MarkMyWords
Veteran
- Aug 20, 2002
- 1,900
- 1
Bob...
I do agree with you on many aspects of what you say. There is definitly a shift in how we (as a company) act or react. My personal feeling about working a problem from the "top down" is that you've never given the low-mid level employees the chance to do what they are here to do, try to solve your problem. Instead you rush to the top, to the person least likely to fully understand the problem. It has been my experience that the higher up the ladder you go, the more the processes become "high-level" or conceptual and less likely to know the "real" heart of the issue. If every customer worked with your philosophy, then there would be no need for low-mid level employees and high level employees would spend all their time corresponding to customer issues. Not to say there aren't things that don't require escalation to a higher level.
I totally agree with the 4 points that you made. The differences between the CCY group and the Tempe group are vast. I honestly don't think that was always the case. Some of the projects that I have been involved with showed a tremendous differnece in how AWA was much more proactive in handeling customer issues before the customer had an opportunity to log a complaint. In my opinion, the entire "upper level" is mired down in trying to get the integration complete. Every department is working on a very aggressive timeline. The faster they can get the two companies fully integrated the lower the overall costs of operating the company go. With fuel prices at such high record levels, every missed deadline puts those synergies and savings that much farther away. Knowing that every single thing in the integration of the company are tied to something else, a delay in something like the web launch could have a ripple effect that could cost much more then the problems the initial launch of a sub-par product would. Was there time to wait out a beta test of the new website? If we launched a beta test of the web an waited another 6 months to a year, how would that have effected other areas of the company and their ability to integrate?
The pressures to get this integration done quickly to drive down costs is tremendous. You can't go back to the employee well for additional concessions to make up for fuel costs, so you have to find those savings where ever possible. I honestly don't think it is about securing bonuses for "on time" work, but it is much more about driving down costs.
The whole lack of communication thing, you are dead on. We have seen a tremendous effort on the part of the company to try and communicate with employees. The level of communication between the company and the employees have improved tremendously since the CCY days, but still needs some work. The hardest part is that you still have East Policies and West Policies, East/West systems, East/West thinking, etc. As we push forward with the integration, most all of that goes away. But how we communicate with our customers is something totally different. In my opinion, we coul dhave done a better job of communicating with our customers. What would have been the problem with sending an e-mail to all our DM/FF members regarding the website change? After we knew there were issues. Why not follow up with a way for the customer to communicate issues quickly and easily, while offering alternatives for them to make purchases. Why not put out a letter stating that we realize that the web functionality is not what we expected it to be and we would be waiving all service charges for cusotmers that would have to book on the phone or at the ATO for 45 days. Asking the customer to "pardon our dust" and own up to the fact that the cut over wasn't what it should have been.
As for synergies.....there are plenty and many are transparent to the customer, for the most part. Such things as increased aircraft utilization and reducing unprofitable flying is huge. Then add in facility consolidation, reduction in redundant positions, closure of facilities like CCY, etc and they have been able to realize some real gains. When will we get to the real meat and potato issues that are more visable to the customer? Very soon.
The issue of Customer Relations is dead on also. The CR department is a constant hire mode to try and help address the influx of customer issues. I am not sure they were fully prepared for everything they bit off when they started eatting this apple. My single complaint would be that we see more and more of "how the west" does things and less looking at both policies and procedures to find the "best" solution for all involved.
I do agree with you on many aspects of what you say. There is definitly a shift in how we (as a company) act or react. My personal feeling about working a problem from the "top down" is that you've never given the low-mid level employees the chance to do what they are here to do, try to solve your problem. Instead you rush to the top, to the person least likely to fully understand the problem. It has been my experience that the higher up the ladder you go, the more the processes become "high-level" or conceptual and less likely to know the "real" heart of the issue. If every customer worked with your philosophy, then there would be no need for low-mid level employees and high level employees would spend all their time corresponding to customer issues. Not to say there aren't things that don't require escalation to a higher level.
I totally agree with the 4 points that you made. The differences between the CCY group and the Tempe group are vast. I honestly don't think that was always the case. Some of the projects that I have been involved with showed a tremendous differnece in how AWA was much more proactive in handeling customer issues before the customer had an opportunity to log a complaint. In my opinion, the entire "upper level" is mired down in trying to get the integration complete. Every department is working on a very aggressive timeline. The faster they can get the two companies fully integrated the lower the overall costs of operating the company go. With fuel prices at such high record levels, every missed deadline puts those synergies and savings that much farther away. Knowing that every single thing in the integration of the company are tied to something else, a delay in something like the web launch could have a ripple effect that could cost much more then the problems the initial launch of a sub-par product would. Was there time to wait out a beta test of the new website? If we launched a beta test of the web an waited another 6 months to a year, how would that have effected other areas of the company and their ability to integrate?
The pressures to get this integration done quickly to drive down costs is tremendous. You can't go back to the employee well for additional concessions to make up for fuel costs, so you have to find those savings where ever possible. I honestly don't think it is about securing bonuses for "on time" work, but it is much more about driving down costs.
The whole lack of communication thing, you are dead on. We have seen a tremendous effort on the part of the company to try and communicate with employees. The level of communication between the company and the employees have improved tremendously since the CCY days, but still needs some work. The hardest part is that you still have East Policies and West Policies, East/West systems, East/West thinking, etc. As we push forward with the integration, most all of that goes away. But how we communicate with our customers is something totally different. In my opinion, we coul dhave done a better job of communicating with our customers. What would have been the problem with sending an e-mail to all our DM/FF members regarding the website change? After we knew there were issues. Why not follow up with a way for the customer to communicate issues quickly and easily, while offering alternatives for them to make purchases. Why not put out a letter stating that we realize that the web functionality is not what we expected it to be and we would be waiving all service charges for cusotmers that would have to book on the phone or at the ATO for 45 days. Asking the customer to "pardon our dust" and own up to the fact that the cut over wasn't what it should have been.
As for synergies.....there are plenty and many are transparent to the customer, for the most part. Such things as increased aircraft utilization and reducing unprofitable flying is huge. Then add in facility consolidation, reduction in redundant positions, closure of facilities like CCY, etc and they have been able to realize some real gains. When will we get to the real meat and potato issues that are more visable to the customer? Very soon.
The issue of Customer Relations is dead on also. The CR department is a constant hire mode to try and help address the influx of customer issues. I am not sure they were fully prepared for everything they bit off when they started eatting this apple. My single complaint would be that we see more and more of "how the west" does things and less looking at both policies and procedures to find the "best" solution for all involved.
