Wednesday, May 11, 2011

American Airlines awards MBIA for improved customer service


Grenada Among Five of American’s “Customer Cup” Airport Winners
FORT WORTH, Texas, May 11, 2011 – American Eagle employees at Maurice Bishop International Airport (GND) celebrated a customer service victory this week as American Airlines announced the top five airports to be honored for improved customer experience and innovative problem solving for the first quarter of 2011. The program is called the “Customer Cup,” and the winners are announced each quarter.
“We created the Customer Cup to build competition between airport station teams who are focused on improving processes, products and interactions to deliver a better customer experience,” said Mark Mitchell, American’s Managing Director – Customer Experience. “A good customer experience is the foundation for building customer loyalty, and we recognize five stations each quarter that make measurable improvements in enhancing the travel experience for our customers.”
Customer Cups are categorized and awarded by market size from largest to smallest stations according to flight activity. The award recognizes stations for their performance in serving customers at the airport across six primary customer touch points, including gate interactions, the boarding experience, delays and delay management, onboard interactions, baggage handling and baggage resolution. GND was awarded the Customer Cup for improving internal customer satisfaction ratings in a number of key areas including timely and accurate gate information delivery, in which the station improved seven points quarter over quarter. Other winners this quarter include Paris-Charles De Gaulle Airport (CDG), Montréal-Trudeau Airport (YUL), Norfolk International Airport (ORF) and Miami International Airport (MIA).
The American Eagle team in Grenada credits its improved customer experience metrics to taking a proactive approach with ticket and gate agents. The station reviews potential situations that could be problematic for customers and by reviewing how they should be handled, employees are prepared to best assist customers when needed. The team also focuses on baggage handling and employs additional baggage training at the local level to follow up with employees on responsibilities including monitoring tracers to find where baggage problems occurred and using correct procedures to update customers on baggage delays.
“Winning the Customer Cup shows that our customers recognize our hard work to improve the customer experience here in Grenada,” said Gillian Thompson, American Eagle’s General Manager – Grenada. “We have focused on making improvements and the Cup gives our employees motivation to continue looking for ways to better our service for customers.”
The Customer Cup is part of a broader focus the airline has put toward improving the experience for its customers. With more than 250 employee teams across the network, the airline encourages all employees to bring forward ideas and solutions to improve the travel experience. With stations competing for the Customer Cup honor quarterly, employees who contribute earn network bragging rights and a party in their honor for working hard to improve the airline’s customer service rankings.
“Given the challenges the industry faces, the Cup is a great way to recognize the accomplishments of our employees,” Mitchell added. “It’s through their dedication and ingenuity we can deliver exceptional travel experiences for our customers.”
About American Airlines
American Airlines, American Eagle and AmericanConnection® serve 250 cities in 50 countries with, on average, more than 3,600 daily flights. The combined network fleet numbers more than 900 aircraft. American's award-winning website, AA.com®, provides users with easy access to check and book fares, plus personalized news, information and travel offers. American Airlines is a founding member of the oneworld® Alliance, which brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business, enabling them to offer their customers more services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own. Together, its members serve approximately 900 destinations with more than 9,000 daily flights to 145 countries and territories. American Airlines, Inc. and American Eagle Airlines, Inc. are subsidiaries of AMR Corporation. AmericanAirlines, American Eagle, AmericanConnection, AA.com, and AAdvantage are trademarks of American Airlines, Inc. (NYSE: AMR).

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