More than 38.8 million passengers visited Orlando International (MCO) in 2015, up nearly 9 percent from 2014, and more than 2.4 million more than the airport moved in 2007, its previous record year.
That’s great, airport officials say, until one takes into account that its existing facilities were actually built to handle about 24 million passengers.
MCO’s board this year approved a $1.8 billion expansion project that includes a new south terminal. Over time, that will help address the growth Orlando is experiencing. But the board and airport staff knew they also had to make sure passengers were happy in the years before the new infrastructure opened.
Enter Brian Engle, director of customer service. He arrived at MCO from the airline industry two years ago to oversee a newly established customer service department, which has since grown to five staff and about 60 ambassadors.
When formed, the department spent time surveying guests to see what mattered to them. Those surveys determined that passengers wanted items relating to comfort, ease and speed. Initiatives were developed to help in each area: The Ease Team worked on issues related to wayfinding. The Speed Team focused on getting people through security faster. Ideas were implemented, customers were re-surveyed and, at times, the initiatives were tweaked in accordance to the results.
The results led MCO to upgrade technology. Charging stations were added. About 1,200 beacons were installed, and an airport app was created.
“It’s a think tank of ideas,” Engle says. “We’ve had a lot of things come out of those teams already. It’s been quite successful for us.”
While airport spokeswoman Carolyn Fennell notes that airport officials have always focused on customer service, the increase in passenger travel, coupled with a community-wide rebranding effort aimed at publicizing the region’s growth beyond just the leisure market, drove the airport’s board to support the establishment of a customer service department.
Doing so, Engle and Fennell say, has allowed MCO to create a customer service culture through the implementation of staff-wide plans and education of staff across all departments in a more complete way. Now, for example, any staff member who comes across passengers with puzzled looks on their faces is trained and expected to help make sure they receive necessary assistance.
The department also helped establish a recognition program that brings attention to employees throughout the entire airport. Each month, several individuals are recognized on six-foot-by-six-foot billboards for the work they do.
“Before it was kind of siloed,” Engle says of previous customer service efforts. “Each department did their own thing. Now, we’re meeting together as one group.”
The complete article appears in the May print issue of Airport Revenue News. Click Here to subscribe.
