Author praises Jet2 and Hays’ bosses for ‘great customer service’ in new book

The author of a new book has heralded the bosses of Jet2 and Hays Travel as two of the UK’s best customer-focused leaders but criticised the travel sector for having the biggest gap between good and bad service.

Start with the Customer: How to Deliver World-class Customer Service has been written by former John Lewis customer experience director Peter Cross, alongside Jo Causon, chief executive of the Institute of Customer Service.

Cross, former business partner of retail expert Mary Portas, said: “Steve [Heapy] and Irene [Hays] are two of the greatest customer-focused leaders in the country, that’s why the people who work there love it. It all starts with the leaders.”

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Describing customer service overall as “going in the wrong direction for 10 years”, he identifies travel as an industry of “extreme highs and lows” with some of the best and worst service globally.

Cross said: “There are parts of the travel industry I don’t think are doing service well at all. The gap between the good and the bad is probably the biggest. There is no industry where there is such a discrepancy between very good and very bad than travel. It’s an industry of contradictions.”

He highlighted airlines as an example of when customers could be let down, such as lack of support when flights are cancelled.

Cross said: “The airline industry is particularly bad because they disappear when things go wrong. These are the times when human need is at its greatest because you are stranded.”

Commenting on the automation of the customer journey, he said: “When it works it is amazing, but when it doesn’t work, this is the test of the customer experience.”

The book, out on September 8, quotes Jet2 chief executive Heapy saying: “There is no excuse for not being there for people if things go wrong. Even if you are short-staffed, grab a microphone, hand out bottles of water, take responsibility and people will view the problem differently.”

In Hays’ interview for the book, the Hays Travel owner describes customer service as “the core of everything we do”, and makes a plea for more businesses to follow suit.