Comments on: When Booking a Flight, Customers Must Confront the Airlines’ Extra Baggage http://www.irrationalcustomers.com/2010/02/01/when-booking-a-flight-customers-must-confront-the-airlines-extra-baggage/ Just another WordPress weblog Thu, 25 Mar 2010 20:29:57 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 By: Suranga Rajapakse http://www.irrationalcustomers.com/2010/02/01/when-booking-a-flight-customers-must-confront-the-airlines-extra-baggage/comment-page-1/#comment-150 Suranga Rajapakse Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:02:39 +0000 http://www.irrationalcustomers.com/?p=136#comment-150 In my opinion, I think the reaction of Airlines to this tactic (I must try it on Airlines here in the UK!) appears to be driven more as a punitive measure than as a cost-related one. Often I find that airlines, as with many companies, view the customer as the enemy, a shrewd an devious (possibly wrinkled and with a hunch) character who's always looking for loopholes in service to take advantage of. As such, the instinctive reaction is to close down the loophole by making crazy charges that deter the future practice of the same. Perhaps organisations are better off viewing such consumer behaviour as serendipitous sources of market research that highlight a gap in the consumer experience. By welcoming such opportunities to better their services in comparison to competitors (like Southwest), they can gain competitive advantage by simply reacting to consumer needs that were never assumed (as in some market research) but made explicit by the target market itself? In my opinion, I think the reaction of Airlines to this tactic (I must try it on Airlines here in the UK!) appears to be driven more as a punitive measure than as a cost-related one. Often I find that airlines, as with many companies, view the customer as the enemy, a shrewd an devious (possibly wrinkled and with a hunch) character who’s always looking for loopholes in service to take advantage of. As such, the instinctive reaction is to close down the loophole by making crazy charges that deter the future practice of the same.

Perhaps organisations are better off viewing such consumer behaviour as serendipitous sources of market research that highlight a gap in the consumer experience. By welcoming such opportunities to better their services in comparison to competitors (like Southwest), they can gain competitive advantage by simply reacting to consumer needs that were never assumed (as in some market research) but made explicit by the target market itself?

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