American Airlines C-Suite Insights: Loyalty & Experience with CCO Heather Garbodin (#687)

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Heather: When you fly, you lose a little bit of control, and so we want people to feel like they’re taken care of.

Bridgett: There are endless touch points with a customer from the moment they’re thinking about travel, right?

Bridgett: All the way through at the airport, on the plane, at the carousel, and then heading to their final destination, and it’s a big opportunity, and it’s a big challenge too.

Heather: Customer expectations, they have shifted.

Heather: They are expecting more, they want differentiated experiences, and I think you’ll see we will continue to have exciting announcements that focus on our premium customer.

Heather: We want it to be an inviting experience.

Heather: We want you to feel welcome, and we want it to be easy, and we also want to make it personalized.

Bridgett: Really love hearing about how you’re thinking about it, connecting down at that almost cellular level of emotion with customers, with the goal to make them advocates.

Heather: Hopefully, we provide some surprise and delights that they can then tell their family and their friends about when they sit down at dinner that night, that they just had overall a really pleasant and great experience.

Paula: Hello and welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV, a show for loyalty marketing professionals.

Paula: I’m Paula Thomas, the founder and CEO of Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV, where we feature insightful conversations with loyalty professionals from the world’s leading brands.

Paula: Today’s episode is hosted by Bridget Blaise-Shamai.

Paula: Former president of the AA Advantage program, the award-winning travel rewards program of American Airlines.

Paula: Bridget is a global C-suite executive and is currently advising VC-backed startups in loyalty, travel and payments.

Bridgett: Hi, everyone.

Bridgett: As Paula shared, I am Bridget Blaise-Shamai, and welcome to this edition of Let’s Talk Loyalty and Let’s Talk Loyalty TV.

Bridgett: Our guest today is the Chief Customer Officer of American Airlines, a leading global airline situated in Fort Worth, Texas.

Bridgett: In 2024, American Airlines generated nearly $50 billion US dollars in revenue, operating nearly 6,800 daily departures, serving 350 destinations in 48 countries.

Bridgett: American operates at a massive global scale.

Bridgett: I am delighted to introduce my friend and colleague, Heather Garbodin, who was recently appointed Chief Customer Officer at American Airlines.

Bridgett: We had the opportunity to work together while we were both at American Airlines, including some very interesting and consequential work during COVID.

Bridgett: Welcome, Heather.

Heather: Thanks, Bridget.

Heather: I’m excited to be on.

Heather: Thanks for having me.

Bridgett: Well, thank you, really.

Bridgett: And we’re excited to have you as well.

Bridgett: Our conversation today with Heather about customer loyalty at American Airlines will not be about the award-winning Advantage, Loyalty and Travel Rewards Program, but rather how American Airlines is broadening and deepening its focus beyond network and schedule to ensure relevance across all customer segments, and notably the premium customer segment.

Bridgett: So alongside its award-winning Advantage program, you’re going to hear about how Americans bring it all to bear, to engender loyalty and brand preference, to win the hearts, the minds, and the wallets in all formats of their customers through enhanced and valued customer experiences.

Bridgett: So with that, Heather, let’s get going with the interview.

Heather: Sounds great.

Heather: Sounds great.

Bridgett: Terrific.

Bridgett: Okay.

Bridgett: So we always like to kick off the show with a couple of questions from the founder of Let’s Talk Loyalty, Paula Thomas.

Bridgett: The first question, Heather, is about a favorite nonfiction book or books that have been impactful to you as you think about an action, say, customer loyalty or your leadership style or broader business applications that have contributed to your being in the senior role you have at American Airlines.

Heather: I love this question because I love to read.

Heather: And so, but I think there’s probably two books as it relates to nonfiction and my professional career.

Heather: The first is, it’s called Grit, The Power of Passion and Perseverance.

Heather: And it is one I read, oh gosh, I don’t know, maybe seven or eight years ago, but it really just talks about the idea that talent obviously is important, but hard work, passion, perseverance is just as important to being successful.

Heather: And so I loved that book.

Heather: And then a second one that’s probably more related to my new job, is one that I recently read that one of our board members recommended called Moments of Truth and it’s actually about the transformation of SAS, Scandinavian Airlines, and how they became a more customer centric airline, how they really empowered team members to think about what was best for customer.

