SAA Response to Complaint
I received an email today from Robyn Chalmers, SAA Head of Corporate Communications. (My original is below her response).
Please leave a comment and tell me what you think!
Dear Henk
Thank you very much for writing to me relating your experience at OR Tambo International Airport (ORTIA), I really appreciate it.
Travel can at the best of times be a stressful experience and please accept my sincere apologies for this unfortunate incident and for your treatment which was completely unacceptable.
We understand how upsetting such treatment can be and for this reason we are embarking on a fresh drive to improve our customer service. We are starting at the top and recently ran a workshop with managers in the airline who pinpointed the crucial areas within the airline where we speedily need corrective action.
ACSA, the owners of the airport, took a decision about three years ago that ORTIA would be a "silent airport", where no announcements will be made. When we have a delay ACSA then activates the system and SAA can use the PA system within a specific framework. For us to function to our full capacity we depend on service providers such as ACSA, which is also responsible for listing flights on the display boards. These boards may have malfunctioned on the day in question.
I would like to thank you for your loyalty to SAA and hope that you will remain a loyal SAA customer.
Should there be any other way we can be of further assistance to you, please do not hesitate to contact me. We can also facilitate any Voyager requests, should you wish us to do so.
Kind Regards
Robyn Chalmers
From: Henk Kleynhans
[mailto:henk@skyrove.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
12:42 AM
To: Robyn
Chalmers
Subject: Please help with
addressing an unfortunate and unnecessary SAA experience
Dear Robyn,
I write to you directly after a journalist friend suggested I speak to you and as I think my experience with SAA today might be symptomatic of an underlying problem that could easily be solved, thus preventing further harm to your clients.
I am a fervent supporter of SAA, am a Voyager card holder and recently received a Voyager Credit Card as well. (Getting through to Voyager's Call Centre for support is a different matter for a different day...)
This evening, April 1st, I was scheduled to fly with Flight SA369 at 8pm.
I had had a long day in Johannesburg, but managed to get to the airport early, and promptly checked in and cleared security just before 18:30.
I found a location to sit where I could both keep my laptop charged as well as see the information screens and clearly hear any announcements. (There is very limited seating at Gate C10 and no place I could see to plug in a laptop, even if I were to sit on the ground)
The boarding time was scheduled to be at 19:30. However, when there were still no announcements on the screen and no boarding calls for the flight by19:45, I went to find out why the flight was delayed and how much longer it would take, in order to make arrangements for my arrival in Cape Town.
However, I discovered to my amazement that the airplane door had just been closed! According to the girl at the desk, this was because all 75 passengers were on board.
I asked her why there were no boarding announcements. And she matter-of-factly said it wasn't necessary and that I should check my boarding pass.
I told her that I sat in front of the info screen since 18:30 and looked out for the boarding announcement.
She then said something about it being ACSA's fault. (She was wearing an SAA uniform).
I then asked her who was responsible for making boarding calls, but she refused to answer this question. (Why is this?)
She said that she could take me to her supervisor, and kindly walked with me me to the check-in counters to explain to her supervisor. At this time I was extremely distressed at the possibility of having to stay the night in Johannesburg and being away from my wife for another day.
While we were walking she told me that it was policy to only make boarding announcements when flights were delayed.
She told me that I would have to pay extra to upgrade my flight. I said that I am not happy about this and that I would contact SAA and asked her for her name, which she refused to give to me. I find this surprizing if indeed protocol was followed.
I explained my situation to the supervisor, who rudely admonished me for not standing at the exact boarding gate (C10) at 19:30 and furthermore told me that SAA hasn't been making boarding calls for the last 3 years! She sent me to the reservations desk where I had to pay an upgrade fee. (I paid approximately R2300 for the original return flight)
Is this really true then? Does SAA simply not bother to update the information screens? Shouldn't there then be a notice in large text on the screens to say that the information for SAA flights cannot be trusted? Is this perhaps the reason I often sit on an airplane to be told some customers didn't pitch after checking in and that their luggage would have to be offloaded?
I am not so upset about the R345.00 that SAA has charged me to "upgrade" my flight, although, to my mind, this is really done in bad faith.
What I am really upset about is the entirely unnecessary inconvenience caused.
