Arik Air has become notorious for delays, rudeness, high handedness, broken down processes and annoying management haughtiness...all ingredients of brand suicide.
I am constantly regaled with various levels of consumer complaints about Arik Air...from multiple hour delays and schedule inconsistencies to rude ground staff, smelly cabins...even outright flight cancellations without any notice to checked in passengers (that last one happened to ME! I still have a boarding pass issued by Arik which they did not honor...the flight left without me though I was on the tarmac! Arik Air denied me boarding because they claimed the 1st flight on which I was checked in was actually the 3rd flight o so... the second flight for the day was moved to the 1st position (Arik logic)...kinda confused sha but typical of Arik's operations in recent times.
As if that was not enough, Arik's management added salt to injury. When, in response to the Director General of Consumer Protection Council's admonition to them to improve their service delivery,Arik took out a full page advert in most national dailies (I read the one in The Nation)to vilify her person and question her authority to evaluate their service delivery, my heart sunk as "another Nigerian brand bit the dust". Below are excerpts of Arik's offensive publication:
" As a public servant and a Director General, we expect Mrs. Umenyi to choose and calibrate her statements more judiciously. Sadly, this was not the case. We would have been obliged to ignore her regrettable and unfortunate comments, but as a responsible corporate citizen we are constrained to set the records straight in the interest of our traveling guests and the general public.
Arik Airline operates between 136 and 146 flights daily carrying no fewer that 4,000 passengers on both its local and international routes. Of course we aspire to provide excellent services to all our traveling guests, but it would be irresponsible to judge our services by “speaking with a few customers”, as the Director General has done.
It is bad enough that the Director General based her disparaging comments on her discussions with “a few” nameless and faceless customers. It is worse that she saved her venom until she had a personal axe to grind with the airline and she obviously thought the best way to get even was to use her office to incite the public....".
What irked me most was the reference to its customers as "a 'few' faceless and nameless customers"! Even if only one customer complained, the least Arik owed us all was to listen, show empathy and try to rectify the issue. But obviously, we are mere cash cows to the Arik management... not individuals who trusted them enough to give our hard earned naira in exchange for good service.
Well, I take exception to such a derogatory and insulting label from a brand I chose to patronize! No sir! I am neither faceless nor nameless... my name is Olusola Ibileye Sarah Salako and I deplore Arik Air's customer service delivery as substandard; unprofessional; high handed; confused and unacceptable!
Maybe other Nigerians (and foreign tourists here on business or pleasure... yes, there is a lot of pleasure tourism going down in Naija) don't mind to be referred to as 'nameless or faceless' but I do!! That is why I am writing this blog... so my protest is documented and referenced.
If you feel just as strongly about Arik Air's unacceptable behavior, do something about it too...post it on all social networks, bb and all the messengers etc. Make your voice heard...or live with crappy service for life...from uncaring and insensitive brands like Arik Air!
Sunday, July 17, 2011
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