Yet another thread about interview techniques.

UAL747400 said:
So, the person that's stuck in their Metro should call all 7000 customers and explain why their package is late then? :)

Just ribbing, but is United, American, Spirit, Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest, Alaska or Hawaiian seriously not doing the exact same thing? If they aren't, well then, congrats to your new market share! :) Not trolling, I promise! Genuinely curious
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You're not curious, you enjoy being the contrarian! :)

It's ok. The people that understand the message will take heed, those that don't, well, won't.

I'm no longer in the "I must save the entire world" business, but helping the select few reach their goals.
 
Derg said:
Thank you for your opinion, howeeeeeeeeever, I'm trying to educate. Have a seat, ya might learn something! :)
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Derg said:
You're not curious, you enjoy being the contrarian! :)

It's ok. The people that understand the message will take heed, those that don't, well, won't.

I'm no longer in the "I must save the entire world" business, but helping the select few reach their goals.
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Well yeah! :) Friday level rum and Mountain Dew level reached. New rule, lav only NAO! :)
 
Seggy said:
I've learned long ago that exceptional customer service is expected across brand lines. :)
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The key is that the larger overall message is that applicants are going to encounter questions like this because you're going to be validating answers.

"I really want to work here" — says everyone. Because this is the only fast pass you were able to get or the company was the only one to call you for an interview after a long dry spell of no progress?

"I really want to work here and here is why. I flew to LAX on vacation on (airline) but then I flew home on (your airline) and the difference was amazing" — say few. You want to work here and you have clear examples of why. Answer validated. He's being honest.

It's not scoreless soccer where every applicant is equally awesome and every airline is the same. It's not. Several airlines (especially Alaska as they kick major ass at this) are "de-commodotizing" their product. Your high value customers are going to choose your airline not because it's the cheapest fare, it's because you go there and they enjoy your product and consistency and it makes money.

Is the applicant here just to fly jets and go home or are they ready to become part of that system? That's what a question like that is meant to determine.

Or you can slash and dash until you're the absolute cheapest price on the fare grid and battle it out for "value" travelers with the LCC's and ULCC's.

The applicants who understand this is what the evaluator is looking for at carriers trying to 'de-commoditize' their product. If you just want to fly jets and go home, that's cool too but there are a lot of places to do that.

Southwest isn't the least expensive fare, by far, but people love their product and way of conducting business and they charge somewhat of a premium for that and they have pricing strength. Some of the ULCC's, not so much.

I'm rambling.
 
Derg said:
The key is that the larger overall message is that applicants are going to encounter questions like this because you're going to be validating answers.

"I really want to work here" — says everyone. Because this is the only fast pass you were able to get or the company was the only one to call you for an interview after a long dry spell of no progress?

"I really want to work here and here is why. I flew to LAX on vacation on (airline) but then I flew home on (your airline) and the difference was amazing" — say few. You want to work here and you have clear examples of why. Answer validated. He's being honest.

It's not scoreless soccer where every applicant is equally awesome and every airline is the same. It's not. Several airlines (especially Alaska as they kick major ass at this) are "de-commodotizing" their product. Your high value customers are going to choose your airline not because it's the cheapest fare, it's because you go there and they enjoy your product and consistency and it makes money.

Is the applicant here just to fly jets and go home or are they ready to become part of that system? That's what a question like that is meant to determine.

Or you can slash and dash until you're the absolute cheapest price on the fare grid and battle it out for "value" travelers with the LCC's and ULCC's.

The applicants who understand this is what the evaluator is looking for at carriers trying to 'de-commoditize' their product. If you just want to fly jets and go home, that's cool too but there are a lot of places to do that.

Southwest isn't the least expensive fare, by far, but people love their product and way of conducting business and they charge somewhat of a premium for that and they have pricing strength. Some of the ULCC's, not so much.

I'm rambling.
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Allow me to be contrarian one last time in this thread. Captain at Southwest or Allegiant isn't going above and beyond vs a Captain at Delta on a regular basis? I agree with the differences in the overall product, but the cockpit flight crew does/can DEW (Yeah, Mountain DEW! WOOOOO!) exactly what to be different, if the rest of the product sets them up to be less than steller? I'd say an Allegiant flight crew has a lot more to make up for to make a difference... vs jetBlue or Delta.
 
Derg said:
Nah, it's ok, you don't understand, it's awwwwww'right. Totally at peace with that! :)

But those that can, they're my target audience.
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Bah, I may be dickish on the internets because I don't know how to write otherwise, or especially after rum:30, but I've never ignored or not tried new things! Maybe you remember the back and forth between @ATN_Pilot and me about a just safety culture and ASAP from way back when. AMF has that now because of myself and a few others seeing the light and being dicks about it, for better or worse. Maybe not the way to go about it in that case, but ehhhh :)

That being said, the comparisons were outside of the context of an interview. I was only being obtuse because I haven't actually ever seen a difference from the flight crew... Overall product, absolutely though! I feel like what you're implying is that no other flight crew, at any airline, cares at all about customer service though.
 
