Dive Brief:
- United Airlines executives credited the airline’s strong quarterly performance, with revenue up 2.5% year over year to $14.8 billion, to several years of CX-focused investments in technology and employees during a Q3 2024 earnings call Wednesday.
- The company has improved its resilience as demonstrated during adverse weather events and outages like the CrowdStrike incident, and it launched training to improve the safety and professionalism of its pilots this year, according to United President Brett Hart.
- The investments have led to a steady increase in United’s NPS score, which is up 5 points from the third quarter last year, according to Hart. The airline’s NPS has grown 24 points in total since Q3 2019.
Dive Insight:
United’s combined investments in technology and employees are improving the travel experience, even those dealing with canceled flights, executives said.
The airline has invested $14 billion in employee-facing technology over the past decade to improve customer service, according to EVP and Chief Customer Officer Linda Jojo, who plans to retire in January.
“We believe that United has the best hub cities, the best network and the best people,” Jojo said during the call. “But to create an airline that customers choose to fly, we need to deliver a great customer experience.”
United employees become particularly important in the face of unexpected delays. More than 7,000 fliers received help from live United airport agents during a recent storm in Houston, including workers at airports that weren’t impacted by the storm.
The United app’s Agent on Demand feature, which helps agents collaborate across airports, was part of this success, according to Jojo. The tool gives customers multiple options to contact live agents while helping United redirect its staff to assist with the areas where they are needed most.
The combination of employees and technology is designed to support CX in smaller ways as well. One of Jojo’s early decisions when she became CCO in 2022 was to issue iPhones to flight attendants to help them deliver more personalized service.
“These devices now help our flight attendants deliver more personalized service from recognizing someone's birthday, to offering in-the-moment care, to sharing connecting gate information, building stronger connections with our customers and driving our higher NPS scores along the way,” Jojo said.
