Relationship Marketing Strategy and implementation

recover customers when failures occurred. As Group Managing Director,
Robert Ayling, said:

We don’t talk about customer complaints, we talk about service recovery.

Every single person in my company has been talked to about recovering

when things go wrong.

Charles Weiser, BA’s Head of Customer Relations, added:

In a service recovery company like British Airways, our philosophy is to

retain the customer, invest in ensuring that we have the proper systems and

infrastructure for our employees to do so.

BA invested £4.5 million in a computer imaging system, called the cus-
tomer analysis and retention system, or CARESS. On average, any one of
the 6500 complaint letters received every month used to get a response in
4-5 weeks. CARESS enabled letters to be scanned onto the computer
immediately, with replies sent out within three days.
Technology has also helped in providing ‘real time’ solutions to cus-
tomers’ problems with a freephone careline which enables operators to
access 30 BA databases. Charles Weiser says:

When the customer rings up the entire case history shows up on the screen

from telephone contact, to the letters they have sent, to any attachments to

the ticket coupons ... it’s all in one place.

Staff have also been trained in techniques to deal with unhappy or angry
customers, so that relationships can be maintained through problem
solving. This recognizes research carried out by BA that showed on
average that an unhappy customer told 10 friends or associates of his or
her experience. Successful handling of a complaint is the target and BA’s
Quality and Training Co-ordinator says:

Fortunately, we are finding out that the actions that we are taking here [in

service recovery] are increasing the rate of people who are willing to fly

again.

BA believed it was retaining customers in this way and set up a series of
‘listening posts’ to monitor perceptions and problems. A BA official sum-
marized their attitude to customer relations:

If you want to build a relationship with your customers, that relationship

comes from the individuals. People do not build a relationship with British

Airways because BA is a faceless thing. People build a relationship with the

484 Relationship Marketing