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UAL747400 said:
Bah, I may be dickish on the internets because I don't know how to write otherwise, or especially after rum:30, but I've never ignored or not tried new things! Maybe you remember the back and forth between @ATN_Pilot and me about a just safety culture and ASAP from way back when. AMF has that now because of myself and a few others seeing the light and being dicks about it, for better or worse. Maybe not the way to go about it in that case, but ehhhh :)

That being said, the comparisons were outside of the context of an interview. I was only being obtuse because I haven't actually ever seen a difference from the flight crew... Overall product, absolutely though! I feel like what you're implying is that no other flight crew, at any airline, cares at all about customer service though.
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When you're at a job fair talking to a recruiter (or at the interview), in that moment, no other airline exists. You know the company's core values, you know their people, their customers, their leadership. You can speak intelligently about the product (even if they are "all the same", what's the Delta frequent flyer program called vs the JetBlue FF program?). How do you embody those values (TMAAT). Et cetera.

Even @Seggy 's shop wants this line of thought. United wants to know you know the product, not that they fly big planes, pay you money, and have bases you like.

This is one of those times you need to put aside the contrarian attitude. Can you?
 
UAL747400 said:
The only thing that is absolutely different between UPS and FedEx is that UPS has coats. That and one is small, that's it!

I'm not correlating that to any PAX airline by the way...
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Your level of knowledge on the matter is representative of the company you work for, and that's fine. Like I said, at AMF it's same crap different toilet right? It's all boxes! I'm telling you for the last time that you're way off, way way off.
 
UAL747400 said:
Allow me to be contrarian one last time in this thread. Captain at Southwest or Allegiant isn't going above and beyond vs a Captain at Delta on a regular basis? I agree with the differences in the overall product, but the cockpit flight crew does/can DEW (Yeah, Mountain DEW! WOOOOO!) exactly what to be different, if the rest of the product sets them up to be less than steller? I'd say an Allegiant flight crew has a lot more to make up for to make a difference... vs jetBlue or Delta.
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There is a lot more to customer service than having sexy flight attendants in dark blue or red dresses, or strop waffles. This is a prime example of how AMF stands for assumptions made forever. Not everything is as simple as you describe or as easily described. The simple answers you give on JC, would be the same answers people give to a recruiter or interviewer and it is like nails down a chalkboard to them. Any moron can sit with a top tier airline like Delta and say their brand is the best, they treat customers the best. But why? How? Get into the nitty gritty a bit. No airline has a simple answer to the question "tell me what you know." Go tell SWA that because they are an LCC like JetBlue and Spirit, that their brands are the same, their models are the same. Stand by for the TNBT.

Does that mean that an Allegiant pilot, or a CommuteAir pilot, or a United pilot don't all go above and beyond for their customers? Absolutely not, but how do they do it, what can they offer the customer? How can they make it right? Some airlines have more power to help a customer than others. Having been screwed by multiple airlines multiple times, I have seen first hand what tools an airline has to help you get where you need to go, and have experienced the lack of tools certain airlines have as well.

There is much more to this than "they both fly boxes they just wear different colored shorts" or "if the customer is pissed he/she can get free Biscoffs." Unfortunately it isn't something you get to regularly experience at AMF because it's in its own little bubble.
 
Inverted said:
There is a lot more to customer service than having sexy flight attendants in dark blue or red dresses, or strop waffles. This is a prime example of how AMF stands for assumptions made forever. Not everything is as simple as you describe or as easily described. The simple answers you give on JC, would be the same answers people give to a recruiter or interviewer and it is like nails down a chalkboard to them. Any moron can sit with a top tier airline like Delta and say their brand is the best, they treat customers the best. But why? How? Get into the nitty gritty a bit. No airline has a simple answer to the question "tell me what you know." Go tell SWA that because they are an LCC like JetBlue and Spirit, that their brands are the same, their models are the same. Stand by for the TNBT.

Does that mean that an Allegiant pilot, or a CommuteAir pilot, or a United pilot don't all go above and beyond for their customers? Absolutely not, but how do they do it, what can they offer the customer? How can they make it right? Some airlines have more power to help a customer than others. Having been screwed by multiple airlines multiple times, I have seen first hand what tools an airline has to help you get where you need to go, and have experienced the lack of tools certain airlines have as well.

