraft door in an emergency, or deal with a medical case on board, but because I come with a range of skills and experience and maybe even a little bit of flair which I could use in the role of customer service to provide a fantastic journey for our customers so they would come back time and again and recommend us and promote flying with us to their friends and family, and ultimately make a profit for our airline and pay me a decent wage for doing a damn good job.
There is a difference between working on minimum wage for McDonalds where you don’t expect to be greeted with a smile but just get your mediocre burger, because it’s a means to an end, or working for the likes of the Savoy or the Ritz at a higher wage where your skills and experience are used and appreciated and for that you can command a higher wage and better terms of employment and future prospects.
So, Mr. Walsh, if you, the board, the shareholders and the our paying passengers want me to flip a British Airways burger and slap it in a box and send customers on their way like they are on a production line, then tell me that is what you want and I will make the decisions I have to make accordingly. But if you want me to provide a ‘service that matters for people who value how they fly’ and you still want to cut back on the fair and just way you remunerate me for these skills, then you better believe that you will have a fight on your hands from me!
I vote resoundingly in favour of a yes vote!