Customers’ Survey of British Airways

In conformity with the customer survey question 12, 59% travelers of British Airways are pleased with the services of it and 20% were dissatisfied. And, it is found in the answer of customer survey question 16, 59% became satisfied with service of BA’s employees and 12% employees became dissatisfied with their service. By examining the customer survey question 7, 30% flyers believed that they are satisfied owing to the gorgeous gifts given by the firm. And, 20% flyers dislike the delay in check inline.  If we look into the customers survey questions 7 the questionnaire, about 30% have belief that various rewards from BA are reason for their satisfaction where 20% choose less waiting time in the check in queue,((( 18% selected Seat selection before departure, 10% selected Carrying Extra Bags, 10% less service delay, and 12% selected priority boarding.))) Then, BA’s managers consent to the manager interview question 6(((((( those managers of British airways are agreeing with this result by the manager interview questions 06, that facilities like reducing check in and boarding waiting time, fast and first class check in, seat selection before departure, improving service quality, giving rewards to the customers, priority boarding, reducing service delay are helping British airways to satisfy their passengers. )))))))By examining manager interview question 7, every manager agrees that loyalty reward program is making satisfied their flyers.  

By being satisfied by the BA service, the customers are frequent and loyal to the firm. By surveying manager interview question 8 it is clear that 70% of manager said customers satisfied by BA services are loyal to the company. Where from the customer survey question 14 it is found that around 42% of customers are loyal to BA as they are satisfied by BA. In customer survey question 11, 59% of respondents agreed that they are travelling through British airways as they are happy with their services where 26% opposed with that view.  So, customer satisfaction is necessary for BA to attract passengers. By being satisfied by BA’s reward programs, flyers have the most possibility to fly on British Airways airline repeatedly and in this way, they become frequent flyer of BA. And, it will become easy for BA to inspire the frequent flyers to be enlisted in the Executive Club card. Besides, only these frequent flyers have the possibility to be loyal to BA when the cost is higher for travel. Contented users are loyal and on the contrary, discontented users are disloyal and they go to another seller. So customer satisfaction is regarded as the main step for customer loyalty. This supports the idea of Cheng et al. (2008); Heskett and Sasser (2010); Story and Hess (2006); Donio et al. (2006); Heskett et al. (2007); Faullant et al. (2008); McDougall and Levesque (2000); Eggert and Ulaga (2002); Story and Hess (2006); Terblanche (2006); McQuilken (2005); Chi and Qu (2008); Olorunniwo  et  al. (2006); Dimitriades (2006); Mcllroy and Barnett (2000); Egan (2000); Bennett &  Rundle-Thiele (2004) etc. about customer satisfaction and customer loyalty explained in the literature review. However, in spite of 59% flyers’ being satisfied by the better services of BA in accordance with the answer of customer survey question 12, only 42% flyers become loyal to BA according to the answer of customer survey question 14. The calculation is that 17% contented flyers are not loyal to BA. So, it seems appropriate to write down that customer contentment has association with customer loyalty. And, all contented flyers are not always loyal. On the other hand, customer is needed for the firm to make the customers loyal but optional. This harmonizes the theory of McQuilken (2005) that despite the association between purchaser contentment and purchaser devotion, sometimes contented consumers are disloyal.

With the support of Customer survey question 13 it is clear that 64% of satisfied customers are not only loyal to British Airways but also negotiator who inspires others to fly his/her flying airline to the firm. They advertise his/her relatives about the better facilities of BA along with its Executive Club card. This supports the theory of Geeet al. (2008), Woodruff & Gardial (2009), Eggert and Ulaga (2002) and Parahoo (2006) discussed in second chapter. By being the member of BA’s Executive Club card, the contented passengers return to the airline willingly for flight. In this way, the link between customer and firm become stronger.

                                                                  

By surveying customer survey question 5, it seems clear that the fact that 44% customers are the Executive Club card holder which effects on the purchasing decision of 58% of the customers. (Customer survey question number 9 proves it). During answering the manager interview question 04, 90% mangers said that Executive Club card is helping British Airways to measure customer choice.  Where all of the managers stated that, reward card helps British Airways a lot to satisfy the unhappy customers by identifying their problems. Therefore from this research it is clear that, Loyalty card helps a firms to fully understand which facilities are liked by them, which services are dislike by them, which customers are profitable, which should be abandoned, which have untapped potential, which to keep, and which are worthwhile to acquire. This goes with; the concert of Galbreth and Rogers (2004); Dowling et al (2003); Butscher (2004) that loyalty card can weigh up the choice of passengers and figuring out the discontented passengers.

Considering manager interview question 5 and customer survey question 10 it seems evident that 48% passengers prefer BA for its Executive Club card. Where 56% of passengers are loyal to BA because of both their Executive club card and quality services (Customer survey question number 15 proves it). This finding ropes the concept of Keh and Lee (2006) that devotion program are designed to boost loyalty.

Facilities through Executive club card like seat selection at booking time, priority check in and boarding, hiring of car, 100% dividend Avios on each British Airways travel, hotel residing, utilization of BA’s top class and other oneworld top class check-in desks, booking and service charge independence on incentive journeys, are helping BA draw and enlist the new passengers, and make them loyal to it (Manager Interview question 13 and 16 are evidence of it). This harmonizes with the study of Yi & Jeon (2003); Demoulina and Zidda (2008); Sunny Hu et al. (2010); Sondoh et al. (2007); Martisiute et al. (2010); Keh and Lee (2006); Demoulina and Zidda (2008) discussed in second chapter that cardholders happiness with the program leads to brand loyalty and program constancy.

In the customer survey question 19 and 20, the answer of BA’s customers about the Executive Club card is given. The question number 19 is “Are you satisfied with Executive Club Card’s current schemes and benefits‟. 51% of customers replied in the affirmative and 39% customers replied in the negative. The question number 20 is “are there any other facilities to be added with the Club Card‟, 70% customers replied in the affirmative and added that it is substantive for BA to augment its business partners issuing the Club Card points in different fields such as Retailing, Travel and Motoring, Home and Garden, Money and Finance, Health and Fitness and Entertainment. So, it becomes clear that British Airways should pay attention to modernize Executive Club card program. Modernization of Executive club card will impress more customers effectively and help the firm keep it customers loyal for a long time.