Originally Posted by
Dan Buster
Spot on J-blow.
Have a look at the '4 pillars', there is no mention of 'happy' employees. Just lots of jargon relating to reviews, systems and programmes.
It's so simple isn't it? Develop a happy and proud workforce and everything else will fall into place. Of course the opposite is true as well. Get your workforce offside, nobody cares anymore and it all begins to crumble away- as we are currently seeing.
The workforce is the key-but the senior management just view us as a cost item that needs to be pared down constantly. So until management see us as the solution and not the problem, this downward spiral will continue.
Very well put.
It was a glaring omission, and it's been picked up on by all front line staff I've encountered. It really would be the single, most effective measure, and would pay for itself in spades.
Ron B,
Regarding the drag curve, I'm not so sure. A happy workforce would absolutely reverse the declining opinion of CX, and bring premium numbers back in droves.
American Airlines was a basket case, and granted, it went bankrupt - however, during the merger post-bankruptcy, Horton (CEO) gave every pilot and flight attendant HUGE pay rises. He stated it was because the reputation of both carriers is utterly horrific, the product and service is a woeful result of death by a thousand cuts (sound familiar?) and he needs all hands on deck to get through the merger. And it worked. Their product and service has improved 10-fold and they were the worlds most profitable airline in 2015.
CX top brass could get us all in side, and the results would be spectacular. By and large, you have a well-trained, professional, motivated team up front. But, apathy reigns. It's a deeply unhappy group. How any people manager thinks that's how to extract the most value from that manpower is beyond me.
Aft of the flight deck door, you have leaders that have seen the good days.
They would love to have them back, but they aren't given the tools to, and they no longer have a reason to care. These are the customer facing employees. I believe the fancy term for that is a "touch point".
Well, that touch point is now a handshake with an electric shock prank toy.
We hear plenty of stick for cabin crew here, but I personally think that they've done a remarkable job to hold on to any semblance of service quality for this long.
Inspire them, and watch what happens. By inspire, I mean treat them properly and give them a few basic tools to enhance their offerings. They WANT to offer premium service. That's why they joined.
Invest in the people, and you'll hardly even need to invest in hard product to reverse the trend.
Apologies to the other employee groups who I make no mention of. I'm sure they have similar points of view. I just don't get to see their perspectives while on the job.
This is so easy. It would take time, but it's easy. Unlike deciphering that nonsense email.
Time to wake up, rather than time to win.