Heather: And so it’s just something that’s really relatable to me as I step into this new role.

Bridgett: So thank you.

Bridgett: Those are both terrific book suggestions.

Bridgett: I haven’t read either of them under full disclosure.

Bridgett: But obviously, there is so much about the grind, I think that’s so appropriately titled, and putting in the work, and there are no shortcuts.

Bridgett: And then when you are passionate about something, I mean, gosh, it just really has no limits to what can be accomplished.

Bridgett: And you know, I think anytime one’s engaging with customers that are so crazy and so awesome as advocates for the brand, it really kind of dials up more passion around it.

Bridgett: So I love that.

Bridgett: And moments of truth, right?

Bridgett: I think there’s just so much about kind of looking in the mirror and saying, you know, something is not quite where it needs to be.

Bridgett: And what is it that we have to go do to make it happen?

Bridgett: So two great, great suggestions and kind of coming at it in terms of winning in a business capacity in different ways.

Bridgett: But all comes down to me, sincerity, integrity, all of that on how you accomplish what you set out to do and win the loyalty and secure the loyalty of a customer.

Bridgett: So thank you very much for that.

Bridgett: So our second question is about you as a consumer.

Heather: Yes.

Bridgett: And how do you think about loyalty programs as a consumer?

Bridgett: Which ones do you participate in that you realize your intended value and why is that?

Heather: Yeah.

Heather: Well, of course, the Advantage Loyalty Program is my number one.

Heather: That goes without saying, but I think second to that is Nordstrom.

Heather: They have a great loyalty program.

Heather: They’ve kept me loyal for decades now.

Heather: And I think one thing for me is they just make it really easy.

Heather: I think they have one of the best apps in the retail industry for sure.

Heather: They make every interaction is easy to do.

Heather: It’s typically much easier to handle a return at Nordstrom than it is anywhere else.

Heather: And they have really gotten into personalization.

Heather: And so when I go to their website or to their app, then typically what I’m seeing is something that they think that I’m already going to like.

Heather: So that’s probably one that stands out right away beyond the Advantage program.

Bridgett: So I was on this show a bit ago and asked the same question.

Bridgett: And unbeknownst to you, we had the exact same two names on this.

Bridgett: And obviously, the Advantage program is just a terrific, beyond compare, loyalty and travel rewards program.

Bridgett: And Nordstrom, I agree with you.

Bridgett: And the comment you made at the end about they serve up what is relevant to you, that makes you feel good, they respect your time, you trust what they then serve up as a result, and the ease by which you engage with them, right?

Bridgett: And the exchange piece, especially the returns, almost entirely affect my preference for them over other brands.

Bridgett: So thank you for that.

Heather: I’m glad we share that.

Bridgett: Yeah, well, you know, two great minds, right?

Heather: Yeah.

Bridgett: Okay, so please share with our audience a bit about you and your background and how all of these experiences that you have in combination have situated you well to be the Chief Customer Officer for American Airlines.

Heather: Well, I’ve been with the airline for more than 20 years, and I actually, I started my career on the commercial side, so spent a few years in revenue management and then spent a good portion of my career on the finance side in a variety of analytical, FP&A, planning type roles.

Heather: Then the last several years, I actually, I was transitioned out of finance into more of an operational role leading our regional and cargo teams, and that was honestly a really great opportunity, not only just to get a better feel for the operation, but also to run your own business, and both regionals and cargo, they’re airlines within the airline, and so it gave me the opportunity to see broadly, even beyond just the operational piece of the business.

Heather: Then stepped into this role a few months ago, and so I think that having worked across so many different teams is really helpful.

Heather: I am comfortable taking on roles that are different and new, and I think one of the biggest key areas of success with customer experience is just making sure that communication and coordination is a company and as a team, that we are working really cohesively, and that’s something that I really enjoy and is important for the team.

Heather: My entire team, it’s important that they feel the same and that they’re able to work well with others and coordinate.

Heather: And so I think that that’s one of the key pieces to success is we renew our focus on customer experience.

Bridgett: So I have to believe that the operational aspect of running regionals in particular, right?

Bridgett: I mean, they’re a very important piece of how capacity and markets are served with American Airlines.

