Eric W. said at the MEC meeting that Mesaba ranked last in customer service across all fleets. I'll take that as being factual.

 

There's performance numbers (Bags, D-Zero, etc) and there are DCI Customer Satisfaction Surveys.

Maybe those surveys are where XJ is trailing.

 

Contrary to belief, I think cabin crew can only do so much, I haven't seen a whole lot of bad apples as far as FA's most are very nice and professional...I think it is an issue with aircraft cleanliness and ground crews. I've deadheaded or nonreved on a lot of DCI carriers and I don't see any definitive difference in service, but a lot cleaner airplanes. We have dedicated cleaners at XJ(RHS) but in a tight turn(30-40 minutes) things tend to get the cold shoulder. You would be amazed at what slobs people are, especially coming out of DTW or MEM. The biggest thing I've noticed is on the red tailed 900's people drawing with their pen on the back of the seats which are bright grey, so it stands out...pretty hard to get off.

As far as ground crews, it's more of a wider problem, ever since Regional Elite was instated things have gone downhill fast. The RHS people don't answer to XJ management anymore for an XJ plane not being serviced...it gets passed down the tube. When I first started at XJ, MSP A/C were met with a full ground service crew, now it is normal to wait 5 minutes before they come out of the hole (which is very convenient for tight connections). These days it usually takes 1-3 calls to OPS get someone out there to park us. Pluging in the ground power takes at least another 5 after parked...and it's not just a hub problem it's across the board, I've had the same problem everywhere i go that has RHS...especially DSM!

If only every station could be like SLC...the Delta folks do a good job over there

 

+1. I agree completely. I'd like to customer survey on each category of aircraft XJ and all other DCI operates. I've been on Pinnacle, Compass, SkyWest and Comair CRJ200s, CRJ7s and it is hard for me to believe Mesaba would be trailing behind them on customer service.

 

I agree 100%. At any case, let's stop posting on this useless thread. This ridiculous bankruptcy rumor was put to rest. Mesa being confused with Mesaba by few clueless DAL employees. This is how rumor starts and shows what a waste of time it is spending any time on it. Employees are the last ones to find out about what airline management is up to.

 

I think the customer service ranking are complete BS. First, it doesn't take "I heard from someone in Eagan" to get the facts. They're published each quarter and they're all over the place. So, the facts are available to all employees. Second, the devil is in the details.

If you actually read the full report and not just the one posted on the weekly update (which is just a repeat every week of the previous quarters results) you can extrapolate lots of info from these statistics.

- Look at the number surveyed. They base these numbers on about 30-50 surveys. Seriously? You're going to tell me that our entire airlines customer service ranking is based on less than 100 people? In a quarter? Riiiight.

- Look at the things we're ranked by. How can the results vary wildly between airlines when all DCI carriers have the same product. The only thing we control are the people and how they deliver the product. And in all my years of flying at XJ I've run across maybe 5 FAs that have no business being FAs. In general, we have great FAs flying at XJ.

- Appearance? Well, that goes without saying. When you have little or no uniform policing of a uniform designed in the 90s... what does one expect? That blame goes to inflight and their tightly held purse strings.

The bottom line is that these quarterly statistics are not based on enough information. They only tell a certain story and are certainly skewed. Do we have room for improvement? ABSOLUTELY. But everyone does.

At XJ we need to improve most on having a clean cabin and clean exterior. Next we need to have better tools to compensate the customer when things go wrong and that is dictated by DL. Inflight needs to spend more time on training. Perhaps their 3 weeks should be extended to 4 and have a whole week on customer service. While we have friendly FAs, they could be more equipped with better customer service training/tools. Pilots as well, should receive a little bit of training in customer service. We may not be the face of the airline, but we're certainly apart of the experience. Those are the things we can control. The rest, is up to the other entities we deal with on a daily basis... including DL. Operational performance... we rank consistently very high, but we can always be better.

As for Ch11 for XJ there's always a possibility, but I call BS on this "rumor" also.

 

So you don't like the numbers that Delta is looking at so you are just going to discount them? If the numbers for the latest year have been published please post a link, I'd like to see them.

 

Dude... did you even read my post? No, I don't like where we've been ranked, but look at HOW we're being ranked. If these numbers were based on 1,000 surveys a month or 100 a day or something substantial, I would put more merit on these statistics. But 30-50 people in a 3 month time, is not an accurate portrayal of our performance as an airline. Surveys and polls must always be taken with a grain of salt.

These numbers are posted where all the inflight memos are posted, near all the pilot stuff. I think they've even had the survey results distributed to each FA, so they end up floating around the crew rooms. Read my post further... I outline areas that perhaps we can indeed improve.

Oh... also, 2010 has been targeted as "The Year of the Customer" by Delta in an effort to improve customer service systemwide. Hence, the push by XJ, so help DL improve in all areas. So... it's not just an XJ problem.