Customer Service Management Strategies for British Airways Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of customer service management within British Airways, a major player in the travel and tourism industry. It begins by identifying the types of customers BA attracts, differentiating between business and economy class, and detailing their distinct needs. The report then explores the five key needs of each customer type, emphasizing safety, design, functionality, price, and performance for business class, and price, options, information, transparency, and experience for economy class. Furthermore, it delves into the major techniques BA can employ to assess customer service effectiveness, including explanation, empathy, name memorization, and listening techniques. Finally, the report outlines guidelines for customer service executives, covering 'do's' and 'don'ts' across various aspects of customer interaction, and concludes with a discussion on customer expectations encompassing service, price, quality, and appreciation.

Customer Service Management
for Travel and Tourism

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Description the types of customers that a company attracts..................................................1
P2 Determine the FIVE needs of each type of customers and explanation about their
contribution in British airways....................................................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P3 Major techniques of British Airways that can use to analyse the effectiveness of customer
service.........................................................................................................................................4
P4 Justification the use and importance of a quality system that can be implemented in British
Airways to enhance customer service.........................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
P5 As the future customer service executive there is a short action guidelines to cover each of
the major skills of customer service at British airways. ‘do’s’ or ‘don’ts’ would include in
checklists for each of the following topics:.................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Tourism is travel for leisure, business purpose and recreational. Tourists can be
defined as people who travel and stay outside places their common surroundings for more than
24 hours and not for long time. Tourists can be termed as those individual who travel arround
various places for a stipulated period of time. Tourism is a very well-known thing in human life.
It is a wide concept which supports economic and social growth in an effective manner. Tourism
is a worldwide experienced phenomenal growth and it is a world's largest industry with higher
revenue of about trillion dollars in a year. In this present report, British Airways has been chosen
as an organization, it is the biggest international airline of the UK. It has basically categorised its
airways into business and economic class to provide services to the high and middle class
people(Gu and Ye, 2014). Their headquarters is located in London which provide best services to
its customers in an attractive way. Apart from this, types of customers and their needs will also
be identifying. Major techniques of this company will be analyse the effectiveness of customer
services. lastly 'do 's' or 'don 'ts' will be identified in a effective way. It will also discuss about
the customer service executive guidelines for future.
TASK 1
P1 Description the types of customers that a company attracts
In order to satisfy customer needs and requirements, the firm must understand its internal
or external situation including the customer and environments of the market. Therefore, British
airways has their customer analysis which are given below:
As a full service of airline BA's customers are the first priorities, there are two types of
customers first one is business class and other is economy class. Their requirement is very
different as market become more competitive and power of spending money is maximises, the
balance of power is shifting from demand or supply in order to giving the consumers the upper
hand. Business and luxury travellers who honestly pay high price in flight get better quality of
services in an effective way. In the case of business class, customers consider a particular city
and instant departure and modern communication and entertainment facilities. This types of
customer are the key source of revenue. In the case of economy class, customer focuses on the
good environment, safe flights and check in proper time (Zhou and et. al, 2014). In the present
time demand of customer increases in related to good flight, various technologies and good
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network because customer become environmental conscious. Therefore, services of each
segment is very different according the customers wants and need in the regards of research and
development in a positive manner.
In the context of BA'S, company provides different types of services to its customers..
Company faces lot of problems during this such as 531 million pounds loss in the revenue
because lack of study of international market, relationship of employees and so on ( Chathoth,
and et. al, 2014). Herein, an effective strategy is only the chance to overcome these problems
instantly. The strategies of this company focuses on the innovation in customer relationship,
technological accessories, employee’s relationship, safety and security and so on.
Business Class Economy Class
It is a travel class which is available on BA's
and so many airlines. In the airline industry in
this class, customer get highest services like
high quality of food, drinks and lot of services.
In the economy class people have advantages
as they can get their flight travel at lower price
with few facilities like food and beverages.
Business classes is very different from other
classes because this type of class commonly
denoted 'j' 'c' with scheduled flexibility of time.
Mostly people prefer economy class in airline
because their prices are low as compare to the
business class. In the context of BA's this
airline provide good facility to its economy
types of customers in order make good relation
with them in a effective manner.
Therefore, both types of customers are attracted from the British airways, as they provide
better quality of facilities and services in an effective way. Due to these services customers are
highly attracted in the regards of good environment in airport, instant departure, different
communication style and so on (Rahimi and Kozak, 2017).
There are two types of customers, which are given below:
Internal customers: Internal customer's can be anyone within the business enterprise,
who are always independent on anyone in an organisation. This type of customers also can be
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situational customers, or they may be dependent on one person or particular person inside the
firm. In regards with British Airways have internal customers because this types of customers
directly connected with the organisation in an effective manner. British Airways always fulfil the
customer's demand and requirement according to their wish so that internal customers always
directly connect with them. For example: An internal customers can be someone in the
department of payroll within the organisation.
External customers: It is someone who mainly signs a pays, checks or lastly create
possibilities of pay checks. External customers most probably have choice to select their
desirable services in an effective manner. In regards with British Airways, they have several type
of environment in airport like shopping mall, food and beverages and lot of facility so that
customer can easily attract towards their facilities. That's why external customers are necessary
for every firm in order to maximise productivity of firm. For example: it can be any purchasers
like employers, insurance companies and health plans.
P2 Determine the FIVE needs of each type of customers and explanation about their contribution
in British airways
A customer value is analysed as a business or the marketing statement that described why
would a customer buy a product and services that they wish to use. It has been focused on
targeted customers other than the consisting groups like stakeholders, workers and suppliers.
Customer value proposition is designed for the convince their self to one specific product or
services which will add more value. There are five needs of each type of customers, which are
as following under:
Needs of business class customers
Safety and security: In this, business class customers’ needs full security in the flight.
This importance follows the management system for the security with all relevant rules and
regulation that focuses on customers in an effective manner. According to this British airways
operates and manages the system in order to ensures that all incidents are reported before they
occur than important action been taken British airways include various attributes for the
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business class people which is defined below (Sigala, 2014). Therefore, it is needed for
customers.
Design: In the business class, customers’ needs a good design of seats in flight with high
comfortability. Design changes customer mind and also motivate them towards British airways
travel.
Functionality: In this type of business class, customers requires each and every function
should be performed in a manageable way which they need in order to solve their problems and
desire in an effective manner.
Price: In this, customers have unique budget so they need to expand their money on
special services like mini LED screen in front of their chair and so on.
Performance: In the case of business class, customers need fair performance in the form
of food services and so on from the British airways as they are paying high.
Needs of economy class customers
Price: In the term of pricing services customers of economy class need to pay low
amount as compare to the business class.
Option: In this, customer of economy class needs lot of option when they are getting
ready to make a purchase from British airways. They need various varieties of food product in
flight with affordable price.
Information: Economy customer needs lot of information, from the starting point to the
ending at airport. Therefore, they need to communicate with staff members and successfully
need to used that information in a effective manner.
Transparency: In this, economy class, customers expect transparency from the British
airways in order to maintain good relationship with them. In this company, customer deserves
openness at airport as they give money to the company.
Experience: In the context of economy type, customers need to take good experience in
order to prefer British airways all time.
If all needs and requirement of customers are fullfilledfulfilled by the British airways than it
will make good contribution to their customers.. Ascustomers economy customers needs good
services from this company at affordable price. Whereas, business class customers have higher
requirement in the flight and help them to achieve their organizational success. They basically
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diversify their services based on the service availing power of the customers which not only
benefit them but also the company to distinguish the service based on customer requirement
(Choi And et. al, 2014). Therefore, it is necessary for British airways to maintain their customers
wants in a perfect way in order to gain their contribution towards them.
Expectations of customers :
Service: In present world every customer want to gain better services from companies. In
regards with British airways they provide better services to their customer in order to gain profit
within in the company. There are several services like boarding on time, tickets availability and
so on.
Price: The price shows the financial reward in order to provide better condition of goods
and services for their customer.
Quality: It is the type of description or measurement of the overall activity of a British
Airways like computer, telephony, computer services and various performances which is look by
the customers at that time.
Appreciation: It is based on the customer experience because if company will provide all
better quality of services than customers automatically will appreciate the firm in an effective
manner.
TASK 22
P3 Major techniques of British Airways that can use to analyse the effectiveness of customer
service
There are some major techniques of British airways that can be use to identify the
effectiveness of customer services. Some of them are given below:
Explanation techniques: Explaining is an important part for British airways which is
used to identify the effective customer service. According to this, company explain their all
function in a structured form and provide their offers to its customers in an effective manner.
Empathy techniques: It is an ability to understand what another person is experiencing
in the airport. Showing empathy in customer service is very essential just because it shows the
customer that company care.
Name memorization techniques: In this technique, British airways use some different
tools which make good impression on the people in a effective way. According to this,
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memorization is a tool which used to analyse the customer efficiency with remembering their
name by unique machine, so that customer can attract.