Bridgett: You really got a really great understanding about experience of customers in that capacity.

Bridgett: You know, any any insights to share on that piece of learnings from that that portion of your career?

Heather: Yeah, I mean, I think that it really points to one, I think, as we already know, airlines are really complex, but we don’t want the customers to feel that.

Heather: And so that’s why it’s important that, you know, we are aware of kind of every what’s happening behind the scenes that helps support our customers and understanding what the pain points are for them.

Heather: So just having that operational perspective as we go through and say, hey, we want to make this policy change or we want to, you know, provide this enhancement for our customers, making sure that, you know, I’m able to talk to my operational colleagues now and kind of understand what that means to them, is definitely something that’s really helpful.

Heather: And even having a finance background, I think the ROI on customer investments can sometimes be not as black and white as other, or not as clear as other investments at an airline.

Heather: And so I think it’s really important that we are thoughtful about why we have to do certain things for our customers, even though it may not necessarily be something that’s, you know, easy to see in a Excel analysis.

Bridgett: Exactly.

Bridgett: You know, human behavior doesn’t always sit well inside of an active cell in Excel.

Bridgett: And it’s also about playing a bit of the long game too.

Bridgett: So I think you make a great point on how the finance role and experiences have a role in your chief customer officer position.

Bridgett: So as we think about this, as we’ve talked about Americans emphasizing renewing focus on the customer experience beyond network and schedule and operating a reliable schedule, etc.

Bridgett: And it’s cited earlier in the year, persistent demand for premium experiences by select customers.

Bridgett: So talk to us a bit, Heather, about how American is ensuring that American is relevant across all customer segments with its experiences, its product attributes, etc.

Bridgett: And notably so with the premium segment.

Heather: Yeah.

Heather: So I think that, and we talked a fair amount about this internally.

Heather: But for most of our careers, for both of us, I think customer experience was considered running a reliable operation and customer decisions were largely based, as you noted, on network and price.

Heather: And I think as it comes to customer experience overall, I mean, running a reliable operation, there is nothing more important, no higher priority.

Heather: We have to get our customers to their destination on time and with their bag.

Heather: But I think that that is at this point, table stakes.

Heather: I mean, that’s just expected.

Heather: And so customer expectations, especially as we came out of COVID, they have, they have shifted.

Heather: And I think that they are expecting more.

Heather: They want differentiated experiences.

Heather: We can see when it comes to, you know, kind of an uncertain economic environment right now, the premium demand has continued to remain pretty stable.

Heather: And we’re also, you know, looking at who is flying us now.

Heather: So we have a much larger portion of our customer base is, obviously, becoming the younger generations every single year more and more.

Heather: And we know that younger generations, they’re looking to, you know, have differentiated experiences.

Heather: They’re willing to pay for, you know, different types of experiences, including premium.

Heather: And so that’s kind of the world that we’re in.

Heather: And so, you know, to me, it’s been a shift over the last decade, probably, but certainly coming out of COVID, we’ve seen that more.

Heather: And that’s why we have renewed our focus on customer experience here at American.

Heather: So we, you know, my team, we will be the advocate on behalf of the customer.

Heather: And we’re taking a holistic view of the entire customer journey.

Heather: And that’s really from the moment you think about booking a flight and what that digital experience is like to, you know, obviously at the airport in flight.

Heather: When you pick your bag up and you’re leaving the airport and thinking about your next flight.

Heather: We want to be really thoughtful about the entire journey.

Heather: And of course, premium is something that is also really important to us.

Heather: And so I think you’ve seen in the news recently, we’ve had some really exciting enhancements for our customers, whether it be the Philly Flagship Lounge or our new 789Ps.

Heather: And I think you’ll see that we will continue to have exciting announcements that focus on our premium customer.

Bridgett: So thanks for that.

Bridgett: I really appreciate this renewed focus and thinking about it holistically end to end.

Bridgett: And again, bringing home a bit of the complexity of the airline industry.

Bridgett: There are endless, almost endless touch points with a customer from the moment they’re thinking about travel, right?

Bridgett: And sometimes that’s direct with Americans, sometimes that’s through a agency partner, all the way through at the airport, on the plane, at the carousel, and then heading to their final destination.

Bridgett: And it’s a big opportunity and it’s a big challenge too.

