Tag: Customer Service

Business

Delta Airlines’ efforts to deliver a great customer experience

by MQDuong2 Comments on Delta Airlines’ efforts to deliver a great customer experience

As I am fascinated by successful turnaround stories in business, below is my research on how Delta delivered a great flying experience to customers as part of their effort to turn the company around.

Tim Mapes, the current Chief Marketing and Communications of Delta, said the following in 2017: “[The Northwest merger] was our opportunity to emerge from the pack of U.S. airlines, the legacy carriers, and differentiate Delta, not as a commodity, where a seat is a seat, but as a different experience, with levels of service that are different from our competitors,” 

Since emerging from its bankruptcy, Delta has been relentlessly focused on delivering superior customer experience, willing to sacrifice short-term profits in exchange for better customer experience.

In 2018, Delta announced renovation for its 777 fleet, reducing the number of abreast seats from the industry standard of 10 to 9 in order to give its customer seat more room. For premium section, the carrier added “sliding-door accesses to a private cove filled with entertainment options, a personal table, and a 24-inch-wide reclining seat”. The reduction of seats meant a short term drop in revenue. The investment in premium section came with an increase in expenses. It showed how far Delta was willing to go to deliver a great customer experience.

In terms of in-flight entertainment, in 2016, Delta became the first US airline to offer all in-flight entertainment for free. Since then, it has added wireless back-seat screens and free messaging in flight for passengers, the latter of which allowed passengers to stay connected with others on the ground.

Additionally, Delta looked for other ways to make the whole flying experience from start to finish as pleasant as possible. In 2016, Delta spend $50 million in a technology called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) for baggage tracking. RFID not only allows accurate handling to be more efficient, but also lets passengers know where their luggage is at any time via Delta mobile application. In 2018, the carrier started to let fliers file a baggage claim via its mobile application at the final destination instead of having to physically visit a Delta office. Confident in its ability to handle baggage, Delta is now committed to a 20-minute policy for luggage on domestic flights. Under the policy, if luggage doesn’t arrive on a carousel within 20 minutes of arrival of a domestic flight, passengers will be entitled to 2,500 bonus miles.

Late 2018, Delta rolled out the first biometric terminal for direct international flights from Terminal F at its Atlanta hub. The new technology allows passengers to check in without presenting papers. If you are annoyed by having to take out electronic devices for carry-on and personal items, you won’t have to with the new technology from Delta, making the boarding experience smoother and more pleasant. 

Clear and effective communication is key to customer satisfaction. Delta was the first US airline that offered customer support on Twitter. Since then, the airline has used social media extensively to offer customer support to passengers. In 2019, when a flight was delayed due to uncontrollable weather, Delta sent personalized emails to explain the situation and apologize to customers, along with 10,000 bonus points in their account. 

Source: Spark Central

All the investments in and focus on improving customer satisfaction seem to pay off majorly for Delta. In 2019, it won the TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Awards for the Major Airline in North America category. Revenue from Premium products made up 31% of Delta’s total revenue in 2018, up from 18% in 2011. According to Delta;s CEO, passengers purchased 65-70% of premium seats on international and domestic routes, compared to only 13% of domestic premium seats sold in 2011. Loyalty Program’s revenue share rose to 9% of the carrier’s total revenue, up from 5% in 2011. Customer loyalty is also shown through the use of Delta branded credit card. In 2018, the carrier received $3.4 billion in revenue from American Express for the purchase of miles and merchant credit card fees. The margin from American Express payment was estimated to be higher than that of Delta’s core operations and grow at an 11% annual clip.

Disclosure: I own Delta stocks in my personal portfolio

life, Random

Tipping culture

by MQDuongLeave a Comment on Tipping culture

This morning, a friend shared with me a passage from an online article, as follows:

A 2018 survey found people ages 18–27 are the most likely to shortchange the restaurant waitstaff. In fact, 10 percent admitted to routinely leaving no tip at all. Here’s a tip for all you millennials: Try leaving a few bucks on the table instead of posting pictures of your food to social media.

I found it baffling. The tipping culture in the US or Canada doesn’t really make sense to me. Wait staff enters a labor agreement with restaurant owners for a reason. They agree to the benefits and compensation offered by the owners. Without any involvement from customers. Customers have nothing to do with that. Yet, customers are forced to make up for the low wage. In some cases, tips are just expected, but in others, tips are automatically added to the bills. For the past two and a half years in the US, I could count on two hands the times when I felt satisfied with customer services at restaurants. Staff repeatedly and unnecessarily interferes in my conversation with the people I am with or rushes us out by proposing the bill when we are not done yet. Yet, tips are either expected or forced. How does that make sense?

As users, we are pissed that companies do something related to us without our consent, such as sharing our data. We are annoyed by others telling us what to do without consulting us beforehand. Then, why should the tipping “standard” be any different and acceptable? And as diners, why should we defend the owners paying low wages by arguing that it’s a standard?

I would love to pay a little bit more for the meals if it meant that wait staff got a higher wage. In that case, I wouldn’t have to tolerate the tips forced on me without my consent or the overly eager services by staff. Tipping is a standard, but it can be changed and should be. For the better.

Business

Going above and beyond

by MQDuongLeave a Comment on Going above and beyond

One of my Capstone project’s requirements is to match an address input by a user with a legislative district in Nebraska on a map visualization. Unfortunately, neither Google Map API or Mapbox API, two of the most popular map APIs out there, has that feature.

I read through their documentation and decided to email them both, hoping that I might have missed something or that their specialists might have some advice. Both came back with a response. The Google customer service agent simply said that there was no such feature from Google Map API and that I might go to a designated link to make a suggestion. Meanwhile, the Mapbox agent confirmed my suspicion that Mapbox didn’t offer that feature. However, he suggested a way to accomplish it by using turf Javascript package.

Even though both don’t have the feature I am looking for, the extra effort by the Mapbox agent delighted me. I like the brand even more now. In the future, if I have to look for a map API service, Mapbox, for sure, will be up there at the top of the list. It goes to show how a going-an-extra-mile customer service can leave a lasting positive impact on users and potential customers.

Potential new features for Mapbox and Google Map

I found two small players that offered legislative district mapping and census data: Cicero and US Geocoder. Surprisingly, Mapbox and Google Map do not offer such features. It shouldn’t be difficult for them to do so, I imagine. So I hope that they will take a suggestion from me and add those features to their already awesome products.