Press Release
Southwest Customer Service Leads In VocaLabs SectorPulse Airlines Report For The Second Time
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 19, 2005--In the most recent Vocal Laboratories SectorPulse Airlines report, Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) leads customer service standings among the eight airlines evaluated.
Southwest was the winner for the second time in customer service quality, earning an "A" ranking in both Caller Satisfaction and Call Completion.
Continental Airlines (NYSE:CAL) dramatically improved its scores to an "A" in both Caller Satisfaction and Call Completion from a "B" in Caller Satisfaction and a "C" in Call Completion from the last report.
JetBlue (Nasdaq:JBLU) held strong by scoring an "A" in Caller Satisfaction and a "B" in Call Completion, unchanged from the last report.
Other companies included in this report were:
- American Airlines (NYSE:AMR) scored a "B" in both Caller Satisfaction and Call Completion.
- Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) scored "C's" in Caller Satisfaction and Call Completion.
- Northwest Airlines (Nasdaq:NWAC) scored a "B" in Caller Satisfaction and in Call Completion.
- United Airlines (OTCBB:UALAQ) scored with a "B" in Caller Satisfaction and an "A" in Call Completion.
- US Airways (Nasdaq:UAIR) scored "D's" in Caller Satisfaction and in Call Completion.
Again, the most common complaint was the long hold time. The second most common complaint was with automated systems, one panelist stated, "The time on hold was ridiculously long. Many call centers have recordings to estimate the length of time you'll be on hold--(Airline) should try that. Also, although I speak perfectly unaccented American-English, the voice-recognition could not understand anything I said except 'Yes' and 'No'. I hate to repeat some things four times to be understood, although I am a professional public speaker with clear enunciation."
Another panelist commented, "Please tell these companies to keep the pre-screener calls to a short minimum. Nobody wants to hear a whole list of gobbledy gook before they are transferred to a live person. This makes you just want to hang up and try elsewhere."
Data for this study were collected between January and March 31, 2005. VocaLabs gathered data from 1,064 customer calls to eight different airlines, and surveyed the callers about their experience afterward. Airlines included in this report are America, Continental, Delta, JetBlue, Northwest, Southwest, United, and USAir.
About SectorPulse Airlines
VocaLabs SectorPulse reports compare the customer service quality for different companies in the same industry, using data and call recordings from the companies' customers.
VocaLabs has recruited over 90,000 individuals to provide feedback on customer service experiences, from which we drew the participants for this study. VocaLabs panelists who are customers of one of the companies included in this study were asked to participate by initially completing a survey before calling the airline's customer service; having their calls recorded; and completing a second survey after the call.
An Executive Summary and SectorPulse Wireless data report are available by subscription. Please contact Jessica Whipple at jwhipple@vocalabs.com
About Vocal Laboratories
Vocal Laboratories delivers statistically reliable feedback on the user friendliness of telephone based customer service whether delivered via traditional call centers or self-serve technology. Clients are end user enterprises, call center consultants, application providers and equipment vendors. Only VocaLabs has the unique methodology to evaluate a customer contact application at any stage of development from prototype through existing services quickly, cost effectively and with maximum accuracy.
Contacts
Vocal Laboratories, Inc., Eden Prairie
Jessica Whipple, 952-941-6580 X 202
jwhipple@vocalabs.com
www.vocalabs.com