It's Time To Address The Elephant.........oops !!.....The Kangaroo in the Room.

[Mr Bill]

There have been countless experiences of customer service neglect by QANTAS both here at AFF and other media outlets. One of the most recent was on the Ben Fordam show on 2GB. I understand that Qantas has some 12 million FF members of one class or another. It's about that all concerned QF FF members were drawn together to in a common forum to inform the public at large of Qantas's extreme shortcomings re customer service. I'm not a user of Social Media, however I guess posts re QF customer service, and lack of, may snowball into an effective national Bloc. Would an online petition demanding Qantas overhaul its customer service program serve a purpose? How about QF shareholders, both individual and corporate express their concerns at the next AGM. As I don't have the social media skills to undertake any of the above, I hope there is someone or group out there who can take up the challenge.
On another point, Mr Joyce continues to promote the reintroduction of the A 380, the reopening of ultra long haul routes, a Green FF program but refuses any meaningful action on the poor reformance re customer service. The Qantas song ends with..."I still call Australia home." Home, except for call centres. TELSTRA recently announced "We'll bring our call centres back home", while many other Australian companies are promoting the fact that their call centres are Austalian based and staffed. I hope one day the Qantas song may end " Our call centres also call Australia home."

 

[Quickstatus]

How about

A few points
1) most FF members are not active QF customers in the traditional airline sense - they have just signed up to a frequent flyer program and likely not sat in a QF seat recently or only very occasionally.
2)Customer service issues are nothing new for any corporate entity. There will always be those who are/will be negatively affected.
3)QF appears to be very successful as an operating corporate entity, so any activism is unlikely to garner much traction
4)I am not sure where "countless" came from. You actually need measurable metrics- such as waiting times on phone.
5)Why do people believe marketing or advertising promoting nebulous concepts such as " I still call Australia home"?.
6) QF is not the only operating airline

Australian based call centres?
One question: how do you know that the person you talk to at a call centre is based in Australia?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

There have been countless experiences of customer service neglect by QANTAS both here at AFF and other media outlets. One of the most recent was on the Ben Fordam show on 2GB. I understand that Qantas has some 12 million FF members of one class or another. It's about that all concerned QF FF members were drawn together to in a common forum to inform the public at large of Qantas's extreme shortcomings re customer service. I'm not a user of Social Media, however I guess posts re QF customer service, and lack of, may snowball into an effective national Bloc. Would an online petition demanding Qantas overhaul its customer service program serve a purpose? How about QF shareholders, both individual and corporate express their concerns at the next AGM. As I don't have the social media skills to undertake any of the above, I hope there is someone or group out there who can take up the challenge.
On another point, Mr Joyce continues to promote the reintroduction of the A 380, the reopening of ultra long haul routes, a Green FF program but refuses any meaningful action on the poor reformance re customer service. The Qantas song ends with..."I still call Australia home." Home, except for call centres. TELSTRA recently announced "We'll bring our call centres back home", while many other Australian companies are promoting the fact that their call centres are Austalian based and staffed. I hope one day the Qantas song may end " Our call centres also call Australia home."

unfortunately quickstatus is right

QF is successful because it promotes status and by offering perks. As soon as they throw out a double status credit promotion, or keep extending status even though folks aren’t actually flying, people don’t seem to care much about service anymore. It’s all about lounges, priority access to award seats, and row 4.

 

[jakeseven7]

Keep in mind many, a vast majority of flyers don’t need the customer service function as well - and therefore are not even aware of the people who are having difficulties and needing assistance right now - point being getting a large number of people together to effect change will be hard.

 

[aikman]

Would an online petition demanding Qantas overhaul its customer service program serve a purpose?

I think a more powerful petition and something that Qantas is more likely to notice is a petition to get Qantas flyers to commit to switching their flights to Virgin and their credit cards to Velocity. It'll be a tough ask though.

 

[Mr Bill]

A few points
1) most FF members are not active QF customers in the traditional airline sense - they have just signed up to a frequent flyer program and likely not sat in a QF seat recently or only very occasionally.
2)Customer service issues are nothing new for any corporate entity. There will always be those who are/will be negatively affected.
3)QF appears to be very successful as an operating corporate entity, so any activism is unlikely to garner much traction
4)I am not sure where "countless" came from. You actually need measurable metrics- such as waiting times on phone.
5)Why do people believe marketing or advertising promoting nebulous concepts such as " I still call Australia home"?.
6) QF is not the only operating airline

Australian based call centres?
One question: how do you know that the person you talk to at a call centre is based in Australia?

On your last point, when I contact a call center, I ask the CSA to confirm their name so I can address them correctly, and I also ask their location. The vast majority of CSA I have spoken to (some more than once) are located in Cape Town, followed by Suva then Hobart and Auckland in that order.

 

[baarg]

OP: there is a petition already if this is what you meant : Sign the Petition

 

[dajop]

It’s all about lounges, priority access to award seats, and row 4.

