And here I
thought United Airlines was all about firing people and streamlining the whole flying
experience to save money. Turns out I was wrong. United Airlines,
according to the Washington Post’s Keith L. Alexander, has partnered with
the customer service consulting firm Valtera to add some smiley-faced pizzazz to it’s business.
The
firm has helped lots of other big-name companies like Starbucks, Ritz Carlton and Nordstom to help employees improve
their customer service efforts. Somehow, I am imagining a big group of United flight attendants standing in a line
repeating "buh-bye" as they smile and wave. But I’m sure it’s more than that.
The effort seems to
come…at least in part…from a survey of how the airlines treat customers and manage their on-time arrivals. In the
survey, United Airlines ranked fifth overall, making it the best-ranked traditional carrier, but behind JetBlue, which
did very well in the survey.