Another airline service has gone and done it. They’ve taken customer service one step closer to worse or beyond. Continental Airlines is the latest among the major American carriers to start charging for food during the flight. The next logical question should be: why even have food on the plane anyway?
The rapid decline in customer service from the airlines is legendary. So let me be the next person in line to pick up the stick and beat the dead rotting carcass of the horse.
Ahh.. the Golden Age of Air Travel
We can all remember the golden years of aviation. (Cue dream music.) Flight attendants were happy to welcome you aboard. Seats had some form of comfort. Food, while not top of the line, was at least served with a real fork, knife, and was not thrown at you. It was like being on a luxury liner of the skies. Then it all went down hill.
Granted, some of it is due to the internal pressures the airlines face, like union wages and increased regulation. The external pressures, like competition, terrorism, and a down economy mean the airlines have to make choices. Controlling costs is key. It is just too bad that it comes at the expense of customer service.
Yet, as customers, we complain about all the charges for what was once part of the price of a ticket. We pay for checked baggage, exit rows, additional legroom, food, and while the bathroom has not been metered – I am sure it is next. We complain, but we do nothing about it.
Now imagine if this was a department store or any other business. You’d stop purchasing services if you were nickel and dimed the way the airlines do. Can you imagine going to a restaurant and having to pay extra for napkins, seasoning, tableware, and possibly a waiter? No, but you do on the airlines.
I like travelling. I enjoy spending time with my customers and clients. There is nothing like the face-to-face interaction to learn more about their needs. Yet, with all the small costs to get out there and see them, it becomes more difficult to make it happen. A new hurdle of costs to doing business is being added to every industry.
The result is more meetings online through WebEx, GoToMeeting, and other like services. These services have tapped into the customer dissatisfaction with travelling to market their services. A yearly subscription to one of them is less than a two-day roundtrip from New York to Seattle. (That is airfare, food, hotel, and ground transportation combined.) These companies now openly advertise against travelling. If you need video there are services like Skype and Oovoo (both free) that allow you to see each other, pimples and all.
What’s the point?
The lesson here, besides a rant against the airlines, is to listen to the market. There are opportunities out there for you to fill a void and take away a customer’s discomfort and/or pain. You can compete against an entirely different industry and eat their lunch too. That is what the web services are doing to the airlines.
If you happen to be in the industry that is causing the pain, then you can win too. Take Southwest Airlines. They never had food on the airplane in the first place. So there is nothing to be lost there. They point out the fact that all the other airlines – their direct competitors – will start to charge for toilet paper pretty soon. The Southwest experience is always fun, unlike their competitors.
Which brings us back to the beginning of this post. Why have the food on there anyway? The cost to load it, store it, and fly it across country does not go down. Continental will barely make enough money to cover the costs during each flight. They’d be better off if they eliminated food completely. It would take one cost hurdle out of the way.
If you were in Continental’s shoes what would you do?
About the author:
Erroin A. Martin is a Business Advocate with the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, a business coaching and consultancy provider for business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs. He has fifteen years experience working within the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, natural resources, medical devices, software, technology, business services, and agriculture industries in various levels of leadership across six continents. He has led diverse teams in sales, marketing, planning, and in the Army. He currently coaches business leaders and physicians in the tools needed to plan for their success. Learn more about the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC at www.vongehrconsulting.com or call +1 203 433 8079. You can follow him on Twitter at @Erroin
The Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, was founded by Erroin A. Martin to provide business coaching, business consulting, and other services to companies both large and small. The primary goal is to have his clients be passionate about their business and reach the unachievable.
Erroin A. Martin 
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