Initiative Leads to Recognition

J.D. Power and Associates recently announced that Dallas Love Field, which is owned by the City of Dallas, is the top airport for Customer Satisfaction in the 2006 North American Airport Satisfaction Study. The study was based on responses from more than 9,800 passengers who took a flight between January and May 2006. Kenneth Gwyn outlines steps taken by the city and the airport to bring about the third-party recognition.

Passengers evaluated up to two different airports - their departing and arriving airport - for a total of more than 17,000 evaluations. Love Field rated "Among the Best" in four of five categories: airport accessibility, check-in process, terminal facilities, and baggage claim. Love rated "Better than Most" in the fifth area, security check-in. The award represents one of the first successes in an overall citywide initiative to improve customer service.

This recognition prompted the question, What actions taken by the airport resulted in Love Field being singled out? How was customer service measured? What does quality customer service mean to the Love Field customer? Was there ownership for providing quality customer service on the part of employees and businesses at the airport?

It became clear that the answers to two basic questions were at the heart of the airport's success: 1) Who was the customer? and 2) What were their basic expectations for the airport experience?

WHO IS THE CUSTOMER?

While all airports have similarities, each has unique qualities in terms of the types of travelers or the physical layout of the airport. Both have an impact on customer service. Love Field is a medium size airport with over 5.6 million passengers in 2005. It's a short-haul airport with an overwhelming majority of the routes averaging 60 minutes. Over 80 percent of the passengers use the airport for business travel, with the average length of stay less than a day.

CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS

These statistics have a direct relationship to the traveler's expectation. When I arrived at the airport in 1996, it became readily apparent that the typical Love Field traveler generally arrives close to the airplane's departure time. Dwell time is minimal.

Given the somewhat unique customer service expectations of the Love Field traveler, staff recognized that convenience was paramount. Anything that caused delay, confusion, or interfered in any way with a direct, non-stop trip from the entrance road of the airport to the airplane boarding gate, was a customer service failure. As a result, very close attention was paid to such things as parking availability, traffic flow and traffic control - both on the access road and in front of the terminal, wayfaring signage, length of passenger lines, and other factors that impact the length of time that a person spends getting to the airplane. The goal: save time while at the airport.

Several methods were used to validate staff's understanding of what customer service means to a typical traveler. Many of the standard feedback techniques were used (customer service cards; mystery shopper program). Customer service was also discussed in speeches given by airport staff, whether to an employee group meeting or to a local Chamber of Commerce, these opportunities were used to test staff's understanding of customer preferences.

Based upon all of the feedback tools used, staff was very confident that they had good understanding of traveler expectations.

The next challenge was to clearly articulate customer expectations to employees and others who interact with airport customers. The message had to be succinct, yet clearly describe the type of unique experience that Love Field passengers expect. The phrase "A Hassle Free Experience - From When You Turn on Cedar Springs until You Reach the Gate" was created internally to capture what the goal or expectation for the traveler was to be. (Cedar Springs is the airport entrance road.)