Singapore Airlines: Customer

Service Innovation

Group-1
MBA21199 Bitanesh Bhattacharya
MBA21191 Sanket Andhare
MBA21266 Santosh Tummewar
MBA21228 Prashant Kumar
MBA21222 Niketa Gupta
MBA21240 Shivankar Rohit Arun
MBA21265 Sujeet Kumar
MBA21206 Dziipu D
Introduction

SIA is one of the most prominent airlines of the airline industry holding a major market share. The 16-member team led by the CEO is
currently delving into the market scenario to reach major operational decisions which would decide the company's future

The terrorist attack of 9/11 had sparked a steep decline in the business of the airline industry

Consideration of cutback in cost to maintain the financial viability of the airline

SIA since the start, being a superior customer service provider had an important decision to make whether to include lie-flat seat beds in
their business class to keep up with their competitor British Airways

The decision involves a 100 million USD commitment which would be a major one considering the cutbacks in cost due to business
uncertainty of the airline industry 
 SWOT Analysis
Streamlined process and efficient operation
management
High Expectation may lead to dissatisfaction of
Well Trained Air Hostess to provide best in class

S W
customers
customer experience
Restricted to access to other routes
Strong International Network
Passive Supporter – Gov.
Youngest and Modernist fleet in Industry
Experienced and Successful Leadership team

Deregulation and privatization of Airline Industry

Emergence of Low-Cost Airlines
Lucrative opportunities in International Market

O T
Labor cost kept increasing in 1990s
Increase in affordability of people for Air transpportation
Sharp drop in travel after Sep 11 2001 attack
Reduce labor cost by recruiting from other countries
Tougher competitors like Lufthansa, BA, Qantas, Cathy
Pacific
 Customer Service Innovation Strategies

Customer service strategy Replacement in Aircrafts

Sale and lease Back agreement.

3 l e v e l I n t e r v i e w s a n d Te a p a r t y w i t h m a n a g e m e n t M o d i fi e d d e p r i c i a t i o n p o l i c y

Tr a i n i n g p r o g r a m f o r p o s i t i v e a t t i t u d e b u i l d i n g Six-year replacement Policy

Functional and sof t skill training.

On Gorund service Strategy
To u g h c o m p e t i t i o n . M a j o r c o m p e t i t o r s  
Singapore Girl Promotion:
SilkAir SGD ($22 Million) with 90% leisure travellers.
• Centralized piece of SIA's international marketing
strategy K r i s F l y e r, a m i l a g e a c c r u a l p r o g r a m

Introduction of OGS in 1987

• Conveyed a sense of style and sophistication
To e x t e n d t h e c o n c e p t o f e x c e p t i o n a l s e r v i c e t o i n c l u d e p r e - a n d
• Impact on recall p o s t - fl i g h t e x p e r i e n c e

• Service oriented airline    • Q ui ck an d co ur t eo u s c he ck-i n

M o r e c a b i n s t a ff p e r s e a t t h a n o t h e r a i r l i n e s • Improved services

• Systematic Boarding
Free of charge amenities for economy class passengers  
       R e p l a c e d O G S w i t h T C S i n 2 0 0 0 . O G S r e v o l v e d a r o u n d g r o u n d s t a ff
while TCS included the entire organization
 Space Beds Decision

Help to overcome BA Maintain premium

Airline Effect. service.

Increase the satisfaction

Increase the revenue.
of the customers.
 Strategies to remain ahead of Competition
Superior Service​
• Rigorous training of employees with focus on
functional skills and soft skills​
• First airline to offer free amenities to economy
class​
• More cabin staff per seat, recliner seats, gourmet
chefs, supersonic Concorde service​
• Tracking compliment/complaint ratio (In 2001,
ratio was 34 per 10k passengers)​
• Service Performance Survey (SPS) tool measuring
78 key performance indicator​
• Global Airline Performance (GAP) which was
macro study done by independent Co. For IATA​
• Cabin crew report after conclusion of every flight​
• Spy Flights to compare with competitors​
• Empowered managers at local level to settle
customer unhappiness by cutting bureaucracy
• Resolving problems of premium customers by
special initiatives
Most Modern Fleet
• Uses its strong financials to replace existing
aircraft to new ones
• Also, increasing the number of fleet at same time
• It got attractive incentives & discounts because
of this
• This was usually done during industry downturns
• And the disposed aircraft got high resale value
• This further resulted into lower maintaince cost,
fuel efficient and more reliable planes
• To manage risk better, they got into sales and
leaseback agreements
• Used accelerated depreciation for fast turnover
• Average age of fleet was 6 years, which gave
“feel good” factor to customers
Outstanding Service on Ground
• Introduced better Check-in procedures, Queue-
Combers, systematic boarding and prompt
delivery of baggage
• Maintained only key management at
international location and outsourced others
• Agreements with service providers by giving
specific production goals
• Transforming Customer Service (TCS) was
introduced in 2001
• This included entire organization and not just
cabin crew
• Introduced this because employees were
performing robotically by following set manuals
• Spend 30% general resources in reviewing
systems and procedures
• Goal of TCS is to teach employees to “seek
service opportunities and take responsibility
• Made profiles of premium passenger for
knowing habits like eating, sleeping
 Continued..
Cabin Crew
• Introduced various
refresher courses to cabin
crews from “Vine to Wine”
to “Culinary Skills
Enhancement”
• Cabin crew was organized
into tight hierarchical
structure
• This helped them to
evaluate performance
• Crew members were
reshuffled once a year for
greater interaction among
staff
• Senior executive stayed in
touch through newsletter,
e-mails and overseeing
group activities like sports
league
Service Quality Centre
• In conjunction with • To encourage employees
Singapore government,
they started teaching its
customer service model to • Deputy Chairman’s Award,
other Cos
• This was done to enhance
country’s service sector
image and attract major
businesses
• This Joint venture was
profitable
Employee Recognition
• SIA had various subsidiaries
SIA gave recognition to
performing employees
Special citation by CEO to
top employee
• Investments
Subsidiaries and
Customer Acquisition Others
Investments
• Using enhance services like • KrisFlyer- It was mileage
• Silk Air for regional in-flight entertainment accrual program
networks providing system, luxury seats for first • Star Alliance- SIA joined
charter service to class, global network of 15
Southeast Asian countries • This on-board innovations airlines. This gave benefit
• Singapore Airline Terminal were done in continuous like seamless booking to
Services (SATS) offering nature over 800 destinations at
passenger, cargo, security reasonable airfare
services to other operators
• SIA Engineering Co.
(SIAEC) providing
maintenance & repair
• SIA Cargo
• 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic
Airlines for route
structures
• 25% stake in Air New
Zealand for its desirable
routes
• This reduced over-
dependance on any part
one particular global route
Thank You