Bridgett: So I really appreciate you’re laying the table out for us on the table stakes of operating a safe and on-time operation reliably, consistently with back-to-hand for the customer, and how the renewed focus is building much upon that.

Bridgett: So winning with the relevance and winning with the customers.

Bridgett: So talk to us a bit how you are leading this expanded and renewed customer experience at American Airlines.

Heather: Sure.

Heather: Well, I think, as I mentioned, the team, newly formed team, really taking a bunch of teams that were already within the organization and bringing them together.

Heather: I think key is coordination with not just our operations and our commercial partners, but also our finance and technology partners and real estate partners.

Heather: So there’s, as I mentioned, a lot of coordination across several of the teams.

Heather: And how we’ve structured it today is really kind of three key areas.

Heather: One is digital.

Heather: I mean, there’s, you know, digital, our app, our website, the tools that we provide to our frontline-facing team members.

Heather: Those are incredibly important to the customer experience.

Heather: So that’s kind of one area.

Heather: The second is all non-digital customer experience.

Heather: So that’s, you know, service and product partnerships.

Heather: And then the third is really all of the data and analytics around customers and what they’re telling us and what we see is, you know, what we know are pain points.

Heather: And then the other piece of that would be planning and prioritization.

Heather: And so if there’s one thing I’ve learned, certainly in the last several months, it’s that prioritization is key when it comes to customer experience and which initiatives we want to focus on and tackle first and which ones we can save for later.

Bridgett: So that’s a great segue into my next questions, because we talked a little bit about the what, and a little bit about the how.

Bridgett: Let’s talk a little bit about the when, and the when as defined in this instance on prioritization.

Bridgett: You know, I am confident that the demands are big on what more can be done for the customer.

Bridgett: And I would suggest the list of to-do’s, ideas, initiatives, etc.

Bridgett: is probably as broad as it is long.

Bridgett: And so, you know, how is it though, you prioritize, you plan, and thinking about, you know, the biggest outcomes being in the poll position, or how is it, how are you thinking about prioritizing these really important customer initiatives?

Heather: Yeah, well, I think about it as, you know, first, we want to make sure we really understand customer preference and what does drive customer decisions.

Heather: And even backing up from there, I, you know, it’s impressive how much customer data and how much customer insights you have now.

Heather: I mean, that’s something, I think, a decade ago, none of us really have.

Heather: And it’s just become such a key piece of customer experience and customer satisfaction, all the data that’s available to us.

Heather: So one is definitely what drives customer preferences, and loyalty, and so that’s something that is certainly a high priority, what areas.

Heather: Second would be what are customer pain points?

Heather: What do we do today that really our customers do not like, and how can we improve that?

Heather: And then the third one, I would say, is what are areas that we either are uncompetitive or we are competitive and want to be a leader.

Heather: So kind of just where are we out within the industry?

Heather: We don’t want to have a product or an experience that’s much different or much worse than our peers.

Heather: And there’s sometimes areas where we want to have a differentiated experience.

Heather: So those are kind of the three areas that we are, how we’re prioritizing everything that we need to do.

Heather: And then there’s the, I would say, the fourth piece, which is kind of those win-wins, where it’s both a positive ROI and it’s a positive customer experience.

Heather: And, you know, for example, as we think about GenAI when it comes to reservations or, you know, service recovery, at times that can be both a better customer experience because it’s more responsive and it gives you, you know, probably a better and clearer answer, but it also provides us, you know, a more efficient way to run the business.

Bridgett: Those are terrific.

Bridgett: All great things to consider when you are making very almost solemn decisions on what comes first with demands endless, right?

Bridgett: And so, you know, we’ve touched tacitly on complexity of the operation, right?

Bridgett: I mean, at scale, it’s got lots of components.

Bridgett: And then, there’s this element of being a global airline with global partnerships.

Bridgett: You know, by design, you encourage customers to take full advantage of getting anywhere in the world through an alliance.

Bridgett: So for American Airlines, OneWorld.

Bridgett: So love to hear how you and the team are thinking about, you know, the renewed customer experience with an American or even across the alliance, as customers are really handed off, if you will, connecting on to awesome, awesome brands, awesome, pardon me, awesome airlines, you know, be it in London or Madrid or Hong Kong, you know, really great brands.