Yep, over the years I've seen far more criticisms of airlines for "tired looking lounges" (somehow if you update your lounges every 5 years to modern decor everything else is forgiven), poorly enforced priority boarding and only being able to access seats in row 8 instead of 4, than I have of poor customer service.

Brainwashing Marketing is a very powerful thing. Who ever blows the most smoke up peoples backsides wins. Simple as that.

 

[Quickstatus]

seen far more criticisms

Depends on the audience.

 

[drron]

Little practical chance of a large enough petition or enough people switching spending to have any effect on QF mangement. The evidence has been clear to me for 20 years. In 2002 our son moved to the USA to study and stayed for 7 years. We used to travel there 2-3 times a year. because of the distance we wanted to fly J. Turned out that JAL was half the price of QF with ` 2 hours less travel time plus they had just introduced the Shell flat seat in J. So way better hard and soft product. To top it all off at least half the time we flew on the pay 1 get 2 offers.

But flying from BNE to JFK was still more popular on QF than JAL. BNE-JFK was on a 767. and rarely full.

 

[Mr Bill]

OP: there is a petition already if this is what you meant : Sign the Petition

Great
..... I'll sign it today..... Thanks

 

[Mr Bill]

Keep in mind many, a vast majority of flyers don’t need the customer service function as well - and therefore are not even aware of the people who are having difficulties and needing assistance right now - point being getting a large number of people together to effect change will be hard.

Hence the need to bring the problem to a wider audience.

Little practical chance of a large enough petition or enough people switching spending to have any effect on QF mangement. The evidence has been clear to me for 20 years. In 2002 our son moved to the USA to study and stayed for 7 years. We used to travel there 2-3 times a year. because of the distance we wanted to fly J. Turned out that JAL was half the price of QF with ` 2 hours less travel time plus they had just introduced the Shell flat seat in J. So way better hard and soft product. To top it all off at least half the time we flew on the pay 1 get 2 offers.

But flying from BNE to JFK was still more popular on QF than JAL. BNE-JFK was on a 767. and rarely full.

 

[Mr Bill]

Hence the need to bring the problem to a wider audience.

I agree with shopping around. The more people who know of the problems QF have, the better for their decision making process.
BTW..... I do miss the B 767.....

 

[NM]

Who is to blame for the poor customer service?

Well, if we assume that the poor customer service is due to under-staffing and off-shoring to low-cost call centres, then its fair to also assume this is directly related to cost constraints. Who is to blame for that?

Well, we can blame external events like COVID, but in reality I think it partly comes down to the fact that we, the people who purchase air fares which are a significant part of airline revenue, continue to demand lower and lower ticket costs and continuously seek to find the "best deal".

So, in reality, I think we need to blame our pursuit of lower and lower cost of travel for the downward spiral of customer service that we are receiving. Qantas has a problem with costs, partly due to its historic business model. Changing that business model is very challenging as it directly impacts employee benefits. Most of us don't want to see long-term and loyal staff having their employment conditions undermined. But we all want lower travel costs, new and innovative travel products, and better food and beverage, better lounges (with free membership/access) and better customer service.

I think that we are experiencing that we can't have our cake and eat it too. Low travel costs (air fares etc.) with better travel products (food/beverage, more comfortable seats, in-flight experience etc.) and good customer service are mutually exclusive.

Are we willing to pay higher fares in order to receive better customer service? Some will say yes, but most will not put their money into it. I think we are a significant part of the problem and we should not shift the entire blame onto the airlines (Qantas or any other).

 

[DC3]

Oh. Goody. Another thread for unhappy QF campers.

Anyway, the Ben Fordam Show means nothing to me. We don’t listen to 2GB in Brisbane as far as I know. This seems like a Sydney thing.

Also, I don’t see why shareholders would vote for increased Call Centre costs by employing more Oz-based staff.

 

[Quickstatus]

I'll sign it today

1255 signatures. Somehow I don’t think you will get the airline to pay anymore than lip service.

 

[Quickstatus]

contact a call center

I have never understood how the location of a call centre makes any difference to service quality.

 

[Mr Bill]

I have never understood how the location of a call centre makes any difference to service quality.

Heres an example. Flying into and out of ROK next month, and not trusting the QF website that said the QF Club was open, I called ROK airport direct (not QF 131313). Spoke to a very friendly staff member (not QF) who initially said she didn't know anything about the QF Club and suggested that I call 131313. She was stunned and amazed when I explained that if I called that number I would probably be speaking to someone in either Cape Town or Suva. Asking me to hold she apparently found a QF "staffer" who told her that the lounge was currently closed but should be open for service towards the end of April. Local knowledge is everything!

 

[Quickstatus]

Local knowledge is everything!

Confirmation bias.
What answer would you have got if you rang 131313?

 

[drron]

Confirmation bias.
What answer would you have got if you rang 131313?

None as you would hang up in frustration.