CUSTOMER SERVICE

in the

AVIATION INDUSTRY
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 TYPES OF CUSTOMERS

FREQUENT FLYERS DISABLED PASSENGERS

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TYPES OF PASSENGERS
• Very Important Passengers
• Commercially Important Passengers
• Medical
• Unaccompanied Minor
• Families with babies/toddlers
• Passengers with disabilities
• Nervous Passenger
• Special Diet
• Special Requirements
• Airline Employee

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 MEETING CUSTOMER’S NEEDS
-DEMOGRAPHIC
• Families • Business passengers

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CULTURAL
• Ensuring that you are not causing offence to
anyone through not knowing certain behaviours
are part of their culture e.g. not eating certain
food or clothing

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SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

• Foods e.g. nut allergies – ensure no items containing nuts

are served on the plane
• Visually impaired passengers - Introduce to cabin crew
count rows to emergency exit
• Seats with extra leg room for PRM’s if not by an
emergency exit. Tall people may also request extra leg
room.

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PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

• Flights
• Food and beverages
• Car parking
• Children’s services
• Disabled facilities
• Frequent flyer clubs
• Range of ticket types
• Special cargo services
• Medical services

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THE IMPORTANCE OF MEETING
CUSTOMER’S NEEDS
• Customers are the centre of our business

• Without them we could not survive

• Effective customer service is essential

• Keeping new and existing customers happy is

absolutely vital to our business

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THE IMPORTANCE OF MEETING
CUSTOMER NEEDS IN
AVIATION?
• Repeat business
• Drives customer loyalty (Estep, 2011)
• Creates a good public image
• Competitive edge
• Increase sales and ultimately profit
• Job creation
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INDIVIDUAL NEEDS OF
PASSENGERS
• By class
• Frequent flyers
• Vips
• Cips
• Medical conditions
• Unmins
• Families with young children
• How could an aviation
• Disabilities organisation could meet the needs
• Nervous pax of these passengers?
• Special diets
• Special requirements
• Standby pax
• Non English speaking
• Elderly passengers
• Business passengers
• Leisure passengers Aneka Hutchinson MSc., BSc. 10

• Wheelchair passenger
EXPLAIN THE IMPORTANCE OF
MEETING CUSTOMER NEEDS
• To the organisation
– Customer loyalty
– Promotes positive image
– Attracts new customers
– Gains competitive advantage
– Improves staff morale
– Keeping existing customers satisfied
– Increasing customers’ loyalty
– Ensuring repeat business
– Enhancing an organisation’s image
– Providing an edge over the competition
– Increasing sales and usage by attracting new customers
– The consequences of poor customer service for the customer, the staff and the
organisation

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IMPORTANCE TO THE
EMPLOYEE
• A happier working
environment
• Job satisfaction
• Higher self esteem
• Possibility of promotion
• Good team spirit
• Clear guidelines
• Job satisfaction
• Incentives & possibility of
promotion
• Praise & thanks
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 SAFE, SECURE & HAPPY WORKING
ENVIRONMENT
• If the Airline is run efficiently, the customers are
happy
• If the customers are happy – the staff are too
• Your workforce is the heart of your business
• Front-line staff are the window of your company
• Unhappy staff reflect an unhealthy business

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EXPLAIN THE IMPORTANCE OF
MEETING CUSTOMER NEEDS
• To the customer
– Satisfaction
– Loyalty
– Inform others

– Meeting individual customers’ needs

– Exceeding customers expectations

– Safe and secure environment for internal and external customers

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CUSTOMER LOYALTY
• Customer Satisfaction leads to customer loyalty
• It costs 3 times more to gain a new customer as it does
to keep an existing one.
• It makes sense to keep your customer happy
• Means repeat business
• Repeat business means Airline organisations can make a
profit and be sustainable

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AIRLINE PROFITABILITY

• Leads to re-investment and improved standards

of customer service

• It also means airlines can be innovative in a highly

volatile and competitive aviation market

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COMMUNICATION

Youtube, 2013

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TYPES OF COMMUNICATION

• Verbal
– One has to listen in order to understand the meaning of
the message
• Non-Verbal
– You observe in order to infer meaning
• Written
– You read in order to understand the meaning of the
message being communicated (Carpenter, Bauer & Erdogan,
2016)

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TYPES OF RESPONSE
• Advise & Evaluate
– Implies a corrective attitude
• Analyze and Interpret
– Indicates that you want to teach
• Reassure & Support
– Indicates that the listener want to reduce the intensity of speaker’s
feelings
• Question & Probe
– Indicates that clarity is needed
• Understand & Paraphrase
– Demonstrates that you are interested in understanding the thoughts
being communicated (Au.af.mil, 2004)
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USE OF COMMUNICATION

• Personalize Service (Golkar, 2016)

• Give correct information
• Demonstrate respect
• Demonstrate employees confidence
• Build customer confidence

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(Mal, 2013)

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(Mal, 2013)

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REFERENCE
• Au.af.mil. (2004). Five Ways of Responding. [online] Available at:
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/va/mediation/respond.htm.
• Carpenter, M., Bauer, T., Erdogan, B. (2016). Principles of Management 1.0 | Flat World
Education. [online] Flat World Knowledge. Available at:
http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/5?e=carpenter-ch12_s03.
• Estep, M. (2011). The Importance of Meeting Customer Expectations (And How to Meet
Them!). [online] Unitiv.com. Available at: http://www.unitiv.com/intelligent-help-
desk-blog/bid/80165/The-Importance-of-Meeting-Customer-Expectations-And-
How-to-Meet-Them.
• Golkar, G. (2016). 7 Rules for Effective Customer Service Communication. [online]
Vocalcom Blog. Available at: http://www.vocalcom.com/en/blog/customer-service/7-
rules-for-effective-customer-service-communication/.
• Mal, T. (2013). Communication ppt. [online] Slideshare.net. Available at:
http://www.slideshare.net/tirthamal2010/communication-ppt-26816723.
• YouTube. (2013). 1.2 What is communication?. [online] Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7CN9Trw43w.

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