Passenger Disruptions Happen, But It’s How Your Team Responds that Makes a Difference
Every airline faces flight delays, and cancellations are nothing new. At times, they’re inevitable – during severe weather, crew shortages, or technical difficulties. Regardless of the cause, these disruptions can negatively impact the passenger experience and hinder customer loyalty.
Flight disruptions are part of life when you fly the friendly skies. But this doesn’t have to have a devastating impact on you and your passengers. Your customer service representatives hold the power to transform a stressful situation into an accommodating, streamlined solution that keeps customers coming back for future flights, and differentiates you from the competition.
The industry is expanding
As the airline market continues to expand with growing demand for business and leisure travel, estimated to reach $744 billion by 2026, it’s critical for airline operators to position themselves for success. Ultimately, success depends upon an airline’s ability to support and retain customers.
An expanding market means more people in and out of airports each day. A larger number of customers means more responsibility for airline customer service representatives and passenger-facing crew members, so it’s imperative these teams understand the value of exceptional customer service, especially during passenger disruption.
Great customer service leads to better outcomes overall
Regardless of industry, customer service is a critical aspect to closing deals, making sales and promoting customer loyalty. But less than half of Americans are in a travel loyalty program.
When passengers experience flight disruptions, this may evoke strong emotions they will take to the customer service teams – sadness, anxiety and even anger. Customer service teams must approach these situations appropriately to address the situation and ensure the customer feels heard and understood. The majority of airline passengers expect customer service to include a steady flow of key communication.
Ensure your customer service teams exude qualities like patience, empathy and the ability to work efficiently under pressure. Additionally, provide them with resources to better serve customers in the event of disruption. Handling a disruption event properly can help convert one-time customers to loyal passengers.
How tech can strengthen your teams
Beyond allowing cross-team collaboration across the globe and the ability to communicate with team members at a moment’s notice, airline technology is advancing to support the passenger experience.
TA Connections offers the TA Disruption Hub, an all-in-one self-service solution for passengers to manage flight rebooking, coordinate lodging, and schedule transportation as needed. Equipping passengers with these tools and customer service teams with the ability to guide passengers through this resource allows customer service teams to spend more of their time listening and responding to the passengers’ needs rather than completing manual processes.
And when passengers feel heard, helped and in-control of the changes in their flight schedules, the passenger experience remains a success.
TA Connections is here to help
TA Connections is committed to transforming the airline industry by offering comprehensive solutions to enhance operations. We’re at the ready to support you, your crews and your passengers.
Enable operational success with our portfolio of solutions that fit your business.