As an accounting firm coach, consultant and mentor I often look at things in the world with my clients in mind. Ideas and lessons can come from all sorts of places. And Johannesburg airport is one of those places. Some context first. In April/May Kate and I spent three weeks in Africa then a week in Mauritius. As part of that we passed through Johannesburg airport on five different occasions. This included a visit to the South African Airways lounge and the British Airways lounge.
Sadly, the airport experience for Kate and I was not as positive as we would have liked. Not terrible, but if the airport leaders had truly put themselves in the shoes of the customer it could have been so much better.
I regularly talk with clients about the idea of a Client Journey Map. I also talk about this as part of the client service module in my Manager Development Program. I was first introduced to the idea of a Client Journey Map by Julie Littlechild. She has a business called Absolute Engagement helping accountants and financial planners in the USA. She presented at the AICPA Engage conference in Las Vegas in 2019 and what she said really resonated with me. To quote her:
A Client Journey Map provides a single view of the experience, through the eyes of the clients who are exactly right for your business, using his or her motivations and challenges to trigger opportunities to engage and innovate.
She had the diagram below to explain it further:
Which brings us back to Johannesburg airport to allow me to demonstrate this.
Example 1 What gate does my flight go from?
One of the stages that users of any airport go through is after they pass through the security and immigration controls (the latter only for international travel) and get to the “airside” part of the terminal. My view is that nearly everyone then wants to find the gate that their flight is leaving from. If you have come off a connecting flight as we did on a few occasions you have a boarding pass but that pass does not identify the gate as it was not known at the time of checking in at another airport. Even if you checked in at the airport you are at it strikes me most people want to look on the screens at the airport to confirm that the gate number shown agrees with that on the boarding pass. (In my experience there is often a conflict!) This seems like a pretty simple thing to do which brings reassurance to travellers. But at Johannesburg airport it is very hard to get that reassurance. Unlike most airports l’ve ever been to it fails to deliver this for two reasons:
- Only a very small number of flights are displayed on screens in the airport and they are flights that are quite often closed or where departure is imminent.
- Most of the screens only display the flights for a short period of time before they default back to a screen that basically says OR Tambo Johannesburg Airport. The screens stay like this for a frustratingly long period of time. Totally useless.
I did manage to find a person sitting behind an information desk who was able to tell me the gate number for our flight but there only seemed to be one of these and it is a big airport.
Example 2 In the lounge.
South African Airways has a lounge which we were able to use while waiting to depart on our flight to Mauritius. It seems to me there are a few things that travellers want from a lounge:
- Good toilets and possibly showers too
- A place to charge phones and computers
- Food and drink
- A place to relax or do some work away from the hustle and bustle of the main airport
The SAA lounge is relatively new and a pleasant place to be. In respect of 2 and 4 it delivered well. In respect of 1. it initially felt like the location of the toilets must be a state secret. There was no obvious signage directing lounge users. Look at the picture below which is looking toward where I eventually found the toilets. Any signage? No! Such a simple thing.
To be fair to SAA, poor signage is a common gripe I have in airports. I don’t believe the leaders of many have truly put themselves in the shoes of the customer and understood their needs.
In respect of 3. it would be fair to say there was a reasonable selection of food and drink. But when it came to the drink there was no self-service option. Not even for water. And that’s the thing I found really crazy. Almost inevitably every traveller wants water. We’ve just been through security where they make sure you don’t have any water so it is your first reaction to seek it out. To get water in the SAA lounge you have to go to the counter and ask for it. Easier said than done as this counter is for coffee and tea too as well as all other drinks. It was operated by a couple of people who appeared demotivated. See the picture below of the only source of still water in the entire lounge. Again, dare I say, total madness!
Let’s now bring this back to your accounting firm (or any other business). When was the last time your leaders truly put themselves in the shoes of the clients and walked through what the experience is like for them. What is the client (or prospect) thinking, feeling or doing at each stage of the journey with you? And having identified that how could you actively support the clients better at each stage?
A simple example to finish with. Let’s say you are my accountant. You are doing my year end tax work for my company and for Kate and I and you tell me it is going to take 6 weeks. (By the way that is too long but that’s a topic for another day.) What am I likely to be feeling, thinking or doing during that 6 week period? At some point I’m probably going to think “I wonder if the accountant is on track to deliver when they said they would?” “I’ve not heard so I guess it’s OK.” I might even be a little nervous or worried that the deadline won’t be met. If you as my accountant had sent me a text or email or made a quick call to me at say the 3 week mark to let me know it is all on track that would put my mind at ease and reinforce the idea of great client service.
Get your team involved in this – walk through the client experience and find ways to make it better. There are thousand of accountants who can do what you do from a technical standpoint. My view is that the client experience is one of the only true differentiators you have.
Learn from Johannesburg airport and don’t waste an opportunity to shine.