Delta to Spend $1B on Customer Service Upgrades

Boris Badenov said:
Re: ATL and MEM...dunno what Wilson and Atlantic in MEM and ATL (respectively) pay, but I've gotten consistently good service and attitude from both. Especially Wilson in MEM. I was flying a crappy beat up MU-2 on a fed check run (not exactly a Premium Customer) and they did everything but roll out the red carpet when I taxied up. The fuel truck was always waiting when I shut down and most times they were done fueling by the time I'd hit the bathroom and gotten some coffee. Maybe DAL needs to take a page from their books. Treat your employees well and they'll treat your customers (and by extention, you) well.
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Notice how you're referencing Wilson and Atlantic as opposed to A and C in MEM and C and D in ATL.

1 is people that enjoy their jobs and are motivated...the others are motived only to get the meatballs on the airplane and get back to the breakroom asap.
 
PeanuckleCRJ said:
Notice how you're referencing Wilson and Atlantic as opposed to A and C in MEM and C and D in ATL.

1 is people that enjoy their jobs and are motivated...the others are motived only to get the meatballs on the airplane and get back to the breakroom asap.
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I actually had a ramper tell me they were late meeting getting out to push the airplane because they were watching a basketball game.
 
PeanuckleCRJ said:
Notice how you're referencing Wilson and Atlantic as opposed to A and C in MEM and C and D in ATL.

1 is people that enjoy their jobs and are motivated...the others are motived only to get the meatballs on the airplane and get back to the breakroom asap.
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I guess I just meant to say that the argument that you can't find good people in the Southland is bogus. There were white dudes, black dudes, and brown dudes at both FBOs, and with very few exceptions, they all treated me the same way they would have had Obama flown in unannounced. Pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Pay well and give your employees a reason to get up in the morning and feel like they're doing something worthwhile and you get...good service! Shocking, but true. But by all means, America, keep clicking on the lowest fare on Orbitz and blame the ghetto because you had to wait for 10 minutes to get parked. :rolleyes:
 
kellwolf said:
I actually had a ramper tell me they were late meeting getting out to push the airplane because they were watching a basketball game.
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In the final minutes of the Super bowl last year the alleyway was full of planes and the gates were empty...I wonder...
 
Boris Badenov said:
I guess I just meant to say that the argument that you can't find good people in the Southland is bogus. There were white dudes, black dudes, and brown dudes at both FBOs, and with very few exceptions, they all treated me the same way they would have had Obama flown in unannounced. Pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Pay well and give your employees a reason to get up in the morning and feel like they're doing something worthwhile and you get...good service! Shocking, but true. But by all means, America, keep clicking on the lowest fare on Orbitz and blame the ghetto because you had to wait for 10 minutes to get parked. :rolleyes:
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Bingo!

Did I ever mention race in my "demographic" statement? I think not. Who on here is triggered to always consider race??? I'll let you read the posts to find out.
 
PeanuckleCRJ said:
Bingo!

Did I ever mention race in my "demographic" statement? I think not. Who on here is triggered to always consider race??? I'll let you read the posts to find out.
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Dunno, don't care. Didn't mean to accuse you. Race is a ridiculous myth, and a lot of us (including you, by all accounts) are living in the 21st century. If anyone wants to talk about skin pigmentation or "bloodlines" like they're in any way relevant to the wall of data our cerebral cortexes process every second of every day, I heartily invite them to go sit at the children's table till they study even the most basic of texts on "race". I just found the fact that it was even mentioned kind of hilarious. Turns out human beings need a sense of purpose and appreciation to work hard. Conceivably this is news to someone, somewhere. I pity them, whoever they are.
 
Boris Badenov said:
Dunno, don't care. Didn't mean to accuse you. Race is a ridiculous myth, and a lot of us (including you, by all accounts) are living in the 21st century. If anyone wants to talk about skin pigmentation or "bloodlines" like they're in any way relevant to the wall of data our cerebral cortexes process every second of every day, I heartily invite them to go sit at the children's table till they study even the most basic of texts on "race". I just found the fact that it was even mentioned kind of hilarious. Turns out human beings need a sense of purpose and appreciation to work hard. Conceivably this is news to someone, somewhere. I pity them, whoever they are.
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You didn't accuse me of a thing. Don't worry. One of my compatriates tried to run down that road. :)
 
PeanuckleCRJ said:
You didn't accuse me of a thing. Don't worry. One of my compatriates tried to run down that road. :)
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I never brought up race. What I did hear was that there is a group of people (a demographic) that are less than other groups. Apparently, our airline only hires from that group therefore, there would never be a change in performance if pay were increased.

