Again, the above report sounds like mainly CSM failure to me. I've had some shockers too, and in contemplating them the difference between the good and the bad is the CSM. If the lead FA doesn't care, or doesn't appear to know what they are doing then the service across the whole flight collapses.
DJ could do themselves a service, assuming they really are serious about increasing premium customers by:
- Providing more than cheese as a snack. I'm personally against the whole notion of the snack, but if you must do it for some reason and don't feel inclined to giving your customers a price discount at 'snack time', how about warm roast beef rolls, pies, or smaller plates of actual food rather than just bar nibbles? ... something a least a bit substantial that isn't the advertised 3 course meal?
- Weed out some of the under performing CSMs. All businesses, not just DJ, have to do this on a continuous basis. Its hard being a customer facing service leader, really tough, and some folks can't keep it up over the long term.
- Continuous internal audits of your product delivery are the only way, IMHO, to maintain and improve service. You can always tell when a business does this as you _do_ see high levels of service maintained. This nips in the bud typical service slips that creep in over time, like not offering a welcome to customers, or maintaining priority boarding (not a problem in the above example I assume) and a myriad other individually tiny things that collect together and cause problems.
- See if its possible to stock more than a 'white' and a 'red' wine on board the 737. Is space truly so limited that theres no room for anything sparkly? Show customers the bottle. I wonder sometimes if we're just getting cheap flagon wine, you know, the $4 a gallon variety ...
If value drops away (ie, cheese and cheap wine), and service delivery starts to slip as well, then customers naturally start to wonder what they are paying for. Everyone likes more personal space and legroom, but the J ticket has to be more then just that and the price asked indicates that there should be a _lot_ more.
Honestly, I wonder at the difference in cost to the airline in delivering packaged crackers and cheese compared to a plated shepherds pie. Your customer has paid you several hundred to a thousand _more_ than a standard seat ... can this difference not stretch to cover the cost of decent food and drink?