Customer Service - The Richard Branson Way Questions

The 17 Customer Service Guiding Principles below were once handed out to every employee at Virgin Atlantic, and were apparently direct from the pen Richard Branson himself. They could be applied to any business. (For ‘airline’ substitute ‘company’ for ‘passenger’ substitute ‘customer.’)

1. We must meet the passenger (customer) on his or her terms. They are individuals and require different things.

2. Mistakes are inevitable; dissatisfied customers are not.

3. As a rule we should be friendly and informal but always taking account of what the individual wants.

4. Other airline (company’s) staff are hindered by rules. We should give ours guidelines and encourage them to solve a customer’s problem.

5. The first person to encounter a customer’s problem is the best person to deal with it.

6. The only way to make our staff trustworthy is to trust them. We must begin to trust people to use their judgement to resolve problems whilst being mindful of any costs to the Company.

7. Our staff should be happy, cheerful, smiling, friendly and enjoying their job. It is a Manager's job to motivate the staff and create this atmosphere. Their role is to support their people in doing their best for the passenger. Money is not the answer, good leadership is.

8. We must give our staff responsibility and authority. Responsibility is the obligation to act, not just accept the blame. Authority is the resources to deal with the situation.

9. We want our staff to bring their personalities to work and put them into their job. Bring individuality, freshness and care to their work.

10. We need our staff to be comfortable with the exceptions, to think outside the framework and do what is right for the Passenger, not just "the job".

11. We want our staff to anticipate a Passenger's problem. Think beyond the immediate; recognise the implications of their actions.

12. The only purpose in having front line positions is to ensure customer’s experience service excellence. Otherwise why not use machines?

13. We have two competitive advantages - product and service. We invest money and time in keeping our product different, fun, interesting and high quality. We must now invest in the same way for our service.

14. We must communicate with our staff. If we change things we must tell them and tell them why.

15. We must listen to what our staff have to say and act on it. If we can't do it we must say why not.

16. We must improve in line with our culture, not at the expense of it.

17. We must never design what we do by assuming the worst in people.

SOURCE: From ‘Once a Customer always a Customer’ by Chris Daffy.

 

 

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