Virgin’s gamble for a ‘great service’ Gatwick unlikely to pay off

Recent reports suggest that leading venture capital organisation Virgin has expressed a desire to be part of a consortium to buy Gatwick, with a distinct desire to inject some of its ‘Virgin Air Passenger experience’ into the troubled airport.  However, according to customer service experts at Abeo Consulting, this may not be easy to achieve as the end result will be hugely governed by the other members of the consortium and where exceptional customer service sits on their priority list.

Abeo Consulting predicts that conflicts of priorities are likely to be an interesting early debate as the consortium thinks about driving out efficiencies and capturing the cost savings to deliver shareholder value. But as Virgin continue to promote their ‘even cheaper’ flights to America, Abeo Consulting challenges the need for reinvesting the savings to make further improvements to the customer experience.

“Customer service will always be important so it is crucial to consider whether people would still want very cheap flights if the reverse of the recession happened? No, but they will still need excellent and efficient customer service”, explains Derek Bishop, director of Abeo Consulting.

“Any new owner tends to focus on achieving some quick win results to improve the biggest ‘hot spots’ in poor service, but in doing so may not consider the end to end customer journey. This could just shift Customer Service problems to different parts of the airport if the improvement opportunities are not joined up.  Any improvement programme therefore needs to be linked to the Customer Journey the new owner is trying to achieve”, adds Bishop, who has over fifteen years experience in customer service management and is a former Head of Customer Service at AXA.

Large customer growth already planned for Gatwick even though the current legal agreement stands that a 2nd runway will not be permitted before 2019 and Bishop believes that to achieve such growth without the existing customer service deteriorating further will require some radical thinking to achieve both effectiveness and efficiency improvements.

“Pushing more customers through an already troubled service experience is only going to bring service to a greater standstill with more damaging effects longer term”, warns Bishop.

Abeo Consulting specialise in delivering sustainable change in customer service and retention. For more information please visit: www.abeoconsulting.co.uk

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On-site activities help alleviate Ofsted report fears

Ofsted reports that schools are failing to provide enough adventurous activities for pupils, yet many of the activities mentioned in the report can be carried out on school grounds, according to leading activity provider Highline Adventure.

The Ofsted report suggests activities such as caving, rock climbing and canoeing are ideal ways to teach children teamwork and leadership as well as getting them to test their physical skills in new and challenging situations.

Highline Mobile Climbing Wall and Bouldering Wall

“Adventurous activities such as climbing are actually very safe and the likelihood of injury is extremely low when they are carried out by experienced instructors with good equipment”, explains Knowles, a qualified teacher who has been an activity instructor for over 7 years and has led expeditions for teenage students to Outer Mongolia, China, Peru, Kenya and Morocco.

 

John Knowles, Director of Highline Adventure

Knowles, who also provides external canoeing and horse riding expeditions, agrees with Ofsted that children should be involved in field trips but also appreciates that it can often be a logistical nightmare organising school trips and so bringing more challenging activities into the school grounds is a way of motivating pupils and teaching them valuable skills on-site.

“Our most popular activities for schools include climbing walls, bouldering walls, archery and orienteering and we regularly receive feedback from teachers that pupil’s motivation and concentration has improved greatly as a result of these activities”, adds Knowles.

Highline Adventure is encouraging schools to introduce more adventurous activities to their curriculum, with a half day of on-site climbing for just £250 + VAT. Terms & Conditions apply. For more details visit http://www.highlineadventure.co.uk

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For press enquiries please contact Amy Larman on 0845 409 1303 or email info@highlineadventure.co.uk.