I stumbled upon this interesting article on Washington Times online. It talks about a popular notion that customer service sucks in the travel industry when in reality there are a lot to be learned about customer service from travel companies.

However, if you just look closely as what the author says, cable companies also suck. The author further reveals that at least the travel industry is trying to improve customer service or nurturing customers by giving loyalty rewards. Read the story here.

Which makes me think. I tend to agree to Nicholas Kralev’s (the author of the article) observation. I can compare an airline and a utilities company.

Cebu Pacific Air may have a lot of bad customer service incidents, but I believe they’re trying to remedy those (although they still fail miserably several times) by giving customer rewards. But Meralco whose care for customers revolve mainly on increasing or decreasing power rates, can only boast of uninterrupted service in most times. I couldn’t remember a time when Meralco announced a rewards program to loyal customers. Even the refunds they had to do had to be fought over.

Yeah, there are many organizations who stand to learn from the others who have clear customer-service programs. And if we are to be a more discerning customer, we should support those organizations who love us—their customers—back.

Photo source

I admit online transactions are convenient and fast; and who doesn’t want fast and convenience service?

However, what happens when something goes wrong with your online transaction? Naturally, you call the company’s hotline and ask for assistance. Fine. But what happens next is a little worrisome. This is what happened.

I booked a couple-friend a Cebu Pacific Air flight to Cebu early last week. The online booking went smoothly. However, when I printed the e-ticket, I noticed a typographical error in the last name of the husband. A little panicky, I called the airline’s hotline. I got connected to Ms. Ala in Cebu.

Ms. Ala told me what to do, and then said something like it would be the discretion of the check-in counter to honor the correction. I hesitated and asked, “You mean there’s a chance they won’t accept the correction and refuse the passenger?” Then she repeats, “It’s the discretion of the check-in counter guys. But I’m sure they will.” They should, I thought to myself!

Anyway, I complied with Ms. Ala’s requirements, that is to email/fax two valid IDs of the husband. She gave me two email addresses of Cebu Pacific and a fax number. The fax didn’t go through because after the fax tone was an error message. I tried twice. Same error message.

A few hours after, I called their hotline again to check if they got my emails and if I got the correct fax number. I couldn’t get through. I wasn’t able to try again that day, because after 5 tries and still failed, I had to attend some pressing matters in the office. I was getting worried because the couple was set to fly the following day.

In any case, I prayed that Cebu Pacific got the emails because they didn’t return anyway. But the thing is, there was not even a reply to that email as some kind of acknowledgment. No word, nothing. What I did, I just gave the wife a copy of what I submitted to Cebu Pacific, just in case.

So, the following day, I was jolted from sleep early because of worry. The couple was set to take the 10:10AM flight. I prayed that everything would be ok. From 7AM to to 12NN, I was a bundle of worried nerves. Then at around 12NN, the wife sent me a text message saying they landed Cebu and were now being ushered out by Plantation Bay well-wishers. “Very nice!” she said. I heaved a sigh of relief and thanked the heavens!

That’s not the end of the story. In the afternoon of that day, the two emails I sent Cebu Pacific returned with the message, “Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently…”

My suggestion: If you have an online business (e-commerce), please make sure that your emails and contact numbers are working well as support.

I’m writing this so that other customers will be guided. There had been not so-good experiences with Cebu Pacific already. I hope they shape up.

*Image from Stock.Xchng

AJC features the overall results of a survey that point to airlines giving dismal service.

According to the article:

Passenger satisfaction with airlines’ customer service has sunk to its lowest level in years at a time when carriers are charging more for tickets and services.

An annual survey being released today by the University of Michigan found customers giving airlines the worst grades since 2001, with the industry’s overall scores dropping for the third straight year.

Continue reading…

Although the article didn’t cite the factors surrounding the results, we somehow have an idea of what the survey asks the respondents.

I can say that our local airlines are not different at all.  A case in point:

My husband sent me a text message last Friday saying, “Check CebuPac. They have another seat sales promo.” I did and tried booking for seats on the specified flying dates.

Lo and behold. I saw “Sorry, No promo seats available.” on the check-rates pages. Well perhaps, the seats on sale we already all sold out, I thought.

