Ryanair ha cambiato molto durante il 2014: il crollo del fatturato ha spinto Michael O’Leary a modificare l’approccio verso un customer service d’eccellenza. Vediamo se e come le azioni intraprese hanno portato i risultati tanto attesi.

For Ryanair, things have changed for the better since the airline announced in May that last year’s net income fell for the first time in five years. For the company’s first quarter this year, Ryanair announced a net profit of €197m, which represents a staggering a 152% rise compared to the same period last year.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said during an earnings call that a renewed approach toward superb customer service triggered the phenomenal performance.

For the three-month period ended June 30, Ryanair invested in promoting customer service improvements and the launch of new routes. As a result, marketing and distribution costs rose 11%, to €59.6m.

O’Leary cited the airline’s “Always Getting Better” programme as a pivotal tool for enhancing the customer experience. The programme started with addressing problems cited by customers, such as relaxing the airline’s hard-line cabin baggage allowance, reducing penalties for failing to print out boarding passes, and introducing allocated seating.

“Our ‘Always Getting Better’ programme has delivered significant improvement to the customer experience,” O’Leary said. “In addition to the initiatives launched last September, which included allocated seating, free second carry-on bags, and an easier to use website with a ‘fare finder’ facility, we launched our family product in June.”

In the first quarter, Ryanair flew 24.3 million passengers, an increase of 4% on the same period last year, while fares increased by an average of 9%. Revenue was up 11%, to €1.49bn.

Ryanair plans to launch a business service in September that will allow same-day flight changes, larger bag allowances, premium seat allocation, and fast-track through airport security.

“This new service along with our new routes, improved schedules and wider GDS distribution, will make Ryanair’s low fares much more accessible to, and attractive for, business customers,” O’Leary said. “We will continue this winter to rapidly develop both our website and mobile platform to deliver more innovative features and services in addition to the lowest fares to our customers.”

But O’Leary warned that the second half of 2014 would present various challenges, including a “softer pricing environment” in response to many competitors lowering fares.

Ryanair’s July traffic increased 4%, to 9.15 million customers.

“Ryanair traffic grew by 300,000 to 9.15m customers in July, thanks to our lower fares and our improving customer experience, including our great new website and mobile app, allocated seating, a free second small carry-on bag, and PED use on all flights,” Ryanair CMO Kenny Jacobs said in a release. “Ryanair continues to deliver so much more than just the lowest fares in every market for our 83m customers.”

In May, Ryanair eclipsed the two million mark for membership in its myRyanair loyalty program. The program is part of larger company
plans to improve customer experience and appeal. myRyanair saves customer data, making it quicker and simpler to book flights in the future, as well as allowing Ryanair to offer tailored news and personalized fares. It will also offer access to the airline’s new business and family services once they launch later in the year.

Source: http://loyalty360.org/resources/article/ryanair-rebounds-in-q1-as-customer-experience-keys-success