Synopsis
When travelling abroad, people will always have trouble finding their seats on the plane and struggling to store their baggages at the top. There is a lack of interaction between air stewardess and their passengers. Air stewardess only put on a smile, greeting and welcoming passengers at the entrance.
It also seemed that the services of some airlines are dropping standards. Passengers may also have difficulties locating their seats since most of them will be unfamiliar with the airplane seats and passengers especially children will have trouble storing their baggages at the top.
Research
The roles and responsibilities of an air stewardess can come out to a long list – from giving safety briefing before take off to ensuring that all passengers are in good health. They are also trained in providing first aid and dealing with a wide variety of emergencies.
Air stewardess, also known as a flight attendant first came about in 1912. Up till now, despite the many roles they have to carry, it is almost impossible to find an air stewardess helping passengers with their baggages and assisting them to their seats.
I came across this online blog post showing customers’ reviews of plane services:
“SIA used to be a brilliant airline with customer service second to none, had high expectations for my flight Singapore to UK, but flight attendants hardly noticed that you were there; never mind a friendly smile, there was virtually no interaction.” – 4 September 2012 by R Reay (UK)
“Hong Kong – Singapore, return flight last week. Check-in in Hong Kong was fast and smooth. On both legs, service onboard was not very good, most of the crew were not smiling. Food was terrible both from HK and from Singapore. Check in for the return flight was not smooth. Staff could barely speak English and were not polite. Based on this flight I will think twice before taking Singapore Airlines.” – 20 February 2013 by P Wong (China)
All these reviews have shown that airline services are declining and most of them barely put on a smile. Passengers also feel that there were not much of interactions.
An online article shows how an American Airlines’ gate agent (cabin crew), Ms Heberer goes the extra mile to take care of passengers: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443931404577548900154205444.html
In another separate article written by one of Ms Heberer’s passengers, mentioned how Ms Heberer had gone the extra mile for him and how important airline services are.
I believe we have all known what is the main issue here – services. Paying so much for an air ticket and spending hours travelling onboard, it is inevitable to expect a good service to accompany you througout the journey.
Besides stationing at the entrance, smiling and greeting passengers, air stewardess should have more action and communication with them. There is a need to let passengers feel that air stewardess are not just there welcoming them on board but also at their best giving their full service.
To further improve the services of an airline, more interaction between the air stewardess and the passengers need to be involved. To let passengers have a more enjoyable journey on board, air stewardess should go the extra mile to help passengers locate their seats and offer to help to store their baggages at the top.
Presenting blue print for plane service
I first started with coming out with a list of services that people want/expect from the airlines and what are the procedures/steps a passenger will take from making a reservation of flight tickets to the landing of their final destination.
These procedures/steps are also known as the touchpoints, where passengers interact with the airlines company. I came across some websites showing their example of blueprint and saw the ‘Backstage’ and ‘Supporting processes’. I thought it was rather a good idea to include these headings since we are talking about services here and I believe every touchpoint, even the ones unseen/invisible are important and they all play a part in good services.
For example, if the registration system (invisible) has got a technical problem while checking in for a passenger, it would definitely hold the passenger up and might delay time which will eventually affect the services itself.
References
- How a blue print looks like
- Cabin crew
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_attendant - Customers reviews
http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/sia_1g.htm - Ms Heberer
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443931404577548900154205444.html - Scotts McCartney
http://blogs.wsj.com/middleseat/2012/07/26/one-gate-agent-shows-how-good-and-bad-airline-customer-service-can-be/
Serea's works 