But even so, this was not the first time I booked a flight with Cebu Pacific online. They usually offer one thing and deliver another.  And sad to say, I think the last time we flew with them to go to Iloilo last year, will be our last to fly with them.

Related story:
The nightmare that is Cebu Pacific

As a customer, was there a point in your life that you felt powerless, helpless? Yes! I can hear you loud and clear.

I felt that when our luggage got lost when we flew Cebu Pacific. Wizheart and I felt that when a highway patrolman flagged him down for overspeeding when in truth he wasn’t, and when his niece took the nursing board exam and didn’t make it due to a technicality.

This is the very same experience that Joe Wilcox feel about Microsoft regarding his XBox and gamertag.

How does helplessness and powerlessness make a customer feel?

• frustrated
• irate
• used
• angry
• disloyal

In other words, all the negative feelings arise. So how do you avoid making your customers feel helpless? Simple.

• Empower him.  Allow him to be in command of what he wants to do with your services and how.
• Support him. Don’t give him the preferential treatment only when you’re trying to make a sale. Be with him even after the sale. Most especially support him when things get into trouble.
• Give room. Company policies are there as guides, not as laws carved in stone and therefore something that you think you cannot change. Give room for lee ways.

As I’ve said before, when interacting with your customer, you may win the argument, but you will lose the customer.

A recent survey shows that not many companies are using email to get in touch with their customers. The study compared the US and the UK markets.

Here are some of the findings:

In the study, key findings emerged regarding North American retailers. *25 percent of companies failed to respond to customer e-mails; *65 responded to e-mails within 24 hours, but *55 percent of them were considered poor or below average in quality; *45 percent scored above average or exceptional; and *55 percent received poor or below average ratings.

When comparing North America to the UK, *56 percent of UK companies received the above average or exceptional rating; North America performed better than UK in e-mail responsiveness; and *45 percent of North American companies scored above average or exceptional in Web self-service performance, compared to only *16 percent in the UK.

Read more…

Have you tried emailing a company to air your concerns? I tried twice, using the company’s online feedback form. I emailed Cebu Pacific and SM. Never got a reply or some form of feedback.

When you think about it, email is probably the most cost-efficient and faster way to reach your customers.  It brings us back to letter-writing days, when you can establish a connection with your pal.  Isn’t it that we enjoy receiving letters? Especially perhaps if it’s from a company from whom you would want to hear in the first place. Also, it’s easier to do because many people are more comfortable writing about their experiences than talking about it.

I wonder why companies don’t use email as an important customer serviec touchpoint. I think it’s about time, they should!

*Photo from Stock.Xchng

Last Friday, November 14, my family and I took Cebu Pacific Air, 8:50 AM flight, for Iloilo.  We checked in at about 7AM, and excitedly wait for our flight, which was delayed by a good hour.

If not for the fun stuff at NAIA Terminal 3, my kids would have been restless for an hour. But they did give out a hoot when our flight boarding was announced.

A little past 10AM, we landed at the new and spunky Iloilo International Airport. Our spirits were still high for who wouldn’t be if you were taking a vacation. But the fun was spoiled as we watched the carousel churned out fewer and fewer passengers’ luggage, and ours was not among those left.

We immediately told the two guards manning the exits, but the guards didn’t see the urgency of the situation. They let us wait until they had attended to all the exiting passengers. There was no one else in that exit, except the two guards, who could help us. The lost and found counter was also empty.

As the guards let the passengers through, we kept asking them how to report lost luggage, but the guards just kept ignoring us. Finally, the last passenger passed through. The male guard then led us outside to the Cebu Pacific “office.” I quoted the word because it was not really an office of Cebu Pacific. It was just a satellite office, so they said. (To expedite the whole thing, the guard could have just pointed the way to that office, and my husband and I could just go and report the incident.)

In any case, the person in the Cebu Pacific satellite office tried calling Cebu Pacific NAIA Terminal office but failed. Either he got a busy tone or just a ringing, unanswered phone on the other end. To reach the Manila people, the person sent an email instead. And we were told to just wait for their call within the day.

