ASSESSMENT OF SERVICE RECOVERY PRACTICES IN THE ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES, ADDIS ABABA

Abstract

This study tried to look into the service recovery practices which had been observed at the Head Quarter of Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa from January 2010 to June 2011. One of the major functions of a service giving organization is service recovery practice. It is becoming a source of competitive advantage in the airline industry. Airlines, which are effective in handling customer complaints and recover their service failure will be the most desirable in the airline industry and enjoyed by several advantages that originated as a result of delivering best service recovery practice. To this end, airlines need to have a well organized service recovery strategy to satisfy their customers and to be profitable out of the global competitive environment. Even though the Ethiopian Airlines is one of the known airlines in the airline industry because of its safety record, there are some customer complaints in its service recovery practice. Among those customers’ complaints, delay flight or cancelled flight management, denied boarding compensation, misconnecting flights and incidental payment for lost or left behind baggage are some of them. The goal of service recovery is to identify customers with issues and then to address those issues to the customers' satisfaction to promote customer retention. However, service recovery doesn't just happen. It is a systematic business process that must be designed properly and implemented in an airline may result in effective service recovery practice. Even though the Ethiopian Airlines has service recovery package of programs, there is a gap between its strategy and performance in Addis Ababa. The Ethiopian Airlines is one of the known Airlines in the airline industry and it has a good service recovery strategy. However, there are some customer complaints in its service recovery practice. Deviation such as delay without notification, loss of baggage and lack of proper handling to unsatisfied customers had been the scenarios which initiated this research. The method of research that was used in this study is descriptive survey research method using convenient sampling technique in order to gather pertinent data from passengers who had consumed the service. In addition to the passengers, two station mangers were interviewed using interview guide/protocol as research instrument. In this study, the student researcher managed to collect both primary and secondary data from the respective sources. Quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques were also used to summarize the data in this study. There were 160 participants in the final sample for this study; all the respondents were traveled by Ethiopian Airlines. Among the total respondents, 151(94%) experienced a service failure. A total of 98(61%) of the respondent customers did not present their complaints about the service failure which they had experienced. Seventy-three (46%) of the respondents had an experience of traveling with other airlines while the remaining 87(54%) had no experience of other airlines. A total of 82(51%) of the respondents who had had other airline experience believed that the Ethiopian Airlines had got an effective and unique service recovery practice different from its competitors, while the remaining 78(49%) didn’t have such a belief. The Ethiopian Airlines is a huge Airline which is in need of well organized customer service that can fill the gap between its image in the mind of outsiders and those who experienced the service. Besides, there are unused capacities such as financial strength and physical facilities that could be utilized to build a well organized service recovery practice.