Just 23 percent of airport and concessions industry respondents to a recent survey believe that their resources in improving and sustaining great customer service are effective, according to Customer Service Experts. The Maryland-based firm conducted its latest research at the ARN 2017 Revenue Conference & Exhibition.
In the survey, which is conducted annually at the ARN event, CSE asked attendees to answer a nine-question survey about customer service.
Customer service does appear to be on the minds of companies and organizations. In the survey 83 percent of people said they have customer service initiatives in place. And 75 percent are planning to implement customer service resources within the next two years.
Survey respondents felt is was about equally important for both landside and airside employees to deliver great customer service, with slightly more importance for landside employees.
When asked what customer service resources they had in place currently, 82 percent of respondents reported utilizing customer satisfaction surveys. About 69 percent said they had customer service training and 67 percent have “reward and recognition” programs in place. Mystery shopping was the least-used resource based on the survey results.
Respondents reported that the three greatest challenges to implementing customer experience improvements are avoiding disruptions to existing operations, obtaining stakeholder buy-in and not having proper staff.
“These are things clients express to us all the time,” says CSE founder and CEO Lise D’Andrea on the challenges of improving customer service. Companies and organizations like to look at the numbers and see how they compare, she adds.
