Qantas Execs to spend time at the coalface
 

A sign of things to come?

From the Australian 9/12/08 by Steve Creedy


QANTAS executives are being sent back to school and will be required to spend time at the coal face.

The moves are designed to boost the airline's customer service

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce revealed yesterday that senior executives will be required to attend the airline's "Centre of Service Excellence", a new facility designed to bring all customer service training under one roof.

Mr Joyce said the centre would allow the airline to more rapidly deploy training programs and about half of Qantas employees would be put through exceptional service training in 2009.

"The first person to join the training scheme will be the head of Qantas Airlines, John Borghetti," Mr Joyce said.

"All of our executive team will be undertaking the training."

Mr Joyce also revealed the executive team would be spending time each month in frontline customer service areas "to experience the world through the eyes of our people and our customers".

This is an idea he fostered at Jetstar and also has been successfully used by Air New Zealand. Other customer benefits were also expected to stem from the airline's investment of almost $500 million in technology, Mr Joyce said.

A new generation departure system implemented this year was far more intuitive for staff, made customer service consistently better, improved punctuality and ensured that the most loyal customers could instantly recognised and rewarded.

Qantas also wanted to ensure customers could connect to the airline anywhere, any time and using any device.

"In August this year, we were amongst the first airlines in the world to launch a version of our website that is optimised for customers using the Apple iPhone," he said.

What a lot of BS. Joycey, go and ask the airports what they think of your wonderful new system:ugh:

He talks a great game...

The result will be strikingly similar to the scrotum hiding these days in the shadows..:suspect:

more QF wingers...:{

if you don't like it move on buddy...

Management at the coal face is a well proven practise. And one Q can really benefit from.

J:ok:

Great idea. The only ones who have anything to fear from this are those who like living in their cocoons and don't want to hear (see) the truth.

M

It's got to be a better approach than what we are used to.

Well done Joyce, just to see the management actually have to go and face the reality of the airport, hanger floor, and catering, will, if it does nothing else, show the staff that things are changing. TE actually had the head of engineering changing tyres on a maggot not long ago, (much to the engineers pleasure) pehaps there is a glimmer of hope after all.:D

What a great idea, practised in many workplaces with great success. It's one way of finding out what really happens rather than being told by gutless underlings what is said to be happening. Properly executed, this exercise will bring benefits to the company, its employees and its customers. Go for them Alan!! :D:D

"properly executed" being the operative word.

I can remember an instance under James Strong's reign were the head of Cabin Services Greg Bee was made to don a quasi uniform and operate as cabin crew down the back on a 744 to/from LA.

Must have come as quite a shock to him but even so he did so with good grace.

I note that Rob Fyfe of Air NZ is doing the same with his executives to great effect.

Anything less than this approach is going to be nothing more than window dressing.

I've concerns that what we see proposed is just going to involve putting senior managers through some sanitized facsimile of a customer experience at the brand new, state of the art, multi million dollar training facility.

If so, it'll be nothing like a coal face experience and far from what our passengers endure flying on our clapped out old 744s/767s etc.

Let's hope it goes some way to fixing QF's legendary disengagement problem.

By that I refer to of course the disengagement management has with what it is we actually do.:ugh:

I'm sorry but the last thing that staff need is another training course....

Staff have been putting up with interminable courses for years and in reality only occur to justify the existence of the training department,a tax write off and to fulfill a requirement to have staff improvement courses......which really do nothing of the sort.

What they need is a commitment from management to put more people where they count.They need more people in the terminals to meet and deal with the customer....

They need better in flight products such as an IFE system that is not only competitive with other airlines but reliable as well.

They need people like Borghetti to work in the everyday positions that make the airline run....such as check in,meeting aircraft,a day or 2 in reservations,on the end of a meal or bar cart on an LA flight..in economy not sitting up in 2A.

They need to face the customer and use the equipment that staff are given.They need to find first hand what stuff ups happen and how they should be fixed to get the job done..

For TBM-Legend if you are going to call people whingers please learn how to spell it

more QF wingers...http://static.pprune.org/images/smilies/boohoo.gif

if you don't like it move on buddy...

Bull**** indeed.
Get the managers ready for a sh%tfight more like it! Keep the managers up to speed on things so when the strikes hit. The skeleton staff are ready to go with no excuses!
If it were so important, then why arent check-in staff asked to be senior managers for a day?

bbbbbbbbbbbbbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Probably because most staff want to work for a living....:E

Buzzy..If you think this idea is just one of subterfuge by AJ and we should simply a keep managers in the dark then why not just get rid of the upper management and board members in the first place.....hang on that's not a bad idea.

It may not be any of the above, but it does offer a consistent product, late and often incorrect. :E

Great - I look forward to DC or MB joining me in a 737 fuel tank on a 40deg day..........

Why is it that so many people on this site are unable to congratulate someone for trying to improve things? We all know that things at Q are not that great, and there are problems galore. There are a number of whingers here that are consistently bagging management for doing nothing (being removed from the front line, not knowing what staff are facing on a daily basis, not knowing what limitations are in the system); but when they TRY to do something to UNDERSTAND the problems and START to fix them, people on this site complain!

What would you like the managers to do?? Instead of complaining about management for the sake of complaining about management, why not give credit where credit is due.

I for one applaud AJ on this initiative.


bbbbbbooooorrrrrrriiiiiinnnnnnnggggggg

I can't see the need for execs at the coal face ... the airline has won numerous awards, year after year, and their customer engagement surveys have been overwhelmingly positive.

Or was it what we were led to believe, that is, GDs utter bullsh#t.

At least the idea is commendable as a first step to customer reconcilliation.

.........and perhaps more importantly. Staff reconciliation.

"You don't get what you expect, you get what you inspect"

You do this to make sure that you stay sharp and up to speed.

LH does the same sort of thing - exec management (there were about 600 of us throughout the Group when I was active) act as touch points for premium customers, either proactively if there's an identified service failure or as a qualified first level support.

Major advantages - customer feels that he/she is being taken seriously, is able to articulate the issue and the exec has the reach to get stuff fixed.