Covid-19: how to ensure social distancing in retail stores and airports?
What are the best techniques to ensure social distancing in private and public spaces (shops, airports, public transport)? This is the question we answer today in this podcast by interviewing an expert, Dr Flurin Hänseler. His research work is devoted to flow regulation, and his expertise is therefore valuable in understanding which techniques to implement to ensure that social distancing is maintained in environments where many people usually cross paths. Tips for ensuring social distancing reduce density in...
COVID-19: 7 specific impacts on the future of the aviation sector
Drastic reduction of fleets, staff cuts, accelerated closure of unprofitable subsidiaries, adjustments to security measures and sluggish demand. This is what awaits the airline industry. The COVID-19 crisis will have an impact for years, and the market will take years, perhaps a decade, to return to pre-crisis levels. In this article, we propose to analyse the domino effect that the paralysis of air traffic will have. You will discover in our analysis the concrete consequences of...
Belgian railways CEO attacks bad results of satisfaction survey
Trains’ punctuality is a strong indicator of customer (dis)satisfaction whatever the country. In countries where trains are still operated by public organizations (France, Germany, Belgium, …) operational objectives are usually set by the State to guarantee that efforts are put into satisfying travelers. In Belgium the quest for more satisfaction led to a “fight” between Belgian railways’ CEO, Jo Cornu, and Customer Defense Association Test Achats. The story Last week Jo Cornu, the CEO of the...
iDTGVMax: What is the hidden agenda of the French railways?
The French railways company (SNCF : Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer) made the news this week when it announced the launch for an unlimited offer with its iDTGV. For 59.99€ per month, travelers would be allowed to take online booked high-velocity trains (called iDTGV) as many times as they’d like. This offer is called IDTGVMax and can be discovered on the dedicated website at IDTGVMax.com This unlimited offer was however limited in size and reserved...
Google Glass used by SNCF to enhance customer satisfaction
This article is primarily about the use of Google Glass to enhance the customer experience. But let me first start by dealing with the iWatch (sorry … it’s the Apple Watch). The long awaited Apple watch got finally revealed on Sept 9th. Despite the displayed enthusiasm at the conference, I must confess that I was disappointed. It’s not that the apple watch is ugly, or useless. It’s just that waiting so long had made me build...
Belgian national railways‘ satisfaction survey: 2 lessons learned
Monopolies are seldom subject to satisfaction surveys. However the market is about to open and the Belgian railways have been hit by a few scandals (among them security infringements and casualties) which have probably motivated the management to ask an agency to conduct a survey. I filled the satisfaction survey in and noticed some mistakes. Let’s use this example to avoid the same mistakes the next time you want to survey your customers’ satisfaction. First, the...
Fedex is getting better
I was in a meeting with Fedex a few weeks ago at the Cologne Hub and it seems that the business is getting better (at least in the US° for them. Memphis employees have indeed received a bonus this year, the first in 4 years, whoch is a sign that things are not going that bad. Actually when you think about it, the express transport industry might undergo a new consolidation phase. On the one hand...
When your customers retaliate … here’s what happened to United Airlines
There are two kinds of companies: those which listen to customers and those which don’t. The most difficult part of it, when you’re listening, is to listen to your unsatisfied customers too. It’s kind of difficult to listen to critics and to accept them respectfully and sincerely. One company that apparently hasn’t really got this is United Airlines. The story below has received important media coverage in North America but little in Europe. My thanks goes...
