Impact of Customer Service
Customer satisfaction is a priority for all
service-oriented industries. This includes the civil aviation industry. In the
competitive global aviation arena, airlines can rank high in customer service.
Customer service is the key to every business and ultimately determines the
organization's total profit and sales. As with other industries, airlines and
airports should work to improve service quality. Airport infrastructure is the
first and last point that tourists encounter while traveling to the country
(Asım Kaan Karahasan, 2020.p.31). Therefore, services at the airport should be
provided efficiently and effectively to minimize travel time and allow
passengers to spend time shopping. It should be noted that many airlines are
provided by airports, airport operators or ground handling companies before and
after the flight. Therefore, the emergence of the airport, its comfort, the use
of the latest technology, security and the opportunities it offers are
extremely important (Küçükonal & Korur, 2009, p. 71).
When evaluating customer service, we should not
consider contacting a customer service employee only by phone or e-mail.
Customer service is a very broad subject and not just a process that provides
pre-sales, after-sales services and other services such as location and time
(Asım Kaan Karahasan, 2020.p.31). At the same time, it is a very comprehensive
process that does not have direct relations with the customers, but also
includes the downward relationship until it reaches the end consumers and the
upward relations with suppliers and suppliers.
In the airline industry, the marginal benefits of
marketing strategies are gradually decreasing, as most airlines act in a
similar way. Many airlines have already seen this decline in the benefits of
marketing strategies and now focus on improving the quality of customer
service. Airlines offer a variety of services to customers such as booking
tickets, ticket purchase, ground handling at the airport, ticket purchase,
boarding, on-site service. The airline also includes assistance such as lost
baggage, passenger service in case of delayed flights. In all these services, a
quality understanding emerges depending on whether it meets customer
expectations. Service quality leading to customer satisfaction is a result of
comparing product performance with user expectations (Asım Kaan Karahasan,
2020.p.31). It is difficult to define the concept of service quality in airline
services and to measure service quality, because abstraction instead of
monotony can be seen as the need for consumption in the place of production,
not in the warehouse.
Services differ from specific products in terms of
their features, and customers are more concerned with their experience in
production and service consumption rather than the results they get when
evaluating service quality. Since the people involved in the production stage
of the physical property or the sources of production are not visible to the
customers, the fact that the personnel assigned to the production stage of this
product is impolite, polite, helpful or vice versa. However, since it is
provided in the service process, each service moment emerges as a result of a
series of meetings and becomes important to the customer (Asım Kaan Karahasan,
2020.p.32). The customer encounters a service job worker through various
physical or telephone calls. Therefore, a service employee is extremely
important to the customer. These meetings are called “service encounter or
service meeting” in the marketing literature.
During the meetings, the service understanding of the
customer is revealed. There may be many situations in these meetings that
satisfy the customer or create dissatisfaction. Especially in the aviation
industry, the service offered at every moment of the flight and even after the
flight, starting from the pre-flight period, represents the overall perception
of the customer as a whole. These moments, where numerous interactions between
customer and service personnel have been experienced, have passed into the
literature as a new concept by Richard Norman in the literature as “critical
moments / real moments / moments of reality”. Every moment of these moments of
reality in the aviation industry is valuable to passengers and these moments do
not repeat. (Asım Kaan Karahasan, 2020.p.33).
Therefore, the best management is critical to providing quality service.
If a business makes a difference in these real moments and ensures customer
satisfaction, it can surpass its competitors. The airline business and the
airline industry operate in a wide range, and the airline industry competes
with or replaces many competing airlines. Institutions should monitor the
client to achieve higher satisfaction in service delivery; at every stage, this
process continues from the expectations they have to the beginning of the
service experience to the estimates when the service ends. In addition, it is
important that every member of the organization can fully understand the needs
and requirements of the customer to ensure customer satisfaction (Karaca, 2011:
69).
Experience has shown that organizations that prevent
service interruptions are more successful than organizations that focus on
improving service after interruptions. Getting it right the first time is
critical to the organization's success. This is much better than an
organization that prevents errors and tries to fix them before they occur.
Customer preferences should be carefully evaluated in airlines and passenger
services. IBM recognized the importance of this problem in 2001 and determined
its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategy by proposing an approach to
selecting and prioritizing customer service to be offered to its passengers.
This indicates that CRM has been used by some airlines since the early 2000s.
(Berry et al., 2002: 89). The goal of customer service in airlines is to create
a difference in the market by creating customer satisfaction and satisfaction.
Another reason why customer satisfaction and satisfaction is so important in
airlines is the similarity of the benefits of airline marketing strategies, as
mentioned in the example above, and that they lost their advantages due to this
similarity. Three elements of airline marketing; There is no significant
difference between the enterprises in the sector in terms of price,
distribution and product / service factors. Since airline operations are the
same for these three factors, they try to change the promotions and personal
sales that stand out from their competitors. However, due to the abstract
nature of the services, promotion is also difficult. As it is seen, service
quality continues to be one of the factors affecting the activities of airlines
and customer satisfaction and satisfaction, which can be spread by using word
of mouth marketing technique, is also important. Because satisfied customers
will convey their satisfaction to other customers (Yıldırım, 2015: 341).
The two main forces driving the strategy in the
aviation industry are; security and customer service. People do not want to
travel with an airline, where they do not feel safe. This is very important for
the safety of flights and aviation companies. A safe and reliable airline
attracts customers. Also, customer service is very important, especially in
modern conditions and for today's customers. There is great competition between
airlines and even airports, each of which wants to attract more passengers. In
this case, the quality of customer service is very important when drawing
passengers (Korkmaz et al., 2015: 249). It is difficult to change anything, as
airlines have similar marketing elements (price, distribution and service). As
a result of the research, in order to gain competitive advantage and increase
customer satisfaction; Reliability, good service, experience and flexibility,
advantages and compliance, safety and quality, comfort and diversity are used.
Under these five main topics listed below, airlines carry out research aimed at
improving the quality of service for their passengers (Okumuş & Asil, 2007:
155):
Reliability and Good Service: Transfer to the airport,
quality of airport services, reliability, low accident rate, large fleet and
young and well-maintained fleet, taking care of customers' interests,
responding quickly to customer requests.
Expertise and Flexibility: Timely landing, departure,
expert staff, ease of communication, full service delivery as specified,
clearly notifying the time of service delivery and providing it at the
specified time.
Advantage and Suitability: Comprehensive transportation
network, availability during flight and prices, satisfactory solution to
customer problems, willingness to help customers.
Comfort and Diversity: The variety of time to spend
(newspapers, magazines, video, personal waiting room, etc.), various food and
drinks, the comfort and cleanliness of the aircraft, the convenience of flight
times for passengers.
Safety and Quality: Flight safety, attitude and
behavior of the cabin crew, food and beverage quality offered, flight
information.
All the above-mentioned features are very important
for airline companies and if this information is taken into consideration, the
satisfaction of the customers benefiting from the services will increase.
According to Faison Nkimbe Siben's " How customer
satisfaction can be achieved through customer services: The case of Turkish
Airlines corporation" study; we see that services that were of great
importance to the Turkish Airlines customer were onboard services like
comfortability of seats, onboard hostesses approach towards them, food, games,
newness of planes while airport services that were of importance to them was
effectiveness of check in process and baggage handling. To a greater extent, we
saw a significant level of satisfaction not dissatisfaction from the customers.
This shows the Airlines service quality is good.(Faison Nkimbe
Siben,2017,p.124)
BerryL., Carbone L., Haeckel S., (2002). Managing the Total
Customer Experience, MIT Sloan Management Review, c. 43, P. 89.