The power of people
The FAB 2019 conference concluded with an inspiring look at the Front Line heroes who were nominated for the F&B Team Member of the Year award (see our FAB Awards coverage this issue for more details) and a panel discussion on the importance of engaged employees and the impact of a successful employee engagement programme.
Martin Moodie with ACI World Senior Manager – Customer Experience & Strategy Andre Bolduc (centre) and TDn2K VP of Insights & Knowledge Victor Fernandez
Andre Bolduc is Senior Manager – Customer Experience & Strategy at ACI World, which runs the airport passenger service and benchmarking programme ASQ (Airport Service Quality). “Customer experience is mainly driven by emotions,” was his mantra. “The power of people is the power of creating emotions.”
An engaged, passionate, loyal and committed employee has a crucial role to play, and will ultimately help increase non-aeronautical revenues – as proven by various studies, he said.
“An increase of 1% in the global passenger satisfaction, as defined in the ASQ Survey, generates on average a growth of non-aeronautical revenue of 1.5%,” he concluded. “Technology is essential but the human touch is probably the most important part of the customer experience.”
Bolduc says the power of people is the power of creating emotions
TDn2K VP of Insights & Knowledge Victor Fernandez described staffing as “an opportunity as it is through people that we win in the marketplace”. He added: “Guests reward better service with additional sales and traffic.” Although some of the data presented gave something of a reality check, with staff turnover rates high and rising in the USA, Fernandez concluded by noting some of the factors that can increase staff retention.
“The data shows some recurring factors: improved growth and development and flexible scheduling,” he said. Recognising employees in a meaningful way is also an area of opportunity.
“Success is all about how you take care of your people. If you do it well, they will take care of the customers.”
Fernandez: Take care of your employees to take care of your customers
“Guests reward better service with additional sales and traffic.” – Victor Fernandez
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July 2019
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