British Airways invest in staff training

British Airways has announced a multi-million pound investment in staff training at Heathrow. The training will see staff walking the terminal floors and reaching out to customers in order to solve their problems, rather than waiting behind a desk to be approached.

The new approach aims to empower staff to provide outstanding customer service, and will initially be trialled at Terminal Five, before eventually being extended across the whole airport.

British Airways explained that the training will enable airport ‘hosts’ to help customers ‘across a range of different areas, from ticketing, to re-booking, changing reservations, finding delayed luggage or providing up to date flight information’. Staff will be equipped with iPads containing specialist apps in order to help with these issues quickly and effectively.

BA’s Chief Operating Officer, Klaus Goersch, said: “This will change the service we deliver at Heathrow, but at its heart, this is a really simple idea. It’s about trusting our people and empowering them, giving them everything they need to provide the very best service to our customers.”

The initiative places customer service at the heart of the airline’s operating model, and Goersch emphasised that the scheme is designed to encourage staff to ‘treat customers as they would their own family, and to own and resolve issues on the spot’. The move is the latest in a series of customer service-based initiatives by the carrier, which last year introduced Mandarin-speaking staff at Terminal Five, who work shifts to coincide with the departure and arrival of BA’s flights to China.