Virgin America's Customer Experience Flies on the Wings of its Employees
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is known for his mantra that Starbucks is not in the coffee business, but instead is in the customer business serving coffee. Similarly, during his keynote presentation at the Forrester Research Customer Experience Forum 2009, Virgin America CEO and President David Cush said, "We're in a customer service business, not a moving airplanes around business."
Cush also noted, however, that the airline needs to strike a balance between customer needs and corporate needs. "We're in business to serve our customers, but also to give return to our investors," he explained. With that balance in mind, the company works to generate the revenue levels common among the legacy carriers while keeping the costs to levels associated with start-up carriers. Its approach is to decommoditize domestic air travel. "Our goal is to put the fun and romance back in travel."
With its heavy focus on the customer experience, Virgin America works to keep costs down in areas that don't directly impact customer experience or satisfaction. "We try to make every contact a pleasurable one from the customer experience," Cush said. "As soon as you walk on that airplane you know you're in for something different."
Cush cited the airline's emphasis on design and style, as well as on in-flight entertainment. The planes have "mood" lighting and crisp, white interiors. Every seat has a 9-inch screen, qwerty keyboard, and electric outlet; there's WiFi on every plane.
The airline is also building a community with its customers. "Advances in technology give us unprecedented opportunity to connect with customers," Cush said. Along with its online presence in such social networks as Twitter, the airline gathers real-time customer feedback via the seat-back monitors. Cush himself has received messages from guests (the airline doesn't use the term passengers) via the onboard WiFi.
Most important to the Virgin America customer experience, though, is its staff, Cush said. "Thing we're most focused on is teammates, and making sure we've got the right people delivering the experience," he said. The airline concentrates on finding and training people who take pride in delivering great service rather than having a job seen as demeaning.
Additionally, the airline provides customer service training for everyone in the organization. The training includes problem solving, customer scenarios, and conflict resolution between teams and with customers. "Everyone has a responsibility to the customer and can impact the customer experience," Cush said, adding that the HR staff ensures that all new employees understand the value of customer experience.
Management also ensures that employees understand their value to the organization. "How do we create a good work environment for teammates so they can create a great customer experience?" Cush asked. "Keep teammates engaged and keep enthusiasm high. Make sure they know they're most important part of this."
The strategy works. According to Cush, 75 percent of customers surveyed say that staff personality "is better than or much better than I expected."
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