Montreal, 9 September 2015 – Organized by ACI World and kindly hosted by Aéroports de Montréal, the 2015 Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Forum Montreal kicked off this morning with training sessions that walked attendees through the ASQ programme, from a general overview to recent enhancements and new tools designed to allow participants to get the most from the customer service benchmarking programme.
Over the next three days, more than 100 attendees—airports currently participating in the ASQ programme and those interested in joining—will share best practices in customer service and hear key findings from the ASQ Survey. They will also explore how technology will change the face of customer service, the clear links between an airport's financial performance and their passenger satisfaction levels and much more.
"There couldn't be a better time to organize these forums," noted Antoine Rostworowski, Director, IT & Facilitation at ACI World. "Airports have evolved from being places that largely deal with airline and aircraft-related activities to complex businesses in their own right. Each day in airports around the world, innumerable service providers and government agencies—some customer-facing and some behind the scenes—have an indelible effect on the passenger experience. More than ever, airports require in-depth, actionable intelligence on satisfaction levels across the multiple touchpoints of a traveler's journey."
ACI's ASQ Survey measures passengers' appraisal of 34 key performance indicators on the day they travel, allowing airports to get an accurate and timely picture of traveler sentiment. Indeed, ASQ has been designed for airports seeking to measure their passenger service performance and to benchmark it against other airports with the overarching objective of offering more effective, efficient and profitable ways to serve the flying public while providing a systematic approach to continuously improving customer service.
ASQ is the leading customer satisfaction benchmarking programme in the airport industry today, and ASQ research is in place in airports that serve more than half the world's 6.7 billion passengers. From benchmarking and the sharing of best practices to marketing tools that help airports communicate their achievements and services that are customizable to each airport's unique needs, ASQ is the key to understanding how to increase passenger satisfaction and improve business performance in the fast-changing landscape of worldwide aviation.
"ACI's commitment to representing our members' best interests underscores everything we do, and the ASQ programme is an excellent example," says Angela Gittens, Director General, ACI World. "More than ever, this is a programme designed with member and passenger needs in mind, and ACI is delighted to share its latest customer service insights with ASQ Forum Montreal attendees. In keeping with the ASQ programme, these are learnings that they can take back to their home airports to make a real and immediate improvement in the quality of their passengers' journeys."
The ASQ Forum Montreal, which runs until 11 September, is the first of three ASQ Forum events scheduled for 2015, with the other two being hosted in Tianjin, China and Madrid, Spain on 22–24 September and 21–23 October respectively. To learn more about ASQ, click here, and visit the Tianjin and Madrid ASQ Forum pages to discover how you can participate in an upcoming ASQ Forum.
Airports Council International (ACI), the trade association of the world's airports, was founded in 1991 with the objective of fostering cooperation among its member airports and other partners in world aviation, including the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Air Transport Association and the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation. In representing the best interests of airports during key phases of policy development, ACI makes a significant contribution toward ensuring a global air transport system that is safe, secure, efficient and environmentally sustainable.
