Under Tata Group Ownership, Air India Assessing Customer Satisfaction Daily: CEO

AI sends out questionnaires daily to assess customer satisfaction levels: CEO New Delhi, Jun 2 (PTI) As it works on improving services, Air India on Friday said it is sending out questionnaires to customers to every day and has received good response through its digitalised customer feedback mechanism. Air India, which was taken over by Tata Group in January last year, started sending questionnaires to travellers to identify areas for improvement to meet customer expectations in March. The Net Promoter Score (NPS)-based customer feedback mechanism has received more than 1,40,000 responses in three months, the airline said in a release.

In his message to staff on Friday, Air India CEO and Managing Director Campbell Wilson said that over the last three months, the airline has expanded NPS to cover the entire physical customer journey, from check-in, through to lounges, in-flight experience and the arrival process, and will be extended to the online and call centre experiences. "Questionnaires are sent every single day, and so far we've had more than 1,40,000 responses.

"Pleasingly, although we're short of where we aim to eventually be, we've seen a significant improvement in NPS compared to last year's benchmark, and there are many areas where we are doing very well," he said. Currently, he said domestic and short-haul international routes have scored well and also airport operations at places like Pune, Kolkata and Trivandrum.

"As expected, the longhaul routes operated by our legacy 777 and 787 aircraft are not rated so well due to the dated seats and IFE (In Flight Entertainment) systems... Which is of course why we're preparing to refit these interiors starting next year so that they complement those on all the brand-new aircraft we have coming!," Wilson said in the message.

According to the release, the NPS mechanism also marks significant shift from paper-based feedback system to an advanced digitalized interface. It identifies key parameters that influence customer satisfaction at every touchpoint, whether on ground, on board, or post-flight experiences, effectively capturing customers' sentiments.

Air India plans to expand the NPS mechanism to measure improvements across all functions, including services provided by as caterers, ground handling agents and airport operators.