Bridgett: How do you think about the one word element of customer experience at American Airlines?

Bridgett: Yeah.

Heather: Well, I think, you know, first, our OneWorld partners are incredibly important to our customers and to American, and, you know, they allow us to take our customers to places of the world that we couldn’t do on our own.

Heather: And so it’s incredibly important that that customer experience is just as good as if they were flying American.

Heather: And I feel like this word is definitely overused a lot, but seamless is something that we really try and focus on when it comes to our OneWorld partners.

Heather: You know, a lot of this is for its international travel, and that can be for an everyday customer, even someone like myself that travels all the time.

Heather: Traveling international is, you know, can be a little bit more stressful in general.

Heather: And then if you’re, you know, flying different airlines, we want to make it as easy as possible.

Heather: And so, you know, within my team, we have a group that focuses solely on ensuring that we are, you know, checking all the boxes and making it as easy as possible, whether it be, you know, on the ground or even digitally to fly any of our One World partners.

Bridgett: Well, that’s great to hear.

Bridgett: I mean, it’s such an important part of traveling with American and alongside its partners.

Bridgett: And I, you know, One World just has, you know, best-in-class partners.

Bridgett: So it’s just great to hear the priority that’s around that under your leadership.

Bridgett: So we’ve talked a little bit about some of the tangible things that Americans do in about the new lounge in Philadelphia, the flagship lounge, the 789P, which I hope to fly someday soon.

Bridgett: There’s some really great things you can touch and feel and you can understand them as a path to, you know, engendering that loyalty and preference to American Airlines.

Bridgett: But so much about it from a customer perspective is intangible.

Bridgett: You know, it’s emotion-centered.

Bridgett: It’s, you know, I want to feel respected by the brand I engage with and I want to feel connected emotionally.

Bridgett: And from one experience to the other, I have an expectation that it’s largely, it’s not completely consistent in a positive way.

Bridgett: And what really comes out of that is trust, trust between the parties.

Bridgett: And there is no loyalty in the absence of trust, right?

Bridgett: Yeah.

Bridgett: So that’s a little more, you know, it’s emotional, it’s squishy, it’s intangible.

Bridgett: How are you and the team embedding that?

Bridgett: Design the customer experiences and action the customer experiences.

Heather: Yeah.

Heather: Well, no, I think that it’s funny, because those descriptions that you provided, you know, consistent and trust, I think a lot of that actually is, to me, equates to reliable or reliability.

Heather: And, you know, knowing that you can trust you’re going to get there on time or that every time you fly Dallas to LA for your weekly work trip, that we’re going to get you there consistently on time.

Heather: And so, I do associate those words, and we talk about those words a lot here internally, with being reliable.

Heather: But of course, there’s more than obviously, as we talked about, than just that.

Heather: And so I think, one, we want to make sure, we want it to be an inviting experience for you.

Heather: You know, we want you to feel welcome and we want it to be easy.

Heather: We also want to want you to feel that, you know, it’s an engaging experience.

Heather: And so that, you know, we really want to be transparent and clear.

Heather: And we also want to make it personalized.

Heather: I mentioned earlier, you know, one of the things I like about Nordstrom is they have a really personalized experience.

Heather: And then last, we want to make sure that the experience is elevated.

Heather: So, you know, if you’re a premium passenger, you feel that elevated piece, even if you’re a non-premium passenger, that you feel like you’re being taken care of.

Heather: And so those are, that’s how we’re thinking about this.

Heather: And it’s, again, it’s not just one area of the journey, that those inviting, engaging, enhancing, elevating, that is specific, you know, on the digital team.

Heather: What does that mean?

Heather: When you’re in in-flight, what does that mean?

Heather: And so those are things that we want to make sure that each of the teams and each of the groups are being thoughtful about, you know, their approach to how we’re taking care of our customers.

Bridgett: Well, that’s terrific, because, you know, that’s really a big part of the corporate why of American Airlines, you know, taking care of customers on their life’s journey.

Bridgett: It’s a noble, noble, corporate why, and really love hearing about how you’re thinking about it, kind of connecting down at that almost cellular level of emotion with customers with the goal to make them, you know, advocates, right?

