I think we need to talk about airport customer experience
You know one of the best things about living in Singapore? It’s world-class
airport – Changi Airport. It’s a
beautiful, modern airport, with amazing facilities, but the best thing is check
in. From the point of drop off to wandering around Changi before departure, it’s
about a 20-minute experience. When landing back in Singapore, from the wheels
hitting the tarmac to being in a taxi on the way home, it’s 30 minutes.
Changi has won best airport
of the year for multiple years and it deserves it. It’s amazing. It makes
travelling a pleasure and it should be the gold standard for airports all over the
world.
I compare this to the experience I had in Mumbai last night.
First it was ticketing – I did the online check-in (well Steve did it
for me) so that went smoothly. Good.
Next up was x-ray screening, and for the first time I can remember, men
and women were separated into two sections. I found this strange, but I can deal
with it when I wander this world. It matters in some cultures.
The men’s section went through rapidly, the women, on the other hand, was
a complete and utter shambles. Multiple lines formed, no one knew what the hell
was going on, and many got in shorter lines, only to realize you needed to join
the longer lines to check your bag in for x-ray.
No one directed proceedings, people were pushing in all over the place,
and once you got your stuff onto the x-ray belt, you had to wait until your
bags went onto the rollers, because no one in security was managing this
section and bags just stayed there.
Seriously, two more people working this section would’ve made all the
difference.
The security guys sat on their arses the whole time, completely
ambivalent towards the chaos unfolding, the scanning was painfully slow, and
after you got your bag sorted, you had to join another line to line up for body
screening! One by one we were called into a private, curtained-off area to be
scanned by an unsmiling security woman.
Out the other end, the bags weren’t being pushed through, which was
causing more delays, so everyone was forced to wait for their bags to come
through, tripping over each other to get to theirs, whereas if everyone stood
back, the situation would have been more manageable. More than that, if the staff
were pushing the bags through – which would have sped up the entire process start to finish - the
whole shambles would’ve been averted.
And if you think the men got lucky, no they didn’t – well they didn’t if
they were travelling with women. There were streams of men just hanging around,
waiting for their wives, daughters, etc… It was shit for everyone.
But the fun wasn’t over yet. Next up you entered passport control and my
word, the lines! It took 40 minutes to get through just this bit, and thank god
for bloody Facebook or I would’ve ripped someone’s face off – especially everyone
standing close to me, constantly bashing into me and breathing down my neck. I
appreciate that personal space varies greatly by country, but in that moment,
you are not a happy camper when distance between humans is something you value.
I finally get to my smiling,
charming, immigration man – yeah, not. He stuffs around, spends far too
long pretending to look at my documents, before he chops my passport and I’m
free. But I’ve got to tell you, just this bit of proceedings… The lines are
horrendous so speed it up people and let us through faster! Why not?
It was just all completely unnecessary and the worst bit, we’re all
completely powerless to do anything about it!!! If any country believes that
making its residents and visitors feel powerless is a good thing, well they’ve
got some serious reflection to do.
I arrived at the airport well in time for my flight, and here I was with
10 minutes before the absolute last call. What can you do in 10 minutes? Run to
the gate, that’s what you do. I was not happy.
But I also kept thinking about the shop owners in the airport. The
average spend at an airport is $150/passenger. None of us had time to buy anything,
and I was ready to shop and spend my remaining rupee. I also really wanted to
buy the boys something to take home.
In the end, Kris Shop got my money on board the flight and the boys have
Ferrari watches, which seem to be a hit. I would’ve preferred something more
unique.
Now I appreciate the need for security, especially in a city like Mumbai,
where security is definitely higher compared to most cities. But this is just
complete bullshit and totally unnecessary.
We have the technology to track who everyone is. When you travel today,
you hand over your official documents and they take photos and scan your finger
prints. There is access to real information about who is and who is not a
threat today, so while protocols must be followed and cautioned exercised, we
also need to use the technology available to make it a better experience for
passengers.
We have examples of it already successfully in play, so let’s learn and
roll it out everywhere – please!
I believe it is well beyond time that airports sorted their shit out,
made the experience of travelling through airports at least pleasant, because
no matter which way you look at it, this leaves an impression of a country. And
yesterday, my impression of Mumbai, a city I adore, was diminished by the
experience. Do I really want to subject myself to that again?
Travel is hard yakka – no matter how glorious it looks - why not leave
us all just a little bit delighted with our experience in your airports and
then we’ll spend more money in your countries and be more inclined to come back.
We can do this.
It’s time for a complete overhaul of the customer experience at airports
around the world, and I would suggest airport operators take a look at Changi
as an excellent reference point. No wonder people never mind flying through Singapore.
They’ve taken customer experience to a whole never level and you don’t even
need to leave the airport to appreciate it.
Rant over! But boy was I pissed last night. Anyone else have a shit
airport experience to share?
Yours, without the bollocks
Andrea
Photo Mumbai
Airport and waiting
to board courtesy of Shutterstock
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