Since February, when American Airlines created a stand-alone customer service division, it has announced a wide variety of product enhancements and passenger-friendly policies. Airlines editor Robert Silk spoke with chief customer officer Heather Garboden about American's new direction and whether it can catch up to Delta and United.
Heather Garboden
Q: Describe the mission of American's new customer service division.
A: My team is advocating on behalf of the customer, and we're taking an entire look at the customer journey from A to Z and figuring out: Where do we have room for improvement, what do we need to do differently and how do we need to think about things differently. That is a huge thing to tackle, but it's comprehensive.
Q: Did American look at the products that Delta and United are offering and decide that you needed to move in that direction?
A: It's not necessarily saying, "What are Delta and United doing." A lot of the premium amenities that are out there today, we were certainly a leader of them. The premium Flagship lounges, we started ours over a decade ago. But I do think that when we look at our customer feedback and sentiment, we have an opportunity, and so we want to be best in class. That's not where we're at right now, and so we're laser focused on improving it.
Q: You've made a big array of announcements since February. Some are substantial, like plans to upgrade Miami lounges and offer free WiFi practically fleetwide to AAdvantage members beginning in January. But you've also announced smaller items, like tea service. How does your team go about determining the changes you are making?
A: WiFi was really important to us. We view that as something that is basically table stakes now for customers. You have to provide complimentary WiFi. The food and beverage enhancements we've made: We enhanced our snack basket for first class; we expanded our buy-onboard programs for main cabin. We've done a bunch of what I call quick hits, but when it comes to food and beverage, we're stepping back and saying, holistically, what do we want this program to be? And I think that takes a little bit of time. There's also simple things like policy changes that require very little effort but have a really big customer impact. A couple examples of that are: We used to take the headphones back before the flight ended, waking customers up. That's something that we realized, hey, we need to stop doing this. We also required you to be an AAdvantage member if you were flying same-day standby. It just didn't make sense.
Q: What other announcements might be coming?
A: Our lounge strategy overall, especially our premium lounges. We're taking a look at that and focusing on areas where we feel very space constrained. But for sure one of the really important things is the technology and the digital tools that we have for our customers and team members. We launched a new mobile app in May, and we need to build on that. We need better communication. When your flight is delayed, we need to be able to communicate it earlier than we do today and provide passengers with some idea as to why it is being delayed and what's going on.
Q: Can you catch Delta and United from a customer experience perspective?
A: Definitely. Our goal is to be an industry leader in this. Customer experience is something that is not an overnight change. But we really are focused on delivering for our customers. And of course, we're always aware of what our competitors are doing and how we're performing versus them, whether it be financially or operationally or in customer experience. So the goal in all of those categories is that we're first, and certainly from a customer experience perspective that is no different.