Painting the skies red...

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When it comes to ‘services’ offered by an aviation company, there’s undoubtedly the ‘red bird’ that scores heavily over the rest... Steven Philip warner talks about what makes this a ‘best service’ reality...

You might have heard tales about the many ancient Indian kings being fanatic proponents of polygamy; and as noted by many historians, these ‘many beautiful ladies’ often became a status symbol for these kings – a sign of great services rendered to the monarchs!

Allow us to move away from ‘all’ matrimonial implications here, but even today, beauty and numbers go hand in hand; take Kingfisher Airlines for instance. The airline, which serves 77 destinations, with its battery of 75 aircrafts, has today become the symbol of top-class (read ‘Real First-Class’) service in the Indian aviation industry.

Type in “Kingfisher Air hostesses” in Google Search, and the first link that comes on your screen reads thus “India’s beautiful Air Hostess leads us to the Promised Land...” That is how closely, this airline associates glamour with service. [And its brand ambassador Deepika Padukone is a living example.] But is it just their charm that helped this airline to make it to the top of the ‘Best Services’ list in the ‘Aviation’ category? Certainly not. 4Ps B&M caught up with Sunaina Paul [name changed on request], who has seen there, done that, when it comes to living to deliver the top ‘Kingfisher service’ promises, made by the ‘king of good times.’ And what we learnt was actually surprising... “For us, ‘safety’ is more important than ‘service’... and even in the final exam [which we have to clear to become a Kingfisher hostess], about 80% weightage is given to safety,” says Sunaina. Moreover, while on one hand, ‘safety aptitude and physical’ tests are conducted externally [by IATA], on the flipside, all tests related to ‘service learnings’ are conducted internally; therefore it is but natural that more importance is attached to safety standards.

Today, Kingfisher prides itself for being a totally service-oriented airline, and has various cabin classes on-flight. On its domestic flights, it has three categories, Kingfisher First, Kingfisher Class and Kingfisher Red. The Kingfisher First category seats are nothing less than a treat, with 48-inch thick soft seats and a comforting 125 degree seat recline. Laptop and mobile phone chargers, steam ironing service and Bose noise cancellation headphones were phenomena unknown in the domestic aviation arena... until of course, Kingfisher Airlines was born 4 years back! Doubling on this, Sunaina proudly recalls, “Kingfisher was the first domestic airline to have an In-flight Entertainment system on every seat, including economy class...” Indeed, there is no dearth of service when it comes to delighting the consumer aboard a Kingfisher Airline. Large DVD screens, latest movies, 16 live TV channels and 10 channels of Kingfisher Radio are what makes for the complete audio-visual package.


So they provide best service, but do the consumers complain still? To this, Sunaina avers, “Well, most of the complaints that we receive are for food types... whereby a non-veg customer has to be handed over a veg platter. And though the catering department is to be blamed for this, we speak out the sorries...” Very frequently, pre flight, the In-flight Manager (IFM, who is the senior-most hostess) ensures that the other hostesses are up to it when it comes to revising their service manuals, and if there arises a service issue on-board, the IFM discusses the problem(s) with the hostess(es). “We are taught to be polite and stern at the same time with passengers,” states Sunaina.

Of course, these service agents have no time for personal life, and the only thing that Sunaina remembers after she’s back from a flight schedule for the day is “crash”! “Also, we are given rosters for 15 days at a time, therefore any plans beyond that will call for a casual leave,” reveals Sunaina. Such is the life behind that charming mask from whom you expect alertness and the very best of service, every time you step onto a Kingfisher flight. No fixed work timings (you could have a reporting deadline at 4 am and you might land back at 12 am the next morning), close to zero social life, and absolutely nil vision beyond 15 days... and yet, they manage to give you the ‘best service’ amongst all other domestic airlines in the country as the survey proves...

Before we exited, we noticed that Sunaina’s charming smile hadn’t faded by even one degree, despite having invested more than 3 hours in incessant expression of her life as an air hostess in a most vivid manner. Perhaps that’s why Kingfisher Airlines is numero uno when it comes to service, for its folks never forget to serve even goodbyes with heartfelt smiles!

Steven Philip

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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