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Compliment for every complaint, but ground sta, whose transactions with

customers were quite dierent, had nearly as many criticism as they had

praise. “On board were pouring champagne and giving out caviar.” Said

round Services !lfreds. “"n ground service we ta#e your money and your

coupon, we chec# your passport.” $ach complaint was investigated and

answered in writing. !ny lessons drawn were passed on to the trainers and

departments concerned and a selection of both praise and criticism was

published regularly in in%house publications. &$'hibit ( has e'amples of both

sorts of letters).

 *rends in customer satisfaction were carefully analysed. !n in%house. Service

+erformance "nde' survey continuously trac#ed S"! service. $very quarter

-. passengers rating of / factors, such as eye appeal of meals or

friendliness of chec#%in sta, were analysed. "nde' movements were

e'pectations. *he inde' improved year by year. 0y 11 ground services

sometimes received compliments when 2ights were delayed, so professional

were ground sta in service recovery.

3!4!$3$4* S*56$

S"!7s management made conscious eorts to delegate authirity to the lowest

possible level. $mployyes described S"! as a democratic company where the

top welcomed new ideas, criticism and decision%ma#ing from the lower

echelons and encouraged them to spea# out, ma#e suggestions and

generally e'press their opinion.”8e are not a formal organi9ation”.

S"! tried hard to become a 2at organi9ation, spinning o business units ad

soon as they were self%sustaining. “8e are trying to stay small,” e'plained

3anaging :irector Choong. “8e are creating many small, aoutonomous

divisions to #eep decision%ma#ing down. “8hen a new engineering

subsidiary was formed in !pril 11;, top management pointed to several

bene<ts, saying it would increase accountability, enhance esprit de cops,

encourage innovation ard entrepreneurship and reap the bene<ts of 

competitive advantage in the high%growth engineering maintenance

business. 4e't on the list were computer service and cargo.

 *he group had a policy of management mobility, rotating managers and

directors every three to <ve years. *his prevented managers from becoming

 =aded and fostered team spirit, according to !ssistant director of +ersonnel

4adaisan. “6oyalty to a function or a division is not as great. "t7s di>cult to

say. *m a mar#eting man, when tomorrow you may be in <nance. "t forces

you to loo# at the company as a whole, “3anagers also moved between the

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airline and the various subsidiaries. "n the same spirit, S"! encouraged multi%

divisionall tas# forces.

S"!7S :$3!4:"4 C?S*O3$@S "4 *A$ 11s

"n :enpasar the chec#%in o>cer at 4gurah rai airport had returned with the

S"! supervisor. “" am sorry, Sir,” the supervisor said. “Our procedures do not

allow for inggage to travel without its owner. “Ais tone was courteous, but

strained. +aul :enver launched into a lengthy e'planation, pointing to the

fact that a wee# earlier in 3anila his request to split his lunggage at chec#%in

had been accepted quite easily. *hen he reali9ed he was wasting has time

and shut up, but decided to complain in writing. Ais letter read as follows.

" thought that Singapore !irlines was commited to service, in particular to

improving ground service. " was pleased with chec#%in sta in 3anila, who

went out of their way to help men. *his is the #ind of service " e'pected from

S"!. 8hat " cannot understand is why your man in :enpasar was so

uncooperative.

Competitive +ressures

"n 11/ the world of air travel was in the threes of its worst%ever recession,

which had drained <rst%class and business%class cabins of full%fare%prayers.

 *he Financial Times wroteB

 *he desperation of airlines to lure bac# the lucrative business traveler can be

re2ectes in one simple statisticB in the past two years, earrlers worldwide

have managed to lose every penny of pro<t made since the Second 8orld

8ar%an estimated total of about D billion. "t is against that bac#ground%and

the #nowledge that business class provides about (E of pro<ts while ta#ing

 =ust ;E of the space%that airlines have been waging a <erce battle for the

hearts and wallets of the e'ecutive traveler.

!irlines felt threatened by information technology advances such as video

conferencing which could reduce business people7s need to travel. 0ut thebiggest menace was corporations decision to slash travel costs, requiring

e'ecutives to travel less or to 2y economy class. Customers began to ta#e

per#s such as frequent 2yer programmes &FF+s) for grated in this

increasingly competitive mar#etplace. *he success FF+s, in which regular

passengers enormousB according to one estimates, ?S members had

accumulated more tha G billion miles of free travel. S"!, long reluctant to

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give out free 2ights <nally created its own FF+. +assages, in the 11/. "n

terms of strategic response airlines rougly fell into three campsB

 *he *raditionalist, who continued to raise standars, even though this meant

maintaining high prices and perhaps frightening o cash%strapped customers

and who advertised heavily. *he logic was simpleB surveys showed that --Eof business and <rst%class travelers rated the si9e of their seat as their

“preferred aspect of business%class.