Heather: Yeah, definitely.

Bridgett: So, Heather, spilling upon all that you have shared with us today and borrowing something from the retail sector, that retail is detail.

Bridgett: It’s my view that that also applies to winning in the premium segment, you know, just that extra something, that inaction, that in consideration of, you know, really being relevant and winning with the premium segment.

Bridgett: Talk to us about anything that American may be borrowing from the retail sector in that capacity.

Heather: Yeah.

Heather: Well, I think I would actually say, of course, it’s important on the premium sector, but for all of our customers, we do want, we want to be thinking about every single detail.

Heather: And that is, you know, when you’re stepping off of the jet bridge onto the plane, does it feel calm?

Heather: Does it feel inviting to, you know, is the food and beverage offerings in our lounges, are they, you know, up to par?

Heather: And so I think it’s important for premium, but it’s also important that we’ve got, we’re being thoughtful about all of the details for our customers.

Heather: But, you know, it’s a great question.

Heather: We have announced or we recently announced our new customer experience advisory board.

Heather: And that is a team, we have three customer board advisors, and they come from a variety of different backgrounds.

Heather: We have, you know, we have Disney, we have Four Seasons, Marriott, Auberg, and we also have two operations board advisors that come from Walmart and GE.

Heather: And so it’s a unique set of backgrounds and experiences.

Heather: Each of them are well-traveled customers, many of them American current or former American customers, and also many of them customers of some of our competitors.

Heather: And so I think what I, you know, am super excited about is it’s just, it’s an opportunity for them to help guide us and provide feedback for how we can do things differently and how we can think about things differently.

Heather: I know a lot of us, once you get in the industry, you’re in it for a long time.

Heather: And so I think having these unique and different perspectives, that will help us as we think about, you know, different areas of how we can take care of the customer.

Heather: And no one better than people that fly us all the time and that have experience working for companies that are known for best-in-class customer service.

Bridgett: Yeah, I agree.

Bridgett: You know, I saw the announcement recently and was really excited for American Airlines and excited for, you know, you chief customer officer to have a such a set of expertise at hand and given the brands they’re associated with and their backgrounds.

Bridgett: I look forward to more to come as a result of this, Heather.

Bridgett: So thank you for that.

Bridgett: Okay, Heather.

Bridgett: So I recognize you’re barely in position and it’s early on here, but are there any learnings so far that you can share with our audience?

Heather: Yeah, I mean, we’ve announced a lot of exciting things over the last several months.

Heather: We have, thankfully, a way to get immediate customer feedback, and we have data for all types of operational changes.

Heather: But one of the initiatives that we announced recently, led by our airport team, is adjustments to our boarding process.

Heather: And so we did two changes, actually.

Heather: One is we added five minutes to the boarding time, which might not sound like a lot, but when it’s 30 minutes to start, five minutes is a pretty significant increase.

Heather: And then we also adjusted our boarding groups.

Heather: And so most notably, I think, is that first class and business class now board, they pre-board before group one.

Heather: And I will say just the feedback overall has been incredibly positive from our customers.

Heather: And so this is one of those changes, that it’s minimal investment and our customers love it.

Heather: In addition to that, we’ve seen more than a 10% reduction in gate-checked bags.

Heather: And so that’s something that we feel really good about, because that extra time has allowed us to get more bags on the aircraft and the overhead bins.

Heather: And I know there’s nothing more frustrating than when you have to gate-check your bag, you get on the plane and you see that there’s still room in the overhead bin.

Heather: And so, we’re super excited for the results we’ve seen thus far.

Heather: And that’s, I mean, honestly, that’s after only a month of having this out there.

Heather: And so, I’m sure we’ll continue to improve even more than where we’re at after the first month.

Bridgett: That’s great to learn.

Bridgett: You know, thinking about five more minutes, you know, that’s real money, that’s real investment.

Bridgett: And that you’re already seeing impact from this.

Bridgett: In the example you gave of fewer gate-checked bags within, which then cuts off a different kind of an expense leakage.

Bridgett: So, I love, you know, moving up where the expense could be incurred, where it could be minimized, and there could be a customer experience benefit here, which is exactly what you’ve described on the overhead bins and gate-checked luggage.

Bridgett: So, thank you.

Bridgett: That was terrific.

