United Airlines multiple customer service failures that triggered headlines in the past year appear to be the motivation behind the airline’s new four-hour training program to help its employees learn compassion.
United Airlines has a new training program to teach compassion to customer service and other employees. (Photo courtesy United Airlines.)
The consequences of a passenger being violently dragged off a regional jet at Chicago O’Hare Airport have been far-reaching. Many airlines have changed bumping policies, several have given greater authority to gate staff, and the two police officers involved in that incident were fired.
Nor is United Airlines the only airline expanding its customer service training in the wake of that and other bad incidents.
In addition to enhanced customer service training, American Airlines has also improved its safety training. This was in response to the NTSB’s investigation of a fire on board American flight 383 on October 28, 2016. Although all 161 passengers and nine crew were evacuated and survived, the NTSB found that crew members did not follow standard procedures. One mistake contributed to a passenger’s serious injury.
The somewhat chaotic evacuation of that burning jet reinforces what aviation professionals have long known: passengers do not follow instructions very well. People dragging carry-on bags as they evacuated were caught on video. The NTSB faulted the crew for not coordinating between the flight deck and passenger cabin better.
Read more about the American Airlines changes and its response to the NTSB’s findings about Flight 383 on Paddleyourownkanoe.com.
United Airlines new program is called “core4” will include how to be more efficient — on-time departures as one measure of this — and through this program, the hope is to improve things internally as well as image externally. With the onslaught of on-board incidents that the world can see more instantaneously now because of social media, all airlines are having to step up now. More on United Airlines new customer service training is at CNBC.com.
See more general Airlines news and reviews on WBTW.
Former USA Today reporter Doug Levy lives in New York City and spends a lot of his free time searching for great food and wine. As a PR pro, he specializes in healthcare and life sciences. Doug enjoys sharing his culinary observations which you can also read on his personal blog at Food and Wine World.
