Cabin Crew: More Smiles, Less Service

Have you ever been a victim of inflight cabin crew's high-handedness? If yes, this is a must read and if no, well you can still read it thanks to  THISDAY Omolola Itayemi who recounts her experience .http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/cabin-crew-more-smiles-less-service/116640/

 

 Cabin Crew: More Smiles, Less Service

Cabin crew

They’re your first contact as you step into the plush confines of the aircraft. With big smiles, courteous words and pretty faces, air hosts/hostesses promise excellent in-flight service. But sometimes what you get is far from that as OMOLOLA ITAYEMI discovered recently on a local flight

From outright flight cancelation to flight delays, sometimes the passenger is already rankled, deeply frustrated and mostly unhappy when they board their flight. So there’s nothing more cheering than a warm, smiling pretty face welcoming you onboard. It doesn’t stop at that as this host or hostess usually dressed in a well-fitted uniform takes time to describe where your sit falls and sometimes goes the extra mile to help stow passengers’ bags. But is this where the help stops or could my economy class seat be a reason for it?

The Lagos-Calabar flight with Arik Air was delayed for over an hour on May 9. The on-going renovations/restructuring and reconstructing at General Aviation Terminal, Ikeja (and other airports around the country) where the airline operates from and Lagos-Abuja flight (9am) that had to return due to runway technicalities, left a lot of disgruntled passengers.

With the public announcement systems not functioning, passengers had to settle for airline officials shouting out boarding time for the various destinations. And this in no small way contributed to the already rowdy and market-like scene of their departure lounge.

After some time we finally got aboard the bus which took us to the waiting aircraft. My travel partners and I were ushered to our seats and after some minutes on-ground, the plane taxied off. Seated right at the rear of the plane, just next to the toilet, I asked to have my seat changed when I noticed some empty seats in the aircraft, and one of the air-hostesses allocated to the economy cabin willingly obliged. So I moved some metres away from where I was originally allocated.

Not too long after we were airborne. Done with safety demonstrations, a while after, the crew started serving refreshments and quite a number of passengers tucked in to eat.

No drama until it was time to pick up the disposable meal packs and this particular hostess won’t have it with passengers. She insisted you throw it into the bin and refused to accept trays of left-overs or empty packs of refreshments from passengers.

When one passenger chastised her, her belligerence was baffling: “it wasn’t her job to pick remnants. If you want to dispose of them, you should throw them in the bin,” she said.

One of my travel partners (Kemi) was irked by this attitude and wondered aloud what happened to rendering good customer service to passengers. If she heard Kemi’s comment, she pretended she didn’t, carrying on like nothing was said. I paid little attention to her afterwards as we descended into Calabar international airport and disembarked from the aircraft.

One of my travelling partners said she had a scowl on her face after that incident and when we were alighting from the aircraft but I didn’t notice.

I put that experience behind me until our return on the same day and boarded Dana, the airline which prides itself on low-budget rates and began commercial flight operations four years ago.

Operating daily flights to Abuja, Calabar, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Uyo, it seemed the ideal option being the only aircraft on ground that evening.

The light-skinned beauty (who also turned out to be one of the faces of Dana adverts) clad in her pristine white and red uniform attended to us. Her smart uniform combination (though those red shoes are not exactly complimentary) provided a refreshing change from Arik’s drab print shirts on maroon skirts.

Her beauty no doubt endeared her to many but her disposition and manners were far cry from the beautiful visage and well-toned body. For a less than one-hour flight, she left no one in doubt about her less-than-complimentary behaviour. Sometimes I cannot help but wonder whether airlines train their front-office staff in good customer service.

What happened to good customer service when an air hostess answers one with clipped tones or wears a bored facial expression when you try to offer good advice or is good service the exclusive preserve of business class passengers?

When she asked if passengers preferred coffee or tea, she did so in a very brusque tone that sounded condescending. I had asked for tea which she gave and called her back to ask for sweeteners (which they didn’t have) and before she could hear me out, she answered rudely, “No, I don’t have more tea for you”.

Now I was taken aback and told her I didn’t want more tea and all I wanted to know was if she had sweeteners instead of regular sugar. Her reply wasn’t any better. Tutu (going by the name proudly displayed on her name-tag) wasn’t even apologetic.

I got off that flight wondering why such an important staff with daily contacts with passengers will have such a lousy attitude and no one has put it in check. Then it occurred to me I had seen her face somewhere – their in-flight magazine. As one of the brand ambassadors, I expect her to protect her brand by being the epitome of excellent customer service and showing exemplary behaviour, enough to make passengers fly Dana Air over and over again, not as a last option in the face of being left stranded.

But I guess with Tutu, being a brand ambassador means more of showing a beautiful visage and uncomplimentary behaviour.

Angered I went in search of a ground staff at their desk that evening but nobody was willing to help.

Dana Air’s vision is “To be recognised and respected as Nigeria’s most reliable and customer-friendly airline”, and their mission is “To earn the loyalty and respect of our customers by consistently demonstrating our commitment to service, and providing affordable regional air transport services that focus on innovation, quality and service excellence.”

Looks like their far from their vision and mission statement.
Or did I have a wrong impression of the services cabin crew members were expected to render?

I sought the opinion of Tony Ukachukwu, a finishing school trainer and cabin crew ground staff with Air Nigeria. With over six years experience in the industry, he is also the publisher of Aviators, a quarterly magazine that was uniquely set up to cater to the informative and entertainment needs of air travellers and potential air travellers.

Ukachukwu summarises the role of a cabin crew on board an aircraft. I was hoping this could shed some light on Tutu’s behaviour.

“The role of a cabin crew is primarily for safety of passengers in a case of emergency, which they are required to evacuate fifty passengers in 90 seconds. In a case where there is no emergency they are there for the comfort of passengers which is secondary (okay may be the secondary bit explains Tutu’s attitude).

Often times than not passengers have reduced cabin crew to tea and coffee and a job for ‘no-do-goods which is not the case, especially in this part of the world where they are graduates.

Just as the passengers have expectations with regard to the cabin crew, so does cabin crew of passengers,” (okay, maybe Tutu didn’t expect me to ask for sweeteners on a local flight) he explained.

“The expectations of passengers from crew are not limited to safety and security; excellent customer service (now we are on the same page), prompt response to call bell (because a passenger might actually need a coke or suffering from stroke) and assisting the elderly. The crew expects the passengers to treat them with respect e.g. no use of cat call and touching female crew to get attention),” he said.

Doubra Oluwatominiyi, CEO of Antshill Concierge, a concierge, PR and customer service training firm in Lagos is of the opinion that cabin crew members as front-service personnel should display excellent customer service.

“Because a cabin crew is a professional there is need to display good communication skills and keep a positive attitude (body language). There is no scenario where the cabin crew should act otherwise regardless of what the actions of the passenger maybe except if the passenger's action borders on safety, then there will be a zero tolerance on the part of the crew,” she said.

“It is said that the customer is King. Cabin crew should always ensure that passengers have a memorable flight with smiles on their faces when leaving the aircraft so there can be a repeat business. The multiplier effect is uncountable; it will boil down to the number of return customers an airline will get which will inadvertently affect the sales/revenue turnover.

‘Good customer service is what keeps the customer coming back even when the airline has a bad product. Without that the airline starts to lose revenue because that one customer you have been rude to will tell 10 other people this is aside from the people who indirectly experience the treatment (passersby). Like I said, from my personal experience with the international airline, they have lost my money as well as all the others I will tell of the experience.’

Like Oluwatominiyi said, “good customer service is what keeps the customer coming back even when the airline has a bad product.” It’s a surprise many airline operators have missed this vital fact!