Internal Marketing on the Rise at Continental Airlines

Just follow me on this story…I’ll get to the point, I promise.

So I was on my way back from American Business Media’s Top Management Meeting in Chicago yesterday. Flight out of Midway to Cleveland via Continental Airlines on a small 40 person Commuter plane. Outside of the very windy conditions, we made it up in the air with no issues.  That’s when it started to get interesting. On our descent into Cleveland, we were told by the Pilot that visibility was so poor that Cleveland closed down the runways for 20 minutes. About 10 minutes later, we were notified that we would be flying to Detroit because we were running low on fuel and the Pilot didn’t want to put us all in a “bad situation”.  25 minutes later we were in Detroit for hopefully a “gas and go”.

Great news! Cleveland was all clear, we had our gas, and now we were third in line for takeoff. Wait a minute. Just before taking off, we were directed to another runway because wind conditions had changed. Another 10 minutes to get to the new runway. While looking out the window, I could see about 20 planes waiting in line and another 10 with lights in the sky circling above. Then, the Pilot, in discussing this “dynamic situation”, advised us that there were now 80 planes waiting to take off from the same runway, and it’s going to take about 15 more minutes to figure this out (Time is now 7:45pm EST…arrival time was supposed to be 6:00pm EST).

Great news! We are somewhere between 8 and 16 for takeoff. 10 minutes later we were off and arrived in Cleveland at approximately 8:45pm EST. No need to go into the landing…I saw way too much of the ground.

Now that you have the background, I want to go into my impression of the Continental Airlines staff. First of all, Continental staffing has never had the customer service of Southwest. While Southwest is always fun and playful, making flying a bit of a nicer experience, Continental has always been very professional. Not rude at all, just not fun and human.

But lately, I have been noticing a change.  The last couple of Continental flights I noticed substantially more kindness and concern. The event that took place yesterday solidified my thinking that there is something going on within Continental’s communication and customer service practices.

First, the flight attendant. She was constantly smiling throughout the trip, even though she’d been on the job for 12 hours. She did an excellent job managing the “out of your seat” crowd and “cell phone” crowd throughout the flight. The “get your butt back in that seat, girlfriend” was my favorite (this was said in a playful tone, and taken as such). We all got the point that we needed to sit down, but she wasn’t rude at all about it. After multiple rounds of peanuts for all, on the final flight back to Cleveland, she broke out hard stuff. Additional drinks were served throughout the plane, which made for very happy customers (even though we were 2+ hours late). Frankly, our little group in the front was having a party. How about that? Were you ever on a plane that was that delayed, in and out of weather and fueling issues, and the passengers were laughing and bonding. The flight attendant and the Pilot set the atmosphere for that, and we were all happier for it.

As for the Pilot, although he was always professional, he was human. His tone on the loudspeaker was one that “we were all in it together”. While we were stopped in Detroit, he came out to chat with us…and convinced us all that the redirect to Detroit was in our best interests for safety (we didn’t need too much convincing). He was concerned, but smiling with us…he seemed like “one of us”.

So here is my question…what has happened with Continental’s training and customer service to make such a dramatic turn around? It is clear that Continental has been investing time, energy and communications standards into their internal marketing. Customer service changes like these don’t just happen…it’s a brick-by-brick, day-by-day process that is backed by Continental’s upper level management.

What has this done, for me, the customer? Frankly, I’m more willing to go on a Continental flight. Although price is always important, and enjoyable ride is a very close second. Just think of the revolution that can happen from Continental making this sort of investment…more passengers, more revenues, more profits…all because Continental is investing in their internal marketing, communications and training! My hope over the next few weeks is to find out exactly what they are doing.

Bravo, Continental…and if anyone from Continental is listening, give the entire crew of flight 2867 from Chicago to Cleveland on November 6th a big fat raise.

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