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Is airline customer service getting better or worse?
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Two of the USA's major customer service studies seem to be telling us completely different stories.
In May, the University of Michigan released their ACSI customer satisfaction 2009 Q1 scores for the airline industry. And they looked positive. Positively surprising to be honest. They showed the US airline industry as a whole increased their customer satisfaction scores more than any other industry group in the study. And two of the airlines, Continental and Delta, have big increases. Both increased their customer satisfaction scores by over 9% from the previous year.
But now we hear something different from J.D. Power and Associates. They released the 2009 results of their annual North America Airline Satisfaction Study. And they show the airline industry as a whole dropping in customer satisfaction scores. In fact they say it's the lowest in four years.
So we have a conflict. One says up. The other says down.
But these two well-respected studies do agree, for the most part, on how the airlines rank in customer satisfaction. Over the last fours years, both studies show Continental Airlines has dominated customer satisfaction among the USA's largest carriers. And they have also ranked the bottom carriers with some consistency. From 2007 to 2009, United, US Airways and NWA have been the bottom dwellers on the big US airlines.
Both US Airways and Delta showed big gains in the ACSI scores. But they both had fallen to the basement in 2008, posting the lowest two scores that year. Without those two nose dives from 2007 to 2008, the industry average for 2008 would have been higher making the change from 2008 to 2009 less. So maybe the two studies are not far apart after all.
My personal experience aligns with these rankings. I have found Continental to consistently deliver top customer service. While US Airways and NWA have never thrilled me with theirs. And I do see a trend toward better service. Recently I wrote about some changes at NWA that suggest they are taking customer experience more seriously. But looking at these rankings it could just be that Delta's acquisition of NWA is showing through. Delta CEO Richard Anderson is on record as saying they are committed to providing better customer service. I have never heard a CEO from NWA say anything like that.
The lesson here is to watch the trends from year to year in studies like these. And I believe the ranking of companies in these studies is more important than their actual scores. It's also important to view these results in the context of your own experience, if it's relevant.
With air travel declining this year, and probably next year too, airlines will have to do better than ever to keep their customers loyal. This might be what makes or breaks an airline over the next few years.
I'd like to know what you think. Is airline customer service getting better or worse? Which airline is your favorite for best customer service?
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