American Airlines Achieves Highest Customer Care Quality In VocaLabs SectorPulse Airline Report

Posted by Anonymous on April 18, 2004

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn., April 19, 2004 - Vocal Laboratories, the authority in measuring customers' experiences, issued its quarterly SectorPulse Airlines report measuring how well eight different airlines handle calls to their toll-free phone numbers.

Of the airlines studied for this quarterly report, American Airlines (AMR: NYSE) was the winner in customer service quality, earning a "B" ranking in Caller Satisfaction, and an "A" in Call Completion. No company scored an "A" in Caller Satisfaction. The other companies generally scored across the range of VocaLabs' grading system.

  • Continental Airlines (NYSE:CAL) scored a "C" in Caller Satisfaction and Call Completion
  • Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) scored a "C" in Caller Satisfaction and a "D" in Call Completion
  • JetBlue Airways (NasdaqNM:JBLU) scored a "B" in both Caller Satisfaction and Call Completion
  • Northwest Airlines (NasdaqNM:NWAC)scored a "B" in Caller Satisfaction and a "C" in Call Completion
  • Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) scored a "B" in Caller Satisfaction and a "D" in Call Completion
  • United Airlines (OTC BB: UALAQ.OB) scored a "C" in Caller Satisfaction and a "B" in Call Completion
  • US Airways (NasdaqNM:UAIR) scored a "D" in Caller Satisfaction and a "C" in Call Completion.

There was a substantial variation in the quality of customers' experiences among the eight companies. Raw scores for Call Completion varied from 71% to 88%. There were also dramatic differences in automation rates, with the percentage of callers' problems handled without a live agent ranging from none to 18%.

United and American had the highest automation rates, and given that American also had one of the highest overall satisfaction scores, there seems to be no negative impact from properly designed and implemented call automation. American, United, JetBlue, and Southwest all reported frustration rates under 10%. The three companies with the highest frustration rates are also the three companies with the lowest overall satisfaction scores.

The most often mentioned complaint was long hold times, which was also the most significant driver of caller frustration. One participant commented, "Make it easy to talk to a live person! I waited 7 minutes on hold and gave up! UNACCEPTABLE." This was the most common complaint for Continental, Northwest, Southwest, United, and USAir customers, but infrequent at American and jetBlue.

The second-most-common complaint was about poor automated systems. Another participant commented, "The voice recognition software requires improvement. Wasted considerable time trying to explain to the automated system my name etc, which it was not able to discern after repeated attempts. Accomplished the objective very quickly and pleasantly with the live representative."

Data in this report was gathered between February 10, 2004 and March 31, 2004.

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 60,000 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 Ament at jament@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.