Ryanair has acknowledged that they have an image problem and need to fix the way customers perceive them so customers don't take their business to other airlines, according to USA Today.
While customers like that the airline offers low prices and a large selection of destinations, but along with that, customers feel that they aren't treated well. Many have a negative perception of the way the airline handles customer complaints and feel that the airline imposes unfair charges on its customers.
"We should try to eliminate things that unnecessarily piss people off," Michael O'Leary, the chief executive of Ryanair, said at the shareholders general annual meeting. He was asked why the airline seems to go out of its way to be rude and dismissive of criticism.
A survey was just published in Which? Magazine, showing Ryanair last among the top 100 brands in their quality of customer service. Ryanair was dismissive of the survey, saying their customers had never read the magazine.
As O'Leary arrived at the shareholders meeting, their were headlines saying that the company had charged a doctor about $255 to reschedule his flight to England when his reason for the flight change was that his wife and three children had just died in a house fire.
"The staff were implementing our policy, but you have to make exceptions in cases like that," O'Leary said. He added that the company has refunded "the money that we regret having taken from him in such tragic circumstances."
Ryanair began as a single service carrier from Ireland to England but has grown to be the biggest short-haul airline in Europe, carrying over 80 million passengers every year.
O'Leary announced that the company plans to improve their web site and make it more user friendly. They will also create a communications unit that will respond to customer complaints "hopefully quickly" by using Twitter and text messaging.
"We do need to improve and to soften some of the harder edges in our service and in our image," O'Leary said.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
