trend-defying growth expansion 2012 - Edmonton Airports ...

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26 | E D M O N T O N A I R P O R T S
WE PuT
PASSEnGERS FIRST
customEr FEEdBAck FuEls improVEmEnt
A friendly security attendant corrals a four-year-old so his mother
can tend to her toddler’s sore arm. A quick-acting maintenance worker
extracts an ID card that’s fallen down an air vent by taking down a
ceiling tile in the floor below. Ticket agents, volunteers, airlines and
a cab driver who speaks Russian work minor miracles to send a man
who speaks little English to Tel Aviv in time for his mother’s funeral.
It’s all in a day’s work for the 80 companies and more than 3,500
employees at EIA, as customer feedback cards, e-mails and questionnaires
attest. Because passenger experience is top priority, the EIA Team pays
close attention to that feedback, from the thank you note describing
a mother’s relief at having the driver’s licence she left behind brought
right to her car, to suggestions for new shops and services.
Besides paying careful attention to unsolicited comments, EIA
participates in Airports Council International’s Airport Service
Quality (ASQ) program, in which departing passengers are invited
to rate their experiences with parking, transportation, security,
airport facilities, cleanliness, waiting times, frontline staff and more.
The surveys inform a new cross-functional team whose sole purpose
is to find ways to improve passenger experience in response to
customer comments.
“ASQ tells us where our strengths and weaknesses are,” says
Passenger Experience Manager Kirstin Brown. “It helps everybody
get a grip on how and what to improve.”
EIA’s aim is to be in the top 25 per cent in customer satisfaction
among major airports of our size. Despite an increasingly crowded
facility, EIA is moving steadily in that direction. In 2008, 77 per cent
of passengers surveyed rated their overall satisfaction “very good” or
“excellent,” putting EIA’s overall customer satisfaction rating in the
top 30 per cent of participating airports around the world.
Now, every EIA department’s annual performance measures include
customer experience goals, says Traci Bednard, Vice President,
Communications and Passenger Experience. “Customer feedback
and the data we get from ASQ surveys help drive all the decisions
we make as a company, from what retailers we try to attract to how
often we clean the washrooms. It’s a goal that every department has
embraced and made their own.”