Empower your employees!

Today I traveled on a plane from Sydney to Melbourne. I was flying with Virgin Blue (after recently moving all our business to VB from Qantas) and I had purchased my flight for around $70. All good! But it was a pleasant surprise when, just as the seat belt sign was turned off, the hostess came up and offered to shift me and my wife up to the front to sit in two premium economy seats! I'm a gold FF these days with Virgin, and that's how I was chosen for this excellent "gift" but it struck me that this had never ever occurred on any flights that I was on with Qantas, despite being a gold (and for the last 3 years Platinum) FF. So in 10 years holding the status of either Gold or Platinum with QANTAS, the only thing they had ever done for me was refuse me upgrades (despite me saying I would pay or use points). Many of those upgrade requests were even more infuriating when I would get on the plane only to discover there were empty business class seats - but for Qantas, rules are rules. It really goes to show how great you can male a customer feel by having a truly customer focused team on the ground. But the most important point from this story is to empower you front line people to make decisions that impact positively on your customers. This was something that I learned when I was working for PeopleSoft and, in my view, was one of the main reasons peoplesoft became the huge company it did.

So well done Virgin Blue and thanks for the upgrade. I think QANTAS has a lot to learn to ensure it remains the number one Australian airline.