When South African Airways announced its radical rationalisation programme last year, a prominent member of the SAA board responded to a suggestion that a strong marketing effort be considered by saying: “No, first we must get all sorts of other things sorted out first and only then we will think about marketing...”
In his naivety, this marketing-challenged board member was making the mistake of believing that marketing equals advertising. What he hadn't considered was that, probably more than anything else, marketing involves that interaction between staff members at the coal face and the customer.
And when it comes to dealing with customers, SAA's lack of marketing is dragging this brand down into the dumps, further than it has ever been before. Checking in at SAA desks at airports is a nightmare. Prebooked seating is completely ignored and passengers are just shoved anywhere. Flights are very rarely on time. Often for the most stupid reasons. On a recent trip from Johannesburg to Cape Town, takeoff had to be aborted because the imbecile who closed the cargo door had left a luggage strap hanging out, causing alarm bells to ring.
On board SAA planes, service is by the book rather than from the heart. For some silly reason, the new policy seems to be to serve food first and only much later on offer some drinks to passengers. Insanity seems to have replaced marketing logic when it comes to customer service on SAA.
Having to fly between Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban a few times every month, I've had the opportunity to rate some out our airlines in terms of service delivery and SAA comes stone last.
Nationwide used to be quite good but somehow since losing an engine and a lot of its corporate pride, it seems to be edging into SAA marketing-bereft territory. Waiting to collect someone off a Nationwide flight delayed by bad weather a few months ago, a desperate ACSA official at Cape Town International stopped a passing Nationwide staff and ask if she knew what time the aircraft was expedited. She received an answer so rude and abrupt that it literally took the breath away from everyone crowding around the ACSA desk desperately trying to get some sort of information.
Frankly, this is a problem most airlines have. They simply do not have the capacity or the will to keep customers informed of what is going on. They seem to delight in keeping passengers and customers completely in the dark.
So, which are the best airlines? Well, in my opinion, British Airways Comair comes out ahead by leaps and bounds. It is the only airline where customer service is genuine both on the ground and in the air. When BA staff members ask if they can help you, you can see in their eyes that they genuinely want to help you. When most SAA people ask the same, you can see in their eyes they are only saying it because the book says they have to. Sure, they're not always perfect, but they try the hardest.
Next best is SA Airlink. Their aircraft are spotless and their staff tries very hard. It's almost as though they realise that they are only a “little brother” airline and, as such, try harder to impress.
Then come Kulula and 1time, pretty much neck and neck. These days 1time seems more reliable than Kulula in terms of arriving and departing on time but there is no question that Kulula deserves a huge pat on the back for at least trying to make flying a little bit more interesting than it really is right now. Because most people I talk to tell me that they just find air travel a real pain these days, thanks mostly to cumbersome security measures, very full aircraft and incessant delays.
Mango comes next but more and more passengers are telling me that those really low fares they used to launch themselves are getting fewer and far between. Which leaves Mango just looking like SAA in drag.
SAA comes stone last. By pretty much a mile. And will continue to come last, until somebody there wakes up and understands that marketing is not an optional extra but just as important as anything else they do. Marketing, as Toyota MD Colin Adcock used to say, is “an obsession with customer service” but unfortunately only a few airlines, other than BA, understand that.
