Ryanair promises better customer service & new website

Europe’s biggest low cost airline Ryanair probably finally realized things won’t work like this forever. The Irish firm, this week voted the worst of the 100 biggest brands serving the British market by readers of consumer magazine “Which?”, said on Friday it would become more friendly towars their customers. This means limiting on fining customers over bag sizes, lowering excessive fees for printing the boarding card directly at the airport and general overhaul of the way it communicates.

“We should try to eliminate things that unnecessarily piss people off,” Chief Executive Michael O’Leary said at the company’s annual general meeting, after numerous shareholders complained about the impact of customer service on sales.

“I am very happy to take the blame or responsibility if we have a macho or abrupt culture. Some of that may well be my own personal character deformities,” O’Leary said. He announced no significant management changes were planned during the roll-out of the new customer service model and he had no intention of stepping down after shareholders pinned much of the blame on him for the company’s abrupt style.

We all know how hard it is to book a single ticket on Ryanair website with tons of useless offers being constantly taking over the booking process and endless captcha forms slowing down the whole purchase. O’Leary said Ryanair planned in the coming year to improve its website because it was harder to use than the site of easyJet, its biggest budget rival. He said Ryanair would create a communications unit that responds to customer complaints “hopefully quickly” using Twitter and telephone texts.

Let’s see if this is just yet another Ryanair’s way to get more attention or if we actually see some positive changes in Ryanair’s customer service.