Is that demographic classified as people from Atlanta? From Georgia? From Fulton County? That's why in a later post I talked about my family history. I've lived here my whole life and have been all around the world and I just don't see a difference in people.

Is that demographic lazy people? Angry People? Rude People? I really doubt that the companies are going out and specifically recruiting those types of personalities. Sorry, that was really more TIC.

What I think is the real problem here, and it was touched on earlier, is level of training. Also, to a lessor extent, corporate culture. Both of those fall squarely on the airlines' in question, not the individuals. The companies haven't really demonstrated that good customer service is important to them so, that kind of thinking will rub off on its employees.

Prime example that all of us in Atlanta can relate to is Chick-fil-a. They are an absolute model of a company that emphasizes customer service and a good product. They hire from the same pool of workers that the Atlanta airport hires from but, from the get go, the corporate culture ingrains a strong sense of service. How do the employees of Chick-fil-a respond when a customer says thank you? Always with, "My pleasure."
 
Boris Badenov said:
I guess I just meant to say that the argument that you can't find good people in the Southland is bogus. There were white dudes, black dudes, and brown dudes at both FBOs, and with very few exceptions, they all treated me the same way they would have had Obama flown in unannounced. Pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Pay well and give your employees a reason to get up in the morning and feel like they're doing something worthwhile and you get...good service! Shocking, but true. But by all means, America, keep clicking on the lowest fare on Orbitz and blame the ghetto because you had to wait for 10 minutes to get parked. :rolleyes:
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I think we're also missing another key part: employee retention. Those people over at Wilson? They've been there FOREVER. They're (likely) treated better than 9E treats their people, so they stick around. They gain experience and learn how to deal with difficult situations. They probably get better training and the company wants to set their employees up for success. 9E goes for the cheapest they can find, attempts (poorly) to teach them how to use the reservation system (which is subject to change) then says "There ya go! Go board passengers!" No customer service training, yet they have the title "customer service agent." Many don't really even know what the job entails. The key fact is you can't take anything personally, and sometimes people just need to vent. They, deep down in side, know it's not specifically YOUR fault the airline decided it would be a good idea to book 54 passengers on an airplane that only holds 50, but they're gonna scream at you and call you names regardless. It's MUCH easier to be pleasant over at Wilson considering I doubt they ever have to hear about how the Citation or Gulfstream parked out there can't take everyone because they booked too many people and it's weight restricted. Oh, and we'll have to charge you extra for those golf clubs. You really can't even compare the two. At the heart, yes, they're both customer service jobs, but then again so is a server at a restaurant or the Geek Squad at Best Buy.

I'd also like to think that paying extra would fix the problem. It won't. Unless you provide SOME sort of guidance or training, nothing is gonna change. You might retain a few more people because they couldn't make more work at McDonald's anymore, but the only way the figure out what works and what doesn't is through trial and error. If you're LUCKY, the good ones make it to a supervisor level and pass on the knowledge. More likely, they'll escape and take their knowledge with them the first chance they get.

Raising ticket prices won't really help the situation, either. That's pretty much happened on the DL with the bag fees. Problem is, the extra revenue goes into things like research for new routes or (in 9E's case this year) management bonuses for.....well, not much of anything. They'll fight tooth and nail to keep from raising wages, and when it comes down to it, they'll cry "poor" to the negotiators involved.
 
kellwolf said:
I'd also like to think that paying extra would fix the problem. It won't. Unless you provide SOME sort of guidance or training, nothing is gonna change.
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A better way to say it is that the airlines need to spend more money on the employees. Be it in the form of training, compensation, back rubs, etc.
 