Bridgett: Okay.

Bridgett: So, Heather, what does success look like?

Bridgett: What does success look like from you, from the company?

Bridgett: How do you define it?

Bridgett: And how are you measuring progress against that?

Heather: Well, I think just because it is customer experience, it’s a big initiative to tackle.

Heather: But I think there are several ways to value and understand, using data, how well are we performing?

Heather: Of course, the most obvious is NPS.

Heather: We also have a lot of competitive information and how we’re performing versus our peers.

Heather: And we also get a lot of feedback from our customers on certain areas of the journey.

Heather: And so, we will definitely be looking at that is, how did we perform last year?

Heather: How are we performing this year?

Heather: And looking for improvements there.

Heather: Ultimately, though, obviously, the goal of great customer experience is you want to create brand loyalty and customer preference, and that results in revenue.

Heather: And so, that’s also obviously a key metric to ensuring that we are delivering for our customers.

Heather: And there’s also, to me, just the, are we doing what we said we were going to do?

Heather: And so, we need to have a clear roadmap of everything that needs to be done and make sure that we’re hitting our deadlines and we’re executing appropriately.

Heather: And I think the last several months, the teams have done just a really nice job.

Heather: And again, this isn’t just my team, this is the operations, the commercial teams.

Heather: It’s truly a group effort, but everything from complimentary Wi-Fi to our new Philly flagship lounge to the new 789s to the boarding process, those are kind of bigger things.

Heather: But we’ve also made smaller enhancements, like improving the snacks in our snack basket.

Heather: And we now, we used to require that we would take your headphones on international flights an hour before arrival.

Heather: And now we’ve stopped doing that.

Heather: You can keep them the whole flight, we won’t wake you up.

Heather: And so some of these are really big initiatives.

Heather: Some of them are much smaller in scale, but still impactful.

Heather: And so I think that over time, the data and the numbers are going to tell us how successful we are.

Heather: But in the near term, it’s making sure that we’re executing on what we know needs to be done.

Bridgett: Yeah, certainly some great examples on the detail part of our interview today, on how you’re thinking about detail and detail at scale on the headphones.

Bridgett: And then, of course, the snack basket changes.

Bridgett: So that’s terrific to learn.

Bridgett: Okay, so we’ve covered off how American would consider success.

Bridgett: So you have your customer, the plane has landed, making their way to the gate, maybe their final destination, and maybe the vacation or the work meeting, whatever destination for them.

Bridgett: Maybe they need to get their luggage, maybe not.

Bridgett: But they’re done with this part of the journey.

Bridgett: What is it that you want them to say is success?

Bridgett: What do you want them to feel when the wheels have touched down, and they have concluded that piece of the journey with American Airlines?

Heather: Yeah.

Heather: Well, first, I hope they’re thinking about their next trip on American.

Heather: That’s what I really hope they’re thinking about.

Heather: But ultimately, we really want customers to feel like they’ve been taken care of, and that we have created as calming as an environment as we possibly can for what most people see as a somewhat, it can be a stressful experience.

Heather: When you fly, you lose a little bit of control.

Heather: And so we want people to feel like they’re taken care of, and that it’s been an easy trip, and that they are excited to come back and fly us again, and that hopefully we provide some surprise and delights that they can then tell their family and their friends about when they sit down at dinner that night, that they just had overall a really pleasant and great experience.

Bridgett: Yeah.

Bridgett: Resulting in advocacy and loyalty and repeat purchase.

Bridgett: And really the only brand they want to engage with on their travel needs would be American Airlines.

Bridgett: So that’s terrific.

Bridgett: Thank you very much.

Bridgett: And so as we wrap up our conversation today with you, where can our audience reach you?

Bridgett: Would it be okay if we put your LinkedIn profile in the show notes today?

Heather: Sure.

Heather: That sounds great.

Bridgett: Thanks Heather.

Bridgett: We appreciate that very, very much.

Bridgett: And so thank you, Heather, and thanks certainly to American Airlines.

Bridgett: And to our audience, thanks for joining Heather and me today on this episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty and Let’s Talk Loyalty TV.

Bridgett: And be sure to tune in soon to hear more about awesome customer loyalty programs, etc.

Bridgett: Thank you.

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