Every so often it is nice to see what the industry side of the airline business is being taught. In terms of customer service, the Human Resiliency Institute at Fordham is one of the top trainers of airport personnel for airlines. It has incorporated four resiliency traits — adaptability, engagement, optimism and pro action — into its Resiliency Edge curriculum to help airport and airline employees manage their pressures more effectively.
Here is the Institute’s release about using those same traits to help improve service on both sides of the counter.
How to take the Four Resiliency Traits taught to airline employees in and use them to take control and gain improved service when passeners travel.
ADAPTABILITY
1. Expect the unexpected. Sometime problems are beyond everyone’s control.
2. Adjust to change, even when your blood is boiling. A “cooler” you will help our trained employees get to the root of your problem and find a solution.
ENGAGEMENT
3. Look for opportunities to “connect” with employees: smile, make eye contact, speak first with a greeting. (We’ve trained them to do the same thing!)
4. When working with an employee to solve a problem, don’t “dis” engage. Rome wasn’t built in a day — and sometimes getting an alternate solution to your problem can take time too.
5. When an employee helps you, especially when he or she comes up with a creative solution, say, “Thank you!”
OPTIMISM
6. The glass is never half empty if you always think of it as half full.
7. When something goes awry, remember: This too shall pass!
PRO ACTION
8. Don’t think about the problem you’re having, think ahead to the solution. (Continue to Number 9)
9. Don’t be shy. Suggest the solution you want. See again the “engagement” tip and work with the employee to achieve a solution that satisfies you.
10. Think of your problem as a once in a lifetime opportunity: remember, some of life’s greatest memories started out as problems!
Travel expert Tom Murphy is sharing tips on how to make holiday travel less stressful.
Throughout the 1990s Murphy trained 30,000 air travel workers at airports and airlines around the country.
His close relationship with many of the aviation officials who were directly affected by 9/11 gave him a unique perspective to tell the “untold” aviation story of 9/11. In 2006 he published Reclaiming the Sky a story about the courage of air travel workers in the face of great loss.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
