A QANTAS good customer service item

[DougR]

Travelling back home from Melbourne on a delayed (late and mechanical) 738, it was nice to see an off-duty flight attendant assisting her colleagues to seat, find overhead bin space (an impossibility in these days of lost bags) and showing a couple travelling with a baby how to set up the extra seat belt. Then took her seat across the aisle from me and caught up on some rest before (probably) signing on for her next shift. Well Done.

 

[Bolt]

I'll give you another one. Called the QANTAS Frequent Flyer today (Platinum), and spoke to on of the much maligned South African call centre agents. My itinerary from NZ (all QANTAS marketed and operated) had been changed a few weeks ago due to QANTAS cancellation of one of the legs, and Amex had proactively reached out to me by e-mail to propose an alternative. I called Amex back and quickly spoke to someone to get it changed to a more suitable time and routing. However, my travel partner who booked directly still hadn't received any notice of changes from QANTAS. Hence my call...

The good
The operator was friendly, and professional. He asked me my name, and apologised for mispronouncing it.
He helped me change my travel partner's itinerary to match mine with my providing the booking reference and name.
He helped by allowing me to double check the flight numbers, times, and dates with him.
He helped by holding while I checked with my travel partner if the details were updated. In these days of arbitrary KPIs, I'm glad he spent the time.
He helped by pointing me to the check my booking function to check the details were updated, as my travel partner was having issues logging in.
He communicated clearly and concisely.
My partner's travel itinerary was changed to match mine, pending ticketing in 24-48hrs.
I was able to clarify that no additional charges were necessary due to the reason for the change being an airline impacted itinerary.

The not so good
Alot of noise from his family in the background, but he did apologise for the noise. Also, it did quieten down after a minute or two.
I wish ticketing could've been done at the same time. I also imagine that would save alot of problems some of the others have had with the call centre.
Had to wait about 10 minutes to get through.
The feedback survey at the end of the call didn't work, so was unable to help there.
Wasn't able to call about this issue yesterday due to QANTAS systems outage. I didn't have confidence in getting through in a timely manner.

Bottom line, is it was a good experience and it looks like my issue has been sorted out.

 

[jpp42]

Bolt, everything you said is fine, but it's telling that any of that is noteworthy enough to comment upon! Your itinerary, being entirely QF marketed and operated, fits into a much easier bucket than some of the stories on here.

The real "good customer service" story will be when the SA call centre actually manages to not mess up a multi-city award booking that requires changes...

 

[Bolt]

Yes, my case was very simple. But, I still maintain that compared to other customer call centres, some of the attributes of that call still stand out as leading the way in customer service in this particular instance. Take for example the agent having the patience to hold while I verify the issue. Contrast that with other customer call centres that would not hold, or would drop your call to meet some arbitrary call length KPI. In light of all the recent media attention, this is not representative of the support quality wholistically at this time.

As a reviewer, I like to highlight the good encounters as well as the bad. The good is so often overlooked. Having said that, QANTAS loyalty program and soft product is in serious trouble now. Even prior to Covid the net benefit of the loyalty program, all things considered, was marginal at best. But I won't go into my gripes here, as this is a thread about good customer service items.

As a member of the program, I hope not to just identify the attributes of the experience that make the program terrible, but also the things that make the program great. Hopefully that will make our experience better when we travel.