Ryanair’s Customer Service

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Table of Contents

Approach to customer service
Service delivery system
Service position
Recommendations
References

Approach to customer service

Ryanair is a low-cost airline that has a unique approach to customer service delivery. Unlike other low-cost airlines, it exploits several avenues of service delivery to minimize operational costs. The company outsourced customer service through service contracting in order to minimize the costs of service delivery.

The company exploits the fact that customers are concerned with company core products, service delivery and the company’s image. In this case, the company associates that customers’ satisfaction is relative to customers’ expectation.

For this reason, value is attached to the time, energy, money and other physical expenditures spent by customers (Bamber, 2009). In addition, the company maximizes on its product delivery service with respect to the level of expectation and satisfaction received by customers.

In most instances, customers are charged higher prices in order to access quality services. This means that extra costs may be attached to extra services provided by the airline.

Service delivery system

Ryanair has used its low cost fares to obtain a competitive advantage in the airline industry. The fares are used to lure customers that results in increased demand since they are provided with high quality services with low fares. This program reduces the levies charged on fares and sometimes offers free seats.

The one-way-pricing policy that is adopted aims at minimizing the stay requirements from travel services. Low operating costs are obtained by purchasing single type aircrafts from single manufactures (Zemke & Woods, 2009).

This reduces the costs required to train the personnel, maintain the aircrafts and purchase spare parts. Third party services are contracted to cater for aircraft handling and ticketing.

On short routes, Ryanair has utilized the point-to-point services. Its flights are made in a manner that discourages customers from booking connective flights since it does not facilitate connection flights.

It aims at minimizing the cost incurred in these flight connections in the form of transit passenger assistance and baggage transfers. The point-to-point measure is also intended to reduce the check-in times and reduce complexity. The airline uses secondary airports to evade congestions and minimize airport charges.

The short-haul flights allow the airline to offer services more frequently while minimizing on frill services (Ryans, 2008). This issue has ensured that passengers are charged for customized services need unlike the general services offered in longer flights.

The airline has resorted to an online reservation system. This means that customers are enabled to book flights on a real-time basis.

A chargeable online check-in process is scheduled for reservations made to reduce the time that is used in the actual check-ins at the airport. However, this initiative does not substitute the security checks and verification of documents before boarding (Gerson, 2008).

Service position

Ryanair’s leadership model has given the company a competitive edge within the industry. It leadership has been viewed to motivate and energize its employees. The management is outspoken and in turn has affected the transformation of its industrial image.

However, the poor company-employee relationship has always been a challenge. The airline is chiefly concerned with the customer satisfaction without much effort to satisfy its employees.

Unlike other airlines, Raynair has adopted the Schein’s functionalist view to create a feasible environment whereby employees learn to develop and adapt to the challenges in the industry.

However, the employer can tap more resources through effective service delivery in its physical setting while employees draw many benefits.

The airline’s service delivery is divergent to the organizational variables such as employee leadership, employee motivation and the supervisory relationships. It expects the employees to deliver as expected notwithstanding the level of motivation foregone.

The company does not recognize employee unions, which are vessels for representing employees’ needs. Most employees are employed on contractual terms via agencies, which in turn pay employee rewards considered low by industry standards (Davidow & Uttal, 2009).

Employees are rarely involved in the company’s decision processes, and thus, affect their performance negatively. The passengers often complain of unfriendly staffs who forego providing them with amenities they paid for due to their dissatisfaction.

This has pulled down the efforts to increase the customer satisfaction. In several views, their staffs do not follow the H.U.R.I.E.R model.

Recommendations

Despite the challenges facing the airline, Ryanair has adequate room to improve its customer service delivery. The focus on customer service delivery should be articulated with the employee development and satisfaction through the creation of sustainable flexible work environments and adequate remuneration.

They must be properly motivated for them to deal with clients in a friendlier manner. With the growing need for air travel, it can expand its routes to ensure that its customers can reach their destinations conveniently (Blanchard & Bowles, 2005).

It should also understand its customers as it rolls out new destination routes to avoid compromising on costs involved in the purchase of new aircrafts and employing new staff. The online service delivery should be complemented by the use of customer care agents.

This will assist in ensuring issues that cannot be completely solved through an online interaction with the system are addressed. For instance, the difficulties encountered by clients with the system are minimized.

References

Bamber, G. (2009). Up in the air: how airlines can improve performance by engaging their employees. Ithaca: ILR Press/Cornell University Press.

Blanchard, K. H., & Bowles, S. M. (2005). Raving fans: a revolutionary approach to customer service. New York: Morrow.

Davidow, W. H., & Uttal, B. (2009). Total customer service: the ultimate weapon. New York: Harper & Row.

Gerson, R. F. (2008). Beyond customer service (Rev. ed.). Los Altos, Calif.: Crisp Publications.

Ryans, A. B. (2008). Beating low cost competition: how premium brands can respond to cut-price rivals. Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons.

Zemke, R., & Woods, J. A. (2009). Best practices in customer service. Amherst, Mass.: HRD Press ;.

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