The Hindu Business Line : Every little bit counts ...

HAVE you taken a flight out of Bangalore airport of late? If you have, you would understand what I have experienced and maybe even empathise with me. Every recent trip of mine to the airport in the last three months has been in pouring rain. And you know as well as I do that every city in India has had a problem with either too little or too much rain.

Bangalore has had a problem of plenty. And the associated problems are plentiful too. Huge jams, bumper-to-bumper traffic, vehicles which start and stop on Airport Road for hours on end, as they crawl past the flyover which is being built for as far back as I can remember. This flyover, I am tempted to believe, has been awarded the status of a heritage building — work on it is never ending and continues at a lengthy pace. My ride, which in happier days and climes would have taken 35 minutes, now takes a mere 90.

I enter the airport — harassed, wet and ready to explode. I snap at my driver and jump out of the car, only to be met by a man in blue who asks me if I am travelling by Kingfisher Airlines. I am surprised but recover my poise to say yes. He promptly picks up my bags and escorts me to the check-in counter and checks me in. He carries my bags to the security. I am floored. I still have to continue to experience the largesse of Bangalore's airport that easily gives you the impression of being at Madras Central Station or Hubli bus station, so chaotic is it. The airport authorities ensure that people are constantly reminded that air travel is a privilege that you must earn. The queue is a mile long and passengers file slowly past the solitary x-ray machine at each terminal. So the little snatch of 'customer delight' that one had with one's baggage thanks to Kingfisher Airlines quickly becomes a distant memory. After all, this is India and you know we are "like that only!"

Up, up and away

Amidst pelting rain and smiling stewardesses I board the flight. Service, as any self-styled expert will tell you, is all about meeting customer expectations. Not having paid the earth for my ticket, and having experienced the service of other "no-frills" airlines in the recent past, I found that my expectations, albeit limited, were exceeded. The aircraft was new, smelling good, the airhostess pleasant and Vijay Mallya was speaking. He welcomed us aboard the flight and said he had instructed his crew to treat us as guests and we should contact him if we had a problem. I didn't have occasion to take up his offer this time and hope I don't ever have to, but at least he was putting his money where his mouth was.

There was a small TV terminal, which had a range of entertainment options of my sort. The TV had sports and other enjoyable channels; and there were audio channels that offered a wide choice of music also available. I was also given a pouch which contained headphones as a take-away. Like any and every Indian, I love anything and everything that is free. I carried the headphone home and along with it, a few good memories about the airline. The good times continued on flight with a hot meal and solicitous airhostesses. Used as I am to buying a tiny bottle of water at Rs 10 in similarly-priced flights, I was thrilled to say the least.

Breakfast in London, lunch in New York

Nearly two decades ago, Saatchi & Saatchi had done a brilliant poster for the Concorde being run by British Airways with the line "Breakfast in London, Lunch in New York," and below that someone had scribbled "And baggage in Bermuda." Baggage-handling continues to be a nightmare in India as normal Indian (or is it normal Airports Authority) behaviour takes over. I am not sure if the baggage arrived earlier on the flight but I felt good after my flight. It vindicated my belief in Indian service. After all, we have a legacy of service, having served the British for generations, Mangal Pandey notwithstanding.

Miles to fly

Today, if we were to talk about any category it becomes clear that we live in a world of parity. Why do people choose an airline service in preference over another? Is it because it arrives at the destination at an ideal time, so that you can squeeze the maximum number of hours there? Is it because it has the best rates going? Is it because you get mileage points on that airline? Is it because you get a free trip if you collect six boarding cards? Or is it because of the little things that the airline has institutionalised as service offerings that set it apart from the competition? My suspicion is that the "little things" will make a big difference to brand choice.

Kingfisher Airlines has discovered a few little things that matter, at least to me; one suspects that it matters to other harassed and hassled passengers too. The key to service excellence is in having employees who care and who can be trained. I was recently reading a book called A Spirit of Greatness. It is an amazing book of stories about the employees of American Airlines. Some of the anecdotes of service brought tears to my eyes. Kingfisher would do well to institutionalise these "little things that count" to every single employee. Then it will truly make a difference to airline travel in India. Every company has a few outstanding individuals that go the "extra mile" for service. The challenge is to institutionalise that `spirit of service.' Kingfisher Airlines must do this and one suspects it will.

Brands are long-term

Kingfisher is a brand that has made a difference and here I am speaking about the beer. It embodies the vision and the spirit of its charismatic leader. This extension, even if not logical, seems to provide a great opportunity to move from product to service, building on an existing equity. And yet building an airline brand is neither easy nor cheap. One remembers Richard Branson (I must remember to say "Sir Branson") being asked in an interview as to how to become a millionaire and his answer was typically cheeky, typically Branson. He said, "You start out by being a billionaire and then you start an airline." Vijay Mallya is a billionaire. And he has started an airline. But one is reasonably sure that his airline will not go the way of Damania or East West, even if he gets his way of serving Kingfisher beer to thirsty passengers!

But success will be his, as long as he remembers that a service brand is built not only by the big bucks but also by the little things that make a difference to passengers like you and me. Consumers like you and me will make demands, at times unreasonably. We will make unfair comparisons, across categories. And yet we will be loyal to service providers who care. For it is every little bit that counts and means a lot to us.

(The author is Ramanujam Sridhar, CEO of Brand-comm.)

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