Listening techniques: It is most usable technique which influence customers in a British
airways that make other people feel important. Careful listening is one of the most important
faster tool which helps the customers at airport in order to listen announcements correctly
(Wang, So, and Sparks, 2017). There are some listening techniques, which are given below:
Body language- In this, company focuses on all customers, where they check the
customer body language, posture which affect the effectiveness of customers. In this, British
airways focus on each of their customers body language in order to satisfy them in best effective
manner.
Listening indicators- It shows the ability of customers and it is important in a real time
conversation in which customers and other person do not see each other like mobile, live chat
and so on. .
Questioning techniques: At the present time, every customers uses a combination of
various questioning techniques without thought. According to this, British airways commonly
follow this technique for making the purpose of customer effectiveness. This technique includes
in:
Open ended question- These are unstructured question in which possible answer are not
suggested, and answers depends upon the respondent words. This types of question usually start
with how, when, where, what and why.
Closed question- These type of question focused on answers like “yes or no” they are
very important useful to clarify or confirm something.
Leading questions- These are mainly lead the customers for a definite direction.
Probing questions- These are questions to gain more and more detail about the new
situation, and they are important for troubleshooting.
Clarifying questions- It is frequently worthy to control a discussion towards a question
about definitions. According to this, in the context of company, it clarify all the query to their
customers.
From the above major technique it has been analysed that British airways follows various
techniques that can be used to define the customer effectiveness in a perfect way. These
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techniques are very important in order to provide good services to its customers and these
techniques helps the customer for better understanding of British airways and how this company
cope up with other interferences in a travel and tourism (Egger, Gula and Walcher, 2014).
Advantages:
 These techniques will increase motivation of employees in an effective manner.
 This kind of techniques also enhance the customer's skills or their satisfaction towards
British Airways.
 It is also very helpful for rise in profit that what kind of services customer gain so that in
this company is responsible to provide better quality of services and also can maximize
the profit.
Disadvantages:
 For customers timing is everything on the basis of an organisation live chat ot real time
future risk infuriating consumers with delayed responses.
 Damage control that determine the poor response from a uneducated online customer
services, so B.A should kept well trained employees.
 Lack of personal touch that shoes less personal rather than the human voice because in
today's everything is based on the phone or mobile so that customers mainly based on the
chats or email and this impacts on their personality in a negative manner.
P4 Use and importance of a quality system that can be implemented in British Airways to
enhance customer service
Quality system: It is the overall aggregate of the organizational activities, plans, policies,
incentives, procedures, resources, processes, responsibilities and the infrastructure which all are
required in developing and implementing a total quality management approach. In the context of
British airways quality system is very important approach because it is a market leader in the
United Kingdom. This method is to assure the quality of product and services have developed
regularly in accordance with the frequent changes in technological and socio cultural factors.
This is the national airline of UK. It carries lot of passengers, cargo and various letters from
Heathrow and London city airports. This company has expended their network in more than 500
destinations by joint business agreement with American airlines and one world alliance
members. There is importance of quality system within the British airways which are given
below:
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 Quality is a crucial part of British airways when it comes in to the form of any product or
services. During the high competition in various flight, quality has become the market
differentiator for all services given by this industry. Quality control is also an essential
part of any firm which decreases the waste and operates productivity at higher level.
Therefore, all manufacturers and service provider in airline enhance their product or their
quality of services in an effective way.
 There are lot of methods followed by British airways to achieve and maintain the needed
level of quality. In this concept some industries faith in the total quality of management
and some other trust in internal or external standards. The standards mainly explain the
process and procedure of activities of an organisation and assist to maintain the airline
quality in every aspects of functions of an organisation.
 Quality assurance is very huge concept or practice which is used to assured the quality of
products and services which is offer by British airways airlines. There are lot of
differences between quality control and assurance. In the quality assurance constant effort
is made to maximise the quality practices in industry. Therefore, regular improvements in
British airways customer's are expected good quality of functions in the industry.
 When British airways focuses on their quality than they improve their product as much as
they can so that it is known as product oriented process. When it comes in the form of
quality assurance, than it is also a product oriented process. Therefore, quality can be
explained as a proactive process, on the other side quality control can be noted as the
reactive process.
Therefore, quality system can be implemented in a British airway, and it is also very
necessary for this company. Through this system industry can improve their services for their
customers in order to provide good food items in flight, departure on time and so on. It can
influence the customers in an effective manner. By this customer are able to take all the benefits
from British airways without any issues. It is also define the various importance of quality in this
airline industry quality is very much crucial for future development and growth as compare to
the other airlines industries in a effective manner.
