It is important to note that the key element to be studied will be customer relations and how they affect businesses in the service industry. It is also important to study the service industry as a whole because the concepts that promote growth – and decline – in the sector as a whole affect the airline industry just as they affect other service industries. It is with a proper understanding of the service industry that a comprehensive study of the airline industry and Cathay Pacific in general, can be carried out. Finally, having examined these two other elements, I will examine how customer relations in Cathay Pacific have affected their business performance, and how they have based their business strategy on customer satisfaction and excellent service provision.Īn examination of the service industry gives a contextual background to the issues to be further discussed in the paper. Secondly, I would like to examine how airlines around the globe operate, particularly when it comes to how they deal with their clients. First, I would like to take a look at the service industry as a whole and the key elements that drive it. I have decided to conduct a study in this because I want to address three keys issues. In the United States, for example, the service industry was rated at a mere 69.4% (Oliva & Sterman, 2009). Polls showed that perception of most service industries was quite low before the recession. In addition, the customer perception of the service industry all over the world was at its strongest point. In the case of Cathay Pacific, how they packaged their services had to be a delicate balance of price, quality and customer satisfaction. Selling services is much harder than selling physical goods, and the perception that a customer has of your services is what really sells the product. The economic downturn of 2008 left most of the world’s leading airlines in need of customers. Most international airlines will try as much as possible to enter the Hong Kong market, largely because Hong Kong is a leading international business hub and a window into a region that has some of the highest population densities in the world. As an airline, Cathay Pacific competes against airlines with international appeal, experience in customer care and companies that have large operating capital. The American Marketing Association defines marketing as ‘the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchange and satisfy individual and organizational objectives. The market-oriented approach is in direct contrast to the production orientation, where a firm’s activities are geared towards existing technologies, products and production processes (Gronroos, 2006). Taking a market-oriented adopts a business strategy based on the needs and wants of customers. This gives the impression to customers that it’s only by flying with Cathay Pacific that they experience the ultimate flying experience. Cathay Pacific’s slogan, for example, reads ‘Now, you are really flying’.
Most airlines have dedicated entire departments and have based their entire marketing strategy upon their ability to provide good services to customers. Reduced air travel and increasing competition has forced airlines like Cathay Pacific to improve basic customer care relations. With most the world’s economies not doing so well in the current economic environment, airlines have struggled to maintain the profit margins they were enjoying prior to the global economic crisis of 2008. Treating customers well helps a business to develop and maintain a good customer base, their main source of income.
Most modern businesses today place good customer care as one of their core values. This means one of the main catalysts of its success is how it relates to its clients. As a major airline, Cathay Pacific deals directly with people travelling either for business or for pleasure.
0 kommentar(er)
