A few weeks ago, I flew to Amsterdam from London Luton Airport on Easyjet (a budget airline in England), with a colleague. My assistant had decided to book “Speedy Boarding” to ensure we could sit together and talk on the flight.
Now the words “Speedy boarding” would indicate to me that you board speedily. Pretty logical wouldn’t you say? Apparently this isn’t the case.
When we arrived at the gate we duly lined up in the speedy boarders’ line. The speedy boarders were called first. Normally as we were at Easyjet’s home airport Luton, the plane is just outside the gate and you simply walk out and onto the plane. Not today. We were ushered onto a bus. The second group were invited on board thus when we were dropped off at the plane we were the last to get on board as we were at the back of the bus. I was very disappointed. I paid for something I didn’t receive. I therefore decided to complain on my return.
Firstly, it must be said the speed of response to my complaint, by a “Customer Champion” was quick. After a few exchanges on email my complaint was not being addressed to my satisfaction so I asked to speak to a manager. This was their reply:
“I am sorry to say that you were disappointed with the service that Speedy Boarding offers. However, the policy of EasyJet clearly states that Speedy Boarding offers you to be among the first passengers to go through the gate. Since this is the Easyjet’s policy a manager would not discuss this issue.”
So speedy boarding is not speedy boarding, it is speedy calling! When you buy speedy boarding you are only actually paying for the privilege of being AMONGST the first to be called through the gates. Note – not actually the first. The service is nothing to do with boarding, it is somewhat misleading.
The email response for the Customer champion put the blame on the airport for allocating the plane the parking space it did. I pointed out they could have taken the speedy boarders to the plane first and returned for the other passengers. They choose not to. They could have allocated a space on the bus for the speedy boarders to be first off the bus, like this Times journalist outlined in a recent article about the same subject.
They decided not to do any of these.
So what is the learning here?
In my view this is an example of what Fredrick Reichheld would call “bad profits”. A profit that is made by a company but is ultimately detrimental to their business. Fred uses the example of a three figure telephone bill he received when he stayed at a London hotel. The cost of the call was more than the cost of the room!
You will see from their reply to my request to talk with a manager that this wasn’t possible. This highlights the main issue and the main learning. The reality is it takes time for a leopard to change it’s spots. I know the Head of Customer Experience and dropped him a line after my experience in an effort to give some feedback so he could see what was happening. He was very pleased I had done so and told me how my experience should have been undertaken in a different manner. He listed a number of good actions they were taking to improve things. I imagine he was disappointed that the work hadn’t manifested itself in this case.
Their complaints system is faster than I had expected. They are now calling the people that answer the calls “Customer Champions” but the underlying issues remain. It takes time to change the culture.
This is the key learning from this experience.
By COLIN SHAW | Published: OCTOBER 6, 2008