Every member of British Airways’ 15,000 cabin crew will receive an Apple iPhone XR in order to deliver personalized customer service to customers.
As part of British Airways’ £6.5bn investment for customers, the airline has announced that all of its 15,000 cabin crew will be issued with iPhone XRs to help them offer a more personalised service to the more than 45 million customers that travel with the airline every year. The investment for all cabin crew members follows a successful trial of iPads for senior cabin crew on board every flight.
The new phones will be loaded with a selection of apps to help crew offer customers instant additional assistance during their journey.
They will also have access to a range of customer information at their fingertips, including previous flights and meal preferences, enabling them to personalize every interaction. The investment is part of British Airways’ continued commitment to ensure customers receive the best customer service at every stage of their journey.
Bradley Smith, 27, one of the first cabin crew to receive a brand-new iPhone XR said in a statement that the phones are enabling a step-change in customer service: “Recently, when a customer realized that he had forgotten to order a special meal, he was really impressed when I quickly took out the phone, logged onto ba.com and ordered a meal for his return journey – all within a matter of minutes in the middle of the flight. “It felt so rewarding to be able to immediately resolve the situation for the customer. All my crew reference guides are also loaded onto the phone, so everything I need is in my pocket throughout each flight; it really has made a huge difference already.”
Karen Slinger, British Airways’ Head of Inflight Customer Experience, said: “Our customers spend up to 14 hours with our cabin crew on a single flight and we know from the recent success at the Skytrax Awards that the care provided by our people has a huge impact on the overall customer experience and is what sets us apart from other airlines. This investment is about further empowering our crew and providing them with everything they need to deliver the very best service to our customers while in the air.”
The rollout of these devices is the latest initiative to enhance customer service at British Airways. Earlier this year, the airline launched Help Me; a brand-new section of ba.com to help customers make changes to their bookings and find out more about their consumer rights if their journey doesn’t go to plan. The airline also announced a multi-million-pound investment in training for its staff based at Heathrow, with every agent now trained to help customers with a range of different queries and personally reach out to them at the airport using iPads loaded with a host of specialist apps.
British Airways is investing £6.5 billion to improve its customer experience over the next five years, including the installation of high-speed, industry-leading WiFi across the fleet, which will help cabin crew access the latest information for customers on their devices whilst in flight. The airline will also take delivery of 73 new aircraft, including 18 A350s, with four of the new aircraft joining the fleet before the end of the year.
Source: British Airways
MacDailyNews Take: Congrats, British Airways cabin crew members – you’re getting one of the very best iPhones ever made!
United, American Airlines, Delta, SouthWest, Alaska airlines should do the same to their employees.
I would take no apps, iphoneless air travel of the 50’s and 60’s anyday of the week and twice on Sunday versus the current morass that passes off as air travel. Before all you Apple fanbois hit that thumbs down button, ask yourself these questions. Do you enjoy the congested driving to the airport where you have to scamper out of your car before the Rambo Airport Police have a word with you about being parked for too long? Do you like standing in line waiting your turn to get your ticket or check your bag, provided bag meets current size regulations? Do you enjoy the near strip search of the TSA? You have boarded your plane, where now airline seats and leg room become less and less each day.and each of us become the Peter Strzok’s of the world and have to “smell the Walmart shoppers” next to us, thanks to airline deregulation and the $49,00 Southwest fare. Are you not on a smart phone enough throughout your day and life, would you not rather have initial contact be with a live cabn crew member to cater to you versus checking an app? Would you like your meals on china with actual cutlery, drinks in glawware, and linen napkins versus paper napkins, plastic forks,, plastic or styrofoam dinner trays? Remember when your $300.00 ticket used to get you a whole can of Coke? Having the correct smart phone and a few apps is not idicative of more personalised service to the air travelling customer but rather a sad state of affairs of where we have gone, thanks to so called “progress”. Now you can click that thumbs down button.
I did hit the thumbs down button, not because I’m an Apple devotee, but because your complaints have to do with air travel in general and little to do with Apple phones.
Why didn’t you also complain about climate change, microplastics in our drinking water, toxic politicians and air pollution?
This current planet earth is not the same one you’re remembering from your past.
I fly quite a lot, including cheapo lines like Easyjet. They try their best to make flying an easy process, and in the main are successful.b
If you choose to pay the same price (inflation adjusted) for your airfare today as you did in the 1960’s, you would be singing the praises of aviation.
The real problem is that the world today is overrun with self-absorbed consumer idiots. By always choosing cheap prices over quality and service, they have driven the state of affairs.
Buy a first class ticket and you’ll not see 90% of the idiocracy. As an Apple enthusiast, surely you’re happy to pay 50% more? What? You’re not???? Well let’s blame China next.
#peopleofwalmart