After an hour of not hearing from them, my husband called the satellite office for some lead. Nothing, and no word from the Manila office as to the whereabouts of our luggage even. Another hour after, we called again. Still no word. So we asked for the Manila number, thinking that we could get through. What were we thinking? Of course, we didn’t get through neither.

This time, I asked my husband’s niece, who was still here in Manila waiting for their early evening flight to Iloilo that day, to call Cebu Pacific about our lost luggage. She said that the person she was able to talk to told her that the report has already been reported. And no info about the luggage yet.

At 4PM, we got a call from the Cebu Pacific satellite office in the Iloilo Airport, telling us that our luggage reached Cebu. They would send us the luggage through their Cebu-Iloilo flight the following day. My husband didn’t buy the arrangement, as there were other flights that could take the luggage to Iloilo on that same day (Besides, we needed our clothes and other stuff for the 95th birthday celebration of my mother-in-law at 10AM the following day).

Two hours after, we got a call my call from Cebu Pacific satellite office again telling me that our luggage was already in their office and was ready for pick up. I called my husband, who was in his way to the airport to meet his brother, nieces, and nephews.

When he picked up the luggage at the Cebu Pacific satellite office, only the guard handed it to him, profuse with apologies. No staff talked to him, nor did anyone seek him out to give a formal apology. He wanted to talk to some personnel but the guard said no one was available.

What do you think? Is this a kind of all’s-well-that-ends-well scenario?

It can be. But what I can’t understand is the slow dessimination of information, the seemingly inefficient way of handling a situation like this.

It’s ironic. With all the modern technology we have—the telephones, mobile phones, emails, Internet—yet it took about 9 hours total to locate our lost luggage and hand it back to us. It was not even delivered to our doorstep, and we were not even given something to assuage our tension and frustration.

Yes, it’s time everyone flies, but not this way. I tell you, this is not the kind of experience I want to get every time I fly.

Related story:
Random Photos of NAIA Terminal 3

*Photo credit

First, the office is no longer the Cebu Pacific Air Palanca (in Makati) office. What does it mean? It’s just now an outlet, the counterlady explained. And being “just an outlet,” they charge per customer a Php150 for a transaction. They call it “service fee.” If I didn’t want to pay the service fee, I should go to Cebu Pacific office in Robinson’s Galleria. Hmm… but that’s more than a kilometer and three MRT stations away!

Now my questions: so, where are the Cebu Pacific offices that won’t charge me any service fees? In the whole of Metro Manila, there is only one, which is in Robinson’s Galleria? Or maybe we can count those in the Manila Domestic Airport office and the NAIA Terminal 3 as “official” offices, too. They have Book-and-Buy promo, which requires a customer to go to their offices to avail themselves of it. The least that the company can do is to have many accessible offices or have an internal arrangement with their outlets. Also, what I know about an outlet is that it is a shop that is one of many owned by a particular company and that sells the goods which the company has produced. So, these outlets are not owned by Cebu Pacific but by other private persons?

Second, about a couple of months ago, they’ve stopped accepting credit card payments. They have a printed announcement on their counter. I don’t think this is customer-friendly at all. In fact, a Korean woman was shocked to find out that day, that she couldn’t pay through her credit card.

Third, a customer has an option to avail himself of their Go Light promo and get Php200 off your fare. If upon check in, the customer actually checks in a luggage, he has to pay Php300. I salute them for thinking of this promo, but why make the fee higher when a customer suddently decides to check a baggage. Is this another form of service fee? Do we really have to pay for service?

Fourth, they cannot do rebookings of same-day flights over the phone. So, I overheard the ladycounters telling a foreigner guy to go to the (Cebu Pacific office in) airport to rebook his ticket. Poor guy! I hope he didn’t miss his Hongkong flight. In this age of modern technology, why couldn’t they do rebookings of same-day flights over the phone or whichever way?

Let this be a guide to all Cebu Pacific customers who opt to go to the outlets. Also, always go to their offices, outlets or not, as early as the office opens. It’s easier and faster to transact business that way.

