Or so you’d think.
I’ve flown British Airways for over 20 years in business (that’s a business trip, not always a Business ticket), and today I found myself needing a flight for next week. But in booking on-line at ba.com, I had a question regarding my flight that the website couldn’t answer, so I called BA on the telephone.
After navigating my way through the push-button options for a minute or so, I braced myself for being on-hold for a while. Instead, I was simply told that “we’re experiencing an extremely high number of calls” and told to call back later or go (back) to the website. Not asked, but told. Because after being informed of the situation, the line simply hung up. BA had finished with me.
As a customer experience designer, my professional antennae starts twitching:
“They need to fix their call centre resource levelling capability” it tells me, and “there’s changes needed in the IVR routing and recording loops.”
But what does it say to ANY regular customer just interested in flying with British Airways, let alone a regular traveller ? In short, that BA processes are more important than passengers are, and BA will explore your needs only when it’s convenient for them.
Last year, British Airways profits fell from £883m profit in the previous year to a £401m loss. In turn, the share price has collapsed from a high of 550p in 2007 to 206p at the time of writing.
Clearly, investors are going elsewhere, having lost confidence in BA’s ability to attract, retain and grow customers profitably. And when an airline gets to the point of hanging up on its own customers’ inquiries, its passengers will quickly follow suit…..
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