Ryanair to be " nicer" to customers
From the Telegraph
So it was quite a surprise to hear him tell shareholders at yesterday’s AGM in Dublin: “We should try to eliminate things that unnecessarily p--- people off.”
Indeed, coming from the man who once derided passengers as “idiots” if they forgot to print their boarding passes – a milder turn of phrase than he employed to describe overweight passengers – this was a truly Damascene conversion.
During his long and brilliant career at the helm of Ryanair, Mr O’Leary has not often been forced on to the defensive. His famous mantra was: “People say the customer is always right, but you know what they’re not. Sometimes they are wrong and they need to be told so.”
But yesterday, with several shareholders complaining that poor customer service was hitting sales, and with the recent, unexpected profits warning – the first in nearly a decade – fresh in everyone’s minds, he was on the back foot.
Envious glances are being cast at easyJet, which has rediscovered its mojo under Carolyn McCall. She has repositioned the airline as a more customer-friendly, upmarket rival to Ryanair and her next pitch will be for the lucrative business travel market.
Some are asking whether the buccaneering guerilla warfare tactics that served Mr O’Leary so well on his ascent are appropriate now he is running Europe’s biggest airline.
His promise to overhaul its website, set up a new team to respond to emails and stop fining customers whose carry-on baggage exceeds minimum sizes by a matter of millimetres is hardly a radical manifesto for change. As he admitted, “a lot of those customer services elements don’t cost a lot of money”. But they are the first signs of a new, customer-friendly strategy.
Does this prove that the customer is always king and you can only get away with insulting your passengers for so long?
The jury is still out on that point. With the company’s share price down 4pc this month and passenger numbers down for the autumn, Mr O’Leary needs to be seen to be steering a different course.
It could be that, with the economy on an upward trajectory and a bit more money in people’s pockets, passengers are prepared to spend a little more for a higher standard of customer service. The days when rock-bottom fares were the only game in town could be coming to an end.
But Mr O’Leary, who once observed that “Germans will crawl naked over broken glass to get low fares”, will take some persuading.
So is it in Ryanair to be nice?
Having worked for Ryanair for many years I think the company has to change to survive. The problem for Ryanair is the competition are beginning to match the fairs of Ryanair but are doing it in a way that makes flying less of a trauma. I have been at the gate of Ryanair flights boarding for years and I have seen the way passengers have been treated. I have been deeply embarrassed to be part of the company on some occasions.
For example
The 52-year-old surgeon, who worked in Dublin, was woken at 3am last Friday and told it was likely his wife and three children had died in a fire at their home in Leicester.
Upon arriving at Dublin Airport at around 5:30am, Dr Taufiq Sattar was called by Leicester Police and told all of his family members had perished in the fire. Visibly distressed, he explained to the Ryanair check-in desk why he wanted to change his 9.40pm flight to East Midlands Airport to the 6.30am flight to Birmingham, and was told he would need to pay €187.46 (around £158) for the single fare.
Michael O Leary apologized today for the event. He said it should not have happened. However in Ryanair ground staff do not have the authority to show compassion or discretion. Michael O Leary is very well aware that this is exactly what should have happened if ground staff follow his and his executives instructions. To say anything else is disingenuous.
So the question is, can Ryanair achieve the CEO's vision of a kinder, gentler airline with the current management structure? I think not. While Michael O Leary should stay, those under him that know nothing else but ( as a shareholder put it today) a macho culture have to make way. Every company from time to time has to reinvent itself and refresh its management, why should Ryanair be different. Michael bred his executives to be this way. As a horse man Michael should know that you can't put a flat horse over jumps.
One word of advice, pay peanuts, get monkeys. If you need customer service, you need motivated, happy staff. Slashing staff costs over the last few years may have resulted in exceptional bonuses for the few, but today I think you are beginning to see the true cost of such short sightings.