“When it comes to customer satisfaction among airline passengers, Spirit Airlines ranks dead last,” shares Kathryn Vasel in her latest CNNMoney article entitled “America's least favorite airline (hint: it's not United).”
According to Vasel’s article, “For the third year in a row, the ultra-low cost carrier had the lowest score in the travel report from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Spirit scored a 61 on a 100-point scale.”
If you’ve flown with Spirit prior to reading today’s article, you’re probably not surprised.
“Spirit is known for its "bare fares" – cheap tickets that are stripped of any additional amenities. That means passengers will pay for things like printing a boarding pass at the airport or beverages during a flight,” writes Vasel.
From our experience, customer satisfaction goes beyond overcoming nickel and diming your customers.
It involves a complete experience. Agree?
But, according to Vasel, “Spirit said it's made substantial strides in the past year.”
"Spirit's committed to improve its operations and customer service,’ a company spokesman told CNNMoney. ‘Beginning last spring, Spirit initiated a number of programs that have led to major improvements in on-time performance and a 64% reduction in complaints year over year," says Vasel.
Now, that’s better news, right?
But, we also know that ‘customer satisfaction’ truly stems from treating your customer like a valued customer.
It doesn’t come from treating your guests like another line item on your financial statements.
Your customers are the bread and butter of your organization’s revenue.
They’re keeping your organization afloat, putting food on the table for your kids, and paying your bills.
We ask then, how do you become your country’s least favorite property? Do you provide customer service like Spirit? Do you treat your customers like they’re another unit of revenue or even disposable and easily dismissed?
Maybe.
But, you don’t have to be like Spirit. You can be like you.
Show your customers how much you value them, beyond what they pay for and expect.
That’s the difference.
Are you ready to learn how? Let’s go!
Always Deliver Effective Communication
First, have high expectations for your customer’s experience.
Next, empower your team to deliver the best guest services experience, for every touchpoint.
That means before, during and after the game.
We hope you like acronyms because you’ll achieve this using the G.U.E.S.T approach.
- G – Greet sincerely with eye contact
- U – Understand the guest’s needs
- E – Engage yourself in helping guests promptly
- S – Smile and be positive throughout
- T – Thank guests at every opportunity
Now your team has a technique to ensure each interaction with your customer is a memorable one.
8 Touchpoints for Maximizing Customer Satisfaction
It’s time to show your customers you care.
We’ve identified and outlined eight critical touchpoints for your property to achieve the highest rated customer satisfaction.
Immediately teach your staff how to communicate effectively with customers using these strategies.
1. Customer Arrival & Parking Lot Operations
- Communicate effectively with guests through your radio partners (e.g. local radio stations) to deliver traffic routes and patterns allowing for a more enjoyable commute. Give customers parking lot updates (e.g. when lots are full or whether lot closures take place). We recommend notifying customers when lots are about two-thirds full.
- Use signage in the parking lot to display your text communication information so that your guests can use it when they need.
- Have your ticket holder’s opt-in to receive event day notifications. Send group notifications via your text communication solution for these subscribers to communicate weather updates, traffic patterns, and parking lot information.
- Deploy alcohol management teams to identify and mitigate potential hazards as a result of intoxicated persons. This also provides assurance to customers that everything is under control, and is dedicated to their experience and safety. 30 minutes prior to game start, move your alcohol management and rapid response teams to entry gates. This action will allow them to monitor and identify intoxicated persons and mitigate any incidents before they occur, which could affect the experience of your other customers.
2. Property Access
- Run the math and use your analytics to employ appropriate staffing in order to cut line times to between approximately two and three minutes.
- The benefit of shorter lines: Not only does increasing the flow of lines enhance customer satisfaction, but it also mitigates the risk of a major security incident (e.g. active shooter). It’s important to alleviate the possibility of scenarios where hundreds or thousands of people are bottlenecked. Increasing flow of traffic significantly reduces the opportunity for active shooters to take advantage of large, crowded settings.
3. Customer Movement
- Conduct tabletop exercises and real-life role-plays with your department teams using the G.U.E.S.T. acronym above and put it into place in order to prevent any customer service nightmare.
- Empower staff to acknowledge all customers they make eye contact with. This lets the customer know your team is there for them. It gives them the confidence knowing you’re in control and ready to provide them with a safe and secure environment for that memorable experience they came to your property for. This effort is Proactive Operations.
- You’re demonstrating the fact you hire and train staff that wants to help customers and are there when they need them.
4. Concourses
- Mount signage to display text communication information throughout your concourses and every concession point.
- No one likes it when they lose something and the time it can take to report a lost item can feel like salt in a wound. Implement a lost and found solution letting your customers report their lost items directly at your guest services locations. This is an inexpensive way to enhance customer satisfaction.
- Signage displayed in the concourses also act as a deterrent for intoxicated persons. If they’re not in the right state of mind, clear signage might help put them back in line.
- Use your analytics to understand the point of sale metrics to best determine your staffing needs against the customer base for specific areas on your property.
- Customer demographics change according to the size and type of event, and your staffing needs will too.
5. Event Space Entry
- All employees need to be at their post and ready to wow your customers.
- It’s important to have all employees trained on hotspots and protocols.
- Train staff on how to effectively communicate incidents to the command post.
- Always mount signage that displays your text communication information. Make it prominent upon entry onto your property.
6. The Event Space
- Communicate to your customers on a large scale. Deliver public service announcements (PSA) at specific times during the day or event explaining your customer code of conduct and ways to communicate with staff in the event of an issue or incident.
- Prominently display visible static signage throughout the event space inclusive of text communication information. That way, when you’re not on the loud speaker, everyone knows you’re still in control and focused on their safety at all times.
- Being able to exceed customer expectations is a key ingredient to a successfully ensuring that you’re your country’s favorite property. Implement a guest request tracker to increase staff efficiency and enhance performance. Never overlook a wheelchair request again.
7. Property Exit
- Re-deploy your rapid response team to the parking lot anywhere from 10 minutes before the end of an event to the end of event, depending on activity on the property.
- Re-deploy your police force to the parking lot complete with patrol cars and lights flashing, along with officers on foot. This is a useful deterrent for potential hazards. It also provides your customers assurance they’ll experience a safe and smooth exit from the property.
- Let your customers report lost items to your lost and found solution on your website if they missed guest services in the concourses or if they don’t realize they lost a possession until arriving home.
8. Parking Departure
- The event might be over, but that doesn’t mean customer service stops. Your employees should be waving goodbye and thanking your customers for coming to your property.
- Use variable message (VM) boards with thank you messages to supplement your staff’s sendoff.
- Depending on the location of your property, re-route traffic patterns for an easy exit too. It’s one more shot to wow your customers.
Over to You
We get it; running a property is different from an airline. But, one thing is the same – you have customers too.
You might already know this, but the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) doesn’t only exist for the airline industry. You can see how your industry rates here.
We strongly urge you to put your best foot forward because we’d like to see your property’s industry achieve a customer satisfaction rating closer to 100.
So, are you ready to ensure you’re never your country’s least favorite property?