There are always going to be unhappy customers with any business. The airline business just happens to get more than its share for any number of reasons.
One of the major deficiencies we see with US is in the resolution of issues after the fact. Response to customer complaints is for the most part inadequate or nonexistent.
As a customer advocacy organization we receive many requests from members and guests to intervene on their behalf in cases where they have complaints against US or other airlines and get either no response at all, or inappropriate responses which either offer little or no compensation or do not address the issues raised by the customer in the complaint. Unfortunately, in some cases, it seems that the customer relations rep doesn't even read the complaint, but just sends a boilerplate email response. We have seen all to often, with increasing frequency, how US CR takes weeks or longer to respond to customers, and then does not follow through on promised remedies. For what its worth, let me be very clear that we screen and investigate ALL complaints in which we are asked to intercede to the best of our ability, and we do advise people when their complaints are either unjustified or their demand for compensation is unrealistic. Only the most serious and egregious issues get referred on to our contacts at US or other airlines for assistance.
A business which does not listen to its customers cannot succeed. I have seen it in many industries (including my own), and it is a basic rule of business. While you can't make everyone happy, you at least have to listen and address their concerns--and when you see patterns which indicate core deficiencies, they need to be addressed and not ignored.
Here is an illustration of the contrast between US and another airline in dealing with a customer complaint. I will let you guess which company will have better customer retention....
Case A- customer is inconvenienced by US, receives an inadequate response from CR in a time period measured in weeks rather than days and reaches out to FFOCUS for assistance after the offered compensation, even though considered inadequate, is not processed in a month's time. After a careful review, our liaison presented this case to our contact in US management, and he or she got back to us that the issue was in a queue to be resolved by the end of the week. This was a month ago....we were advised this week that the issue was still not resolved, although our contact had been told it had been. As of this date, I believe it is finally in process, with a little extra thrown in for the customer's inconvenience.
Case B- In this case I was the customer. I showed up on time for a morning flight, and discovered after arriving at the gate that the flight was delayed 4 hours, eventually extended to 6 hours. After discussing the situation with a very helpful agent, who gave me all available information, he was unable to rebook me on a competitive airline (US ironically), as the official reason for the delay was considered weather (a factor, but the inbound had been pulled to operate a different flight, and the new inbound was delayed). I wound up booking the US flight myself, and after making my meeting late, I wrote to this airline's customer relations department, and explained politely the situation with all details, and the extenuating circumstances which I felt would justify my request for compensation.
The response from this airline was received in less than 12 HOURS, not days or weeks. They had reviewed my issue, and not only offered to refund the delayed leg since I had to make other arrangements, but offered a significant mileage deposit for my inconvenience. After accepting these offers most graciously, both the refund and the miles were executed within 36 HOURS.
I will also add that the issues raised in my note were addressed with specifics and I was very confident that the agent who handled the case both understood my concerns and addressed them internally afterward.
As I said in the beginning, I fully expect EVERY airline to have operational issues, but it is how these issues are handled or resolved AFTER the fact which is just as important as how the issues are addressed at the time of the occurrence. When you VALUE your customers (and employees), you will have significantly better customer RETENTION.....
On that note, please accept my best wishes for a Happy, Healthy, Prosperous and SAFE New Year.
My BEST to you all......
