Customer Satisfaction

I recently mentioned that I had flown on Virgin America for the first time. The experience was much better than what you typically experience on the other domestic airlines. If I had been asked to do a customer satisfaction study, I would have given them a high score. I would have also given them a high recommendation score. Both of these are a marketers and operations dream.

But why was my experience so positive? Sure they have some new toys like the interactive display at each seat, plexiglas dividers instead of curtains, and interesting mood lighting in shades of mauve and violet blue. And I give them extra points for using earth friendly method products in the lavatory. But it is a far cry from the glory days of flying. It is still a fairly stripped down experience.

The difference was the people working at Virgin America. They were happy. They smiled. They had fun. They sincerely liked their jobs! Now United has hired someone away from Disney to help improve the customer experience, but it hasn’t worked. Every United employee I encounter seems stressed and grumpy. This got me to thinking – what is the correlation between satisfied employees and satisfied customers. I think it is huge.

Customer satisfaction studies are big business. They typically measure employee related attributes such as being friendly, attentive and knowledgeable. But I recommend adding one more dimension – happy employees.