There is much more to this than "they both fly boxes they just wear different colored shorts" or "if the customer is pissed he/she can get free Biscoffs." Unfortunately it isn't something you get to regularly experience at AMF because it's in its own little bubble.
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SpiceWeasel said:
When you're at a job fair talking to a recruiter (or at the interview), in that moment, no other airline exists. You know the company's core values, you know their people, their customers, their leadership. You can speak intelligently about the product (even if they are "all the same", what's the Delta frequent flyer program called vs the JetBlue FF program?). How do you embody those values (TMAAT). Et cetera.

Even @Seggy 's shop wants this line of thought. United wants to know you know the product, not that they fly big planes, pay you money, and have bases you like.

This is one of those times you need to put aside the contrarian attitude. Can you?
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I did say that my opinion didn't necessarily apply to the passenger airlines. I agree that there is only so much an employee is allowed to do to go above and beyond. I succeed and agree that that is the difference from one passenger airline to another.

I guess I'm just not seeing the difference regarding UPS and FedEx, operationally. Some hubs are bad and some hubs are amazing for both carriers in regards to how they're operated. But I suppose that seeing comparing Louisville to Memphis would probably be more representative.

Maybe I've had the blinders on when I've been a customer for both... Entirely possible! :) I'm only contrarian on the internets...
 
Big difference between the two is how things are shipped. You ship UPS ground, it can travel by air, train, semi, delivery truck. You ship a package FedEx ground, it never touches an airplane. It's a separate entity. If you ship a package FedEx Express air from Denver to Denver, it has to touch an airplane. There are other differences too. But that makes for a major difference in business models, regardless of how similar the delivery drivers shorts are.

On the feeder level it doesn't matter but like I said appearances can be deceiving if you don't dive into business plans and structure. This goes for any airline. Code sharing and partnerships are huge for customers that may be inconvenienced by a flight. Their ability to get a recovery flight home is greater than an airline that can't offer that. Again, important differences. Does somebody who is interviewing need to know every gritty detail? I dunno... But I hedge my bets when I interview at a company and it has worked so far.
 
Inverted said:
Big difference between the two is how things are shipped. You ship UPS ground, it can travel by air, train, semi, delivery truck. You ship a package FedEx ground, it never touches an airplane. It's a separate entity. If you ship a package FedEx Express air from Denver to Denver, it has to touch an airplane. There are other differences too. But that makes for a major difference in business models, regardless of how similar the delivery drivers shorts are.

On the feeder level it doesn't matter but like I said appearances can be deceiving if you don't dive into business plans and structure. This goes for any airline. Code sharing and partnerships are huge for customers that may be inconvenienced by a flight. Their ability to get a recovery flight home is greater than an airline that can't offer that. Again, important differences. Does somebody who is interviewing need to know every gritty detail? I dunno... But I hedge my bets when I interview at a company and it has worked so far.
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Indeed. OK, I see what you're all getting at. Carry on! I mean, you were anyways, but I'm out. :)
 
Cessnaflyer said:
How do the logistics work for this? Never knew this about them.
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FedEx Express is the original "overnight delivery" company based on airplanes going to Memphis for the big sort. They have their own delivery trucks that deliver the stuff that was flown to/from Memphis.

FedEx Ground is the old Roadway Package System delivery company, which ships cheaper and stuff only goes via ground.

Separate subsidiaries/divisions, but all owned and operated by FedEx.
 
Cessnaflyer said:
How do the logistics work for this? Never knew this about them.
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Well I'm not sure why anyone would ship by air from a place in Denver, to somewhere else in Denver, it's just an example to make a point. FedEx has multiple entities and are not all tied in like UPS. If you ship FedEx ground from SFO to JFK it doesn't touch an airplane. At least this is what I was told. When I was asked what the difference between the two was, I was stumped because they seem the same. Once it was broken down it was apparent they are quite different.
 
UAL747400 said:
That being said, the comparisons were outside of the context of an interview. I was only being obtuse because I haven't actually ever seen a difference from the flight crew... Overall product, absolutely though! I feel like what you're implying is that no other flight crew, at any airline, cares at all about customer service though.
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"Preflight checklist, please"

"I don't want to seem dickish but why do we even have to run this? We're both familiar with what's on it. I mean, isn't the intentioned NOT to break the airplane? We are not going to break the airplane. Isn't it a waste of time?"

Highly exaggerated, yes, but those kind of the vibe I'm getting.
 
Derg said:
"Preflight checklist, please"

"I don't want to seem dickish but why do we even have to run this? We're both familiar with what's on it. I mean, isn't the intentioned NOT to break the airplane? We are not going to break the airplane. Isn't it a waste of time?"

Highly exaggerated, yes, but those kind of the vibe I'm getting.
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Sheesh, that is probably one of the more ridiculous correlations I've seen in awhile, but yeah, I already agreed and see what you're all getting at. So, I'm still out. :) Car thread?
 
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