Facing complaints, Air India to revamp customer service
Devina Sengupta and Rhik Kundu
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: Concerned by a spate of passenger complaints, Tata Group-operated Air India Ltd plans to overhaul its customer service by making its employees go through behavioural and in-flight training programmes, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
“Tata group is concerned with the high number of complaints and have formed teams to look into the matter. The crew and staff will go through multiple training sessions to improve the customer experience,” said a senior industry executive, one of the people mentioned above, who didn’t want to be named.
“Seniors are looking into the matter. Passage training programmes are also being discussed,” the person said.
Air India was only behind Flybig, among scheduled commercial airlines, in the number of passenger complaints registered during April, according to the latest data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Flybig registered 2.5 complaints per 10,000 passengers, while for Air India it was at 2.4. In comparison, airlines such as Indigo and Vistara received 0.1 complaints per 10,000 passengers during the month.
The complaints included issues with customer service, staff behaviour, refunds, and problems related to flight, baggage and fares.
Many passengers have also vented their frustration at Air India on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
On June 14, the DGCA slapped Air India with a ₹10 lakh fine for failing to compensate passengers who were refused boarding despite having valid flight tickets and reaching ahead of the scheduled time. A large number of customer service issues are because of the culture that developed at Air India under decades of government ownership, which the Tata group is hoping to address through training programmes, said the second person, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity.