United Airlines’ Response to Customer Surveys

Here is an email just received from United Airlines. I thought I’d share since if you fly United but do not have an opportunity to fill out their post-flight surveys, you may not have received this update. Yes, I’m a survey-filler-outer. I give both the positive and the not-so-positive feedback. I’ve had a good year of mostly on-time flights with United, being MCO-based vs. EWR or ORD. Text notifications have been great though I have had very few flights with Wi-Fi that worked, if Wi-Fi was even available. As for their economy foods, I have never tried any of them, though I do look forward to Prosecco being in the premium cabins soon!

Read from United on what actions they are taking based on customer feedback —

——– Original Message ——–

Subject: United thanks you for your feedback

From: “Survey from United Airlines” <survey@united.com>

Date: Fri, December 05, 2014 11:27 am

Dear Carol Margolis,

Thank you for taking the time to complete our survey on your travel experience.

Every day, we compile the survey results to generate a customer satisfaction score, which, along with our monthly customer satisfaction targets, encourage continuous improvement. We use those scores and your written feedback to identify what we do well and where we can improve.

All of us at United pay attention to the customer satisfaction scores you give us. We’re motivated to do our best to have the opportunity to welcome you onboard time and time again. Your feedback plays a vital role in shaping future travel experiences that you and others will have with United.

We wanted to share with you an update on the top three themes we heard from our customers over the last quarter, along with some insights on the actions we’ve taken. While we’re highlighting these themes today, we continue to identify and address all of the top issues coming from survey feedback, as well as individual issues you may have identified when you completed the survey.

1. Reliability and dependability

We are working hard to reduce travel disruptions, communicate better as disruptions are developing, and take care of you when issues do arise.
We have improved the text notifications we send out about flight change information, and will continue to improve how, when, and what we communicate with you to keep you informed and ease your journey with us.
We have further modernized our Station Operations Centers in San Francisco, Houston, and Chicago, enabling more efficient arrivals and departures.
As we approach the winter months ahead, we are focused on making sure you receive timely, accurate flight status updates, and better tools for rebooking when needed. In the coming year, you will continue to see improvements in how we partner with you during your travels with us, especially in our United App, available for iOS and Android.

2. In-flight entertainment

We have equipped more than half of our mainline aircraft with Wi-Fi, begun introducing our new personal device entertainment (streaming video) service on some 200 aircraft, and we continue to feature live television on more than 200 additional aircraft.
We expect to have Wi-Fi on the entire mainline fleet by mid-2015, and all mainline aircraft will feature either live television, personal device entertainment or seatback on-demand entertainment.
We recently announced plans to outfit more than 200 two-cabin United Express regional jets with Wi-Fi and personal device entertainment, with the first Wi-Fi-enabled flights expected later this year.

3. In-flight meal and snacks

We improved the meal options for premium cabin customers within North America and also added Prosecco sparkling wine in our North America premium cabins.
Beginning in 2015, we will introduce fresh meal options for premium cabin customers on United Express flights, similar to what we offer on our mainline flights.
We continue to refresh our Economy-cabin “Snack Shop” and “Bistro on Board” options for customers who wish to purchase food in flight.

We want to continue hearing from you. We are committed to creating a flyer-friendly experience for our customers, throughout all their travels and across all of their interactions with us. Again, I appreciate you taking time to let us know about your experiences via our travel experience survey and hope you continue to do so as we work to build the flyer-friendly airline that you expect. On behalf of my more than 80,000 co-workers at United, I thank you for choosing to fly with us and look forward to seeing you on board again soon.

Best regards,

Jimmy Samartzis
Vice President, Customer Experience
United Airlines