And although I really looked forward to seeing Althea, my wife, this evening, I am saddened that she had to stay up much later than she is used to, to pick me up from the airport. She currently works as an Occupational Therapist at a tertiary hospital in Cape Town and on top of that is doing her Masters in Disability Studies. It should be SAA's mission to bring people together as quickly as possible, whether for business meetings or to rejoin loved ones.
I have been a staunch and continued supporter of South African Airways. But tonight I felt mistreated and disrespected by your staff. I am incredulous at your policy of not informing passengers through the info screens placed all around the terminals. What is their purpose then?
I would love to see SAA turning a bad experience into a good and long lasting relationship. (It managed this once before, though unfortunately only after many hours of phone calls.)
In 2006 the company I founded, Skyrove, received the Technology Top 100 award for the Most Promising Emerging Enterprise. (You may have seen our logo at the airport information screens as it was flashed at airports around South Africa). And although we're still a small company, we have since then tripled our number of employees and our executive directors fly on a frequent basis, and always with SAA.
I look forward to your reply.
Yours faithfully,
Henk
p.s. Skyrove recently got good exposure because of its efforts of actively engaging its community (the Web 2.0 word for customers). Please have a look here: http://www.mikestopforth.com
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: SAA Response to Complaint.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://geekrebel.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/31
Alas, it would seem that you've hit the nail on the head, your experience was symptomatic of of an underlying problem, SAA offers poor customer service. It always saddens me to see a company alienate loyal customers in this way.
Unfortunately, the only solution I know of is to vote with your feet and choose another company. :(
What a pathetic reply!
Blah blah, we trying to improve, blah blah, traveling sucks, blah blah.
No mention of offering you ANY form of compensation, a piss poor apology - did not even attempt to apologise on the behalf of their pathetic and untrained staff that "helped" you that evening. Doesn't even look like Robyn is going to follow up with these staff members or management, or even tell them about you - another unhappy customer.
Also, how is it possible that all the passengers were on board? You had a ticket, but you weren't on board?
Hmmm, second one in a very short space of time... see http://muti.co.za/comments?sbid=18123
This is all very much worrying with 2010 approaching rapidly, as mentioned by Neville. That reply sounds so "generic" its scary.
Yeah that sounds like a copy and paste reply to me. Which probably makes it even worse!
At least Kauia gave me a voucher for a free smoothie when they destroyed my confidence in them. It's hanging on my wall as a reminder of what they did!
However, just like you'll probably continue using SAA, I still go to Kauia (especially since I got the buy one get one free SMS smoothie offer from Mark yesterday).
But everytime I buy, I still remember why they aren't as brilliant as I use to think they were...
I always feel that when a business, like SAA, goes wrong in its service delivery it's a chance for them to turn you (the angry customer) into an evangelist.
But instead they do what the textbook suggests and schedule another time wasting meeting. I guarantee you that that meeting they scheduled for all the managers will accomplish very little.
They should rather take that time to talk to the people dealing with the actual issues - the customer facing staff. They're the people SAA should talk to when trying to uncover what "doesn't work" - or what do customers complain about the most. Most customer are not like you Henk, most don't even bother to complain. They just move off to another airline and tell anyone who'll listen about their horrendous SAA experiences.
Maybe managers should have to spend at least a certain number of hours a week working the jobs their staff do? Perhaps then they'd start to understand where the real issues are?
The biggest problem with following policy so rigidly is that the people who institute policies are often so far removed from the reality of the situation. This means that situationally redundant policies are not only implemented but enforced.
I long for the day when airlines empower their staff. When they realise that each problematic situation is in fact unique and actually requires some thought, human interaction and empathy.
Sounds like ACSA are the real pigs in this story. Some muppet in their management obviously does not understand how important the display system becomes when you make it a silent airport.
People complain about JHB airport and most of the local airlines all the time, maybe the problem is not so much the airlines but the airport.
Imagine how despondent the SAA staff must be if they often have to disappoint customers like you because of ACSA.
Hi Henk,
You can regard yourself as being honoured to have received feedback from SAA - I have submitted a query to the customer service e-mail addresses as well as Voyager on 31 March 2008, and followed up with e-mails - up to now (they have read it) - no response. Makes you feel helpless and the contact centres are no help either!
*yawn*
fly kulula / use citi-hopper to get from the airport.
i prefer to spend my money with a company that is
1. profitable
2. makes me feel safe
3. provides a service useful to me
SAA is a loss making white elephant that the govt. bails out every few years.
Nice Site!
http://excellent-credit-card.blogspot.com