I can tell you probably 50% of the stuff I know how to do in the computer at work, I had to learn on my own. They only teach you so much at training, and a lot of it you almost never use. My biggest issue with CS training is they don't give you a resource to figure out who flies where. Lets say a flight to YYC cancels. Everything from SFO is full. I brainstorm "Who flies to YYC...", I play around, find QX has a Q400 doing SEA-YYC tonight, call AS, they tell me it has seats. Everyone who talks to me gets sent SFO-SEA on UA then SEA-YYC on QX and are home by midnight. Everyone who talks to the other gate agents is stuck in SFO for the night with no hotel for a wx cancellation.

Its so inconsistent. And short of being a nerd like me and knowing who all the other airlines are and who has hubs where, there really isn't a way to figure that stuff out. You can pull that information up, sure, but you have to know which airports and which airlines to check, the computer won't do that for you. If I was a supervisor I'd teach everyone to pull up Wikipedia as a last resort and go thru all the airlines/destinations served by the airport and make sure we can't get them there on another carrier before they hand them an overnight kit.
 
The fault in your logic is that we have already decided said gate agents are lazy. So what makes you think they would be remotely interested in doing the legwork to find other ways to get passengers where they need to go?
 
Capt. Caucasian said:
A better way to say it is that the airlines need to spend more money on the employees. Be it in the form of training, compensation, back rubs, etc.
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This seems true to me. Not sure about Atlantic, since I'm usually half-asleep when I shuffle through to go pass out for a few hours and do it again, but I talked to the Wilson linemen at length. I don't remember any "lifers"...they were mostly young guys who had other coals in the fire...one guy was working on his A&P, another was going to community college, etc. I got the distinct impression that they worked hard because A) Yes, if they didn't, they'd be replaced by someone who did, but B) They were compensated and treated reasonably well and felt like they had a personal stake in how the business did. They certainly weren't kicking ass to get out there in a thunderstorm and dance back and forth between the infuriating tip-tanks squirting 40 gallons at a time because they were afraid anyone in Upper Management cared whether some coffee-swilling refugee-looking freight dog was five minutes late.

I remain mystified as to how all these high-powered MBAs haven't figured out that paying a couple of bucks an hour more and treating your employees like something more than easily-replaced meat-puppets is actually a WINNING strategy for providing superior service and thereby (presumably) making MORE money.

I'm sure there are all sorts of differences between Airline ground ops and FBOs, but the fact remains that Wilson, as big as it is, is constantly shuffling airplanes around to provide room for more while Signature right across the field is a ghost town most times I've taxied past. Wonder why.
 
Capt. Caucasian said:
I just don't see what yall are talking about. I am from Atlanta. My family has been here since the 1840's (textile mill workers). I see everyone around me as family and I treat them as such. I almost always get the same respect back.

I went to high school with many of the agents in ATL. They were good folks back then and they are still today. I think that if someone consistently has problems with other people they might need to look in a mirror.
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U know what's ironic? Someone who goes by the handle "Capt. Caucasian" giving lectures on cultural sensitivity.
 
P&H said:
U know what's ironic? Someone who goes by the handle "Capt. Caucasian" giving lectures on cultural sensitivity.
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Maybe U might want to learn where his username/nickname came from first? It has been posted on here; U can do a search.
 
P&H said:
U know what's ironic? Someone who goes by the handle "Capt. Caucasian" giving lectures on cultural sensitivity.
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I know, and that's partly the point of it. Here's where the name came from:

Back when I was a freshman at GA Tech I was on the marching band drumline. One day, at practice, I was really dragging and just could not find the "groove" of the cadence. It was frustrating our instructor to no end. He yelled, "CUT!!!!!!" threw his sticks down, "YOU HAVE NO GROOVE! YOU ARE TERMINALLY WHITE! WE MIGHT AS WELL CALL YOU CAPTAIN CAUCASIAN!"

Well, that episode spread like wild-fire throughout my friends and the nick-name stuck. I actually thought it was pretty darn funny so, I started using it as my internet handle way back in 1995.

I always wanted Capt. Caucasian to end up as a comic book spoof on Captain Caveman with a similar battle cry. I imagined him to be a superhero that wore tighty-whiteys on the outside and his secret weakness was his inability to dance. :p

Actually, a few days ago I decided that the name is too "college radio" for a thirty-four year old father of two. Plus, with more and more folks coming to this board the humor may get lost. So, I've asked Doug to change it to simply, JoelT.
 
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