Monopoly Products Have High Quality Service Responsibility
I am writing this entry from my very expensive business class seat somewhere over the international dateline between Los Angeles and Melbourne. I tried to use Qantas’ award winning entertainment system and it didn’t work. The staff rebooted the system a few times and politely told me how this happens all the time and that they have complained to management etc … The problem was this is not the first time it has happened to me – in fact I would say that the system doesn’t work on about 50% of the flights I take.
As I didn’t have much else I could do, I got to thinking about what responsibilities to its customers a business has if it has a near monopoly position.
Qantas is a great example of a business with a near monopoly position on the Australia – USA routes. Your choices on the route are limited to Qantas, United Airlines and if you don’t mind going via New Zealand, Air New Zealand. Given the frightful quality of United Airlines and the desire to go non-stop between the two countries, you are really don’t have any choice except for Qantas.
Now Qantas charges their customers up to $14,000 for a business class seat. This is a hefty price to pay given a seat in Economy is probably costing around $3,000. So what is the expectation of someone paying four to five times the cost of an economy seat? You want the legroom and the ability to lie down, access to power in the seat so you can work if needed and entertainment to keep you amused. Everything else is secondary in justifying the massive price difference. The business class food is just not that good!
The area that Qantas seems to fall down is in its entertainment system. Qantas touts its award winning entertainment system as giving the view a massive selection of films and TV shows to watch. The problem is that it doesn’t work all the time. In fact, I think the cabin crew have become experts at rebooting the system and placating disappointed customers. I have accumulated a range of duty free vouchers and bottles of wine as an apology for the system not working.
As Qantas has a virtual monopoly on the route I think it has an obligation to go above and beyond in the delivery of its service to its customers. While it could be argued that they can get away with average service in Economy, the business and first class traveller expects and deserves more. How hard can it be to identify what is important to these customer segments and to make sure that these important things are delivered faultlessly. For me, I am more interested in being entertained for 14 hours rather than the next greatest Neil Perry dish.
In addition to making sure that the customer service is delivered faultlessly, it is important that when things go wrong (as they will), the employees are trained to handle the situation properly. More often than not, when I raise the entertainment system issue with Qantas the cabin crew initially apologies (great) and then lay blame with management. Well from a customer’s perspective, I don’t care. What I do care about is the experience I am having now and the impact that is having on my overall product experience.
Offering me duty free vouchers and bottles of wine doesn’t always make the experience better. It ameliorates the problem at the time however there is still a bad taste left in my mouth after the complete experience.
I am flying Qantas again from Australia back to the US in a couple of weeks and am hoping for a better experience – we will see! I look forward to some more competition on the route with the launch of Virgin Pacific in February. Perhaps this will shake the complacent Qantas from its customer service slumber.
As a post script … they lost my bags!!!
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Reminds me of the time RealEsate.com.au didn’t deliver emails to agents for several weeks and then tried to down play it.
The entertainment system has been a problem for years. I remember flying with the kids in business to Bali years ago – and the flight engineer crawling around under the seats with a spanner, and then rebooting the system for the whole 747 (and thus sending everyone’s movies around the plane back to the beginning) so my kids could watch the Nickleodeon channel we’d promised them as a way of getting through the long haul. Some dirty looks cast our way from the economy seats.
And enough said about Qantas domestic inflight tv screens dangling from the ceiling. Even if they work, the programming is awful. Airlines should stick to flying aeroplanes, not trying to be tv program producers. Apparently, in between the endless commercials, promos and countless renditions of ‘We still call Australia home’, there’s the occasional minute of content.
Hi
Interesting point. I can learn a few things from this…
1) Business class seems to be worth it for the enhanced legroom, for me at least, as I’m tall and large. Thanks mum and dad for making me so tall, my flight seat costs 14k dollars! How nice.
2) If you want to be sure you have entertainment, take your own. An iPhone or iPod loaded up with the latest movies or series, won’t crash. Hey, it’s an Apple!
3) Simon, you misunderstood the fact they give you free bottles of wine. They’re not for you to take home, but to drink in the plane, so you get dizzy and forget about the entertainment system worries. No movies? Get drunk!
4) Idem for the vouchers. The are for you to offer to the cabin crew and invite them for dinner at the destination.
Anyway, business class should have power plugs, free wifi Internet access, telephone conference built-in, and an ugly assistant at your service so that you can work without being disturbed.
If you want to watch movies, have drinks, and chat with the pretty stewardesses, you should fly “entertainment class”.