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TASK 3
P5 As the future customer service executive there is a short action guidelines to cover each of the
major skills of customer service at British airways. ‘do’s’ or ‘don’ts’ would include in
checklists for each of the following topics:
 Handling customer complaints
 Dealing with a difficult customer
 Effective communication over the telephone
 Principles of letter writing when corresponding with customers queries
 Listening skills
Customer service executive plays a vital role in the industry and they are very much
needed to answer each query from customers for several reasons like answer inquiries, resolve
complaints and provide better information. Customers service executive can be hired by ITes
company for airline industry or a business purpose.
There are some importance of customers service executive which is given below:
Handling customer complaints: Customer services required to answer all the query in a
right time with right information in an effective way importance of a quality system ay.h correct
information. In this Customer service executive is responsible for offering the good services in
British airways.
Do 's' Don 'ts'
Listen complaint in a good way Try to argue with customers
Use complaints as an opportunities to
change
Beat customers over the head with industry
policies.
Customer care services take responsibilities in
order to handle all problems of clients in an
effective manner.
Don't be indifferent because it is very harmful
for customer service it breaks the with
customers on a daily basis.
Should always respect their customers Never ignored customer's feedback because
customer's are the most important part of
British Airways that gives any kind of
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suggestions or expect better services from
company.
Dealing with a difficult customer: Customer may always right but it does not mean
all customers are to deal with in this situation. In this customer service executive deal with
difficult customer like customers argument and so on. Finding and techniques will helpful
approach for customer service executive in order to deal with customers in a effective way.
Do 's' Don 'ts'
Listen properly Do not interrupt
Provide relevant information on the company's
websites in an right manner.
Never expect FAQ's because angry customer
can decrease the value of company as they
influenced other people.
Accept all responsibilities it will helps in
making the better relationship with customers.
Don't let difficult customers abuse company's
staff.
Have an easy access to the support system in
order to utilize effective tools that provide
instant support for difficult customers.
Company never send their customers on a
phone chain.
Effective communication over the telephone: Customer service executive need clarity
of speech, as knowing the what they want to convey and willingness to engage with good
listening skills.
Do 's' Don 'ts'
Always gives identification. Do not call a customer before time.
Always listen the caller's request in an
effective manner.
Don't speak too much loudly or softly as well.
Should always speak clearly in an appropriate
way.
Never leave the caller on hold it can create the
issues for a long period of time.
Always ask to place the caller on hold so that Never answer the phone calls casually that also
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customer executive should ask permission first
and then work properly.
makes issues in the business.
Principles of letter writing when corresponding with customers queries: In this customer
service executives uses plain or simple language in order to make good letter-writing with the
various queries of customers.
Do 's' Don 'ts'
Find a quite place to find. Forget the date on letter.
Letter should be in formal or too be short. Ignore basics spelling, words, grammars so on.
Address all the answers in a specific manner. Never indulge in a long synopsis of stories.
Always use simple or easy language in an
effective manner.
Never confused in sales tools with the sales
pitch.
Listening skills: In this, customer service executive face the speaker and maintain the
eye contact with in the British airways industry.
Do 's' Don 'ts'
Focus on the speaker. Judge mentally.
Always maintain eye contact in a right manner. Never interrupt
Manage emotions. Never use multitasker approach during the
conversation.
Limited talks. Never show the signs of impatience.
CONCLUSION
As per the above report it has been concluded that travel and tourism is a very important
part of every industry which provide better services for every customer in an effective way. In
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the context of organisation, British Airways has been chosen as an industry which is a largest
airline industry of UK. Different types of customers are discussed along with this FIVE needs of
each type of customers and explanation about their contribution in British airways. British
airways at last importance of a quality system has been identified with the customer service
executives importance in British airways. .
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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data. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 38, pp.1-10.
Chathoth, P. K. and et. al., 2014. Barriers affecting organisational adoption of higher order
customer engagement in tourism service interactions. Tourism Management, 42, pp.181-
193.
Rahimi, R. and Kozak, M., 2017. Impact of customer relationship management on customer
satisfaction: The case of a budget hotel chain. Journal of Travel & Tourism
Marketing, 34(1), pp.40-51.
Sigala, M., 2014. Customer involvement in sustainable supply chain management: a research
framework and implications in tourism. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 55(1), pp.76-88.
Choi, C. H. And et. al., 2014. Testing the stressor–strain–outcome model of customer-related
social stressors in predicting emotional exhaustion, customer orientation and service
recovery performance. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 36, pp.272-
285.
Wang, Y., So, K. K. F. and Sparks, B. A., 2017. Technology readiness and customer satisfaction
with travel technologies: A cross-country investigation. Journal of Travel
Research, 56(5), pp.563-577.
Egger, R., Gula, I. and Walcher, D., 2014. Open tourism. Open innovation, crowdsourcing and
collaborative consumption challenging the tourism industry.
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