Related posts:
What’s Customer Service Like in the Airline Industry (Part 1)
What’s Customer Service Like in the Airline Industry? (Part 2)
Customers Pay Charges When Booking with Cebu Pacific Call Centers
Cebu Pacific Air’s Guest Service Manager Emails
Don’t Stint on your Customer Service
Consumer Watch: Customer Service at Airports
Consumer Watch: Cebu Pacific Air

I’ve written about the policies of airlines when it comes to crediting miles and rebooking fees. I feel that these policies have not been thought out well by some airlines.

Today, I read on Seattle’s edition of Business Journal about a survey of American airlines and their improved on-time performance.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s latest survey of 19 U.S. airlines, the average on-time performance was 75.7 percent in July, led, surprisingly, by Pinnacle Airlines of Memphis, Tenn., at 85.6 percent. Normally, Hawaiian Airlines leads the on-time performance list, but in July, the Honolulu-based carrier fell to second at 83.6 percent. Alaska Airlines (improved to 79.9 percent in July, up from 77.8 percent in June) was No. 6 on the list and Comair was No. 19, at 63.3 percent.

Read more…

This is an interesting survey! I wanted to do one for the local airlines. Meanwhile, I Plurked and Twitted this question: Which among our local airlines has the most number of on-time flights? I phrased the question that way because I knew many of the flights here were delayed or even canceled.

Those who replied couldn’t say which airline because flights (local flights at least) of all major three airlines (PAL, Air Philippines, Cebu Pacific) are often delayed. Only one surmised that for him it would be PAL because for the past five years that he had been flying with PAL, he didn’t experience any delays. One was sure that Cebu Pacific wouldn’t be that airline.

I searched the Net for information along this line, and found ProTraveller article, 10 Of The Most Unreliable Airlines You Do Not Want To Fly With. Cebu Pacific was on number 8.

It’s a sad sad reality. I hope that local airlines will try to do their best to improve their service.

Related stories:
What’s Customer Service Like in the Airline Industry (Part 1)
Customer Experience with Cebu Pacific
PAL, Serving Captured Customers
Customer Service at Seair

Is this true?

Last night, my niece was telling me that if I would book a Cebu Pacific Air flight through the phone, I’d be charged with Php40.

This I have yet to find out. But is this fair? Even if Cebu Pacific’s hotline is improved (it has been known to be difficult to get through), a Php40 charge for flight booking is still ridiculous!

If this were true, I wonder why CebuPac woud do something like this? Are they encouraging customer to go to their cramped offices to get their tickets? Or are they discouraging customers from flying with them at all?

But whatever happens to customer service? Do customers now need to pay for service?

Tell me, please, this isn’t so.

More Cebu Pacific posts.

If you’re following this blog, I’m sure you’ve read about my customer service experience with Cebu Pacific. In that post, I told them not to stint on their customer service. I emailed my blogpost to Mr. Boo Chanco, a popular opinion writer of Philippine Star.

In seconds, Mr. Chanco emailed back and said that he would forward my link to Cebu Pacific, and the latter will get in touch with me directly.

True enough, two days after, I got an email from their Guest Service Manager, Mr. Noel Bulanan. Here’s the email-reply:

Dear Ms. Ybanez-Delid,

Greeting from Cebu Pacific!

This is in response to the post you made in your blog coursed through Mr. Chanco dated 06 May 2008. Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused when you visited one of our ticketing offices.

We appreciate your feedback on our services and we looked into the items you’ve raised. The air conditioners are working and we are looking at adding another unit to cope with the growing requirement at the ticket office. We are also in the process of manning more counters to speed up the queue processing. Lastly while the itinerary issued serves as an official receipt, we’ve reminded our Cashiers that should the guest ask for an O.R., we shall issue this to the guest.

We value your comments. Please be assured that we will continue to institute changes when necessary and improve on the service we provide to every guest in every point of contact with them.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

Noel S. Bulanan
Manager, Guest Service

I appreciate this reply. I am grateful to Mr. Chanco, too. I’m sure my invoking Mr. Chanco’s help has a lot to do with CebuPac’s immediate response to my concern.

But somehow, I can’t have the printed itinerary (ticket) serving as official receipt. I’ll have to check again that itinerary and see if it has all the elements of an official receipt such as VAT Registration Tin Number or a TIN number or a BIR Permit Number.