When it comes to customer service, airports are in a difficult position. As an airport executive recently said, “No matter what goes wrong on a trip, the destination airport gets the blame.”
I’d never thought of that before, but it’s true—particularly when the inexperienced traveler is concerned. Aunt Emma and Uncle Cletus, for example, may fly the airlines once or twice a year, to visit family in, say, St. Louis. If the flight is bumpy, the coffee lukewarm, the baby behind them loud and/or the seats crowded, they will tell everyone in their church, bridge club and Kiwanis club that they flew to St. Louis last month and it was a miserable trip. St. Louis is the way they identify their trip.
Another problem: The airport really has very little communication with the traveler. The airlines do. That means the airlines have an opportunity to smooth ruffled feelings. Many a time I’ve been disgusted after dealing with the airline by telephone (try that sometime) or online. Then, when I get to the counter—if only to check my bag—I vent. Usually, a very nice person behind the counter or at the gate is able to unruffle my feathers, turn me around and convince me that I will dwell in the house of great service forever.
The airport staff seldom meet the customer face to face, so never learn that the bathroom is dirty (though it hardly ever is), TSA is unfriendly (but they really are getting better), a vendor couldn’t care less or the parking lot attendee is surly. That is a huge drawback. To loosely paraphrase late Georgia Governor Gene Talmadge, You can’t no more solve what you don’t know about than you can come back from some place you ain’t never went.
The answer? There is no one answer. Newsletters, surveys, invitations to complain are all used and they all help. (A major problem with newsletters is getting the names and addresses since you have very little contact with the pax.)
Press releases to local media help a lot. (I just read on the front page of the local newspaper that “my” airport, TRI in TN, stayed in the black through a rough winter. I was/am impressed. I also just read today (online from Airport Business) that social media is working for some airports—“Keeping up with the latest social media tools is not an easy task, but forward-thinking airports tend to be the early adopters who benefit from getting in ahead of the competition.”
Many airports today have programs motivating vendors to excel. Vendors, after all, have constant, daily contact with your customers.
It’s a difficult nut to crack but you gotta keep trying.
