Customer relation has become an important paradigm for contemporary businesses towards enhancing the level of customer satisfaction. It acts as the differentiating point for the organizations towards turning the general customers into loyal customers (Choudhury and Harrigan 2014). However, developing sound customer relation requires dedication and time on the part of employees. The employees should have the ability to provide excellent customer service that exceeds the expectation of the customers. In such extent, training and development program presents with prime opportunity towards expanding the skills and knowledge base of the employees to provide excellent customer service (Dhar 2015). The ultimate goal of training and development is to upgrade the knowledge and skills of the employees on a continuous basis. In this way, highly trained and developed employees become extremely capable of providing satisfactory services as per their changing needs, which ultimately leads to positive customer relation. This research paper will be dealing with the usefulness of training and development in an organisational customer relation. Moreover, the study will choose Virgin Atlantic airline for specifically conducting the research.
Over the decade, customer relation aspect has become most significant aspect of modern business to achieve their organizational success. Great relationship and positive understanding with the customers leads to high level of customer satisfaction. As per recent study, the customers do not churn because of high prices, but they churn because of poor customer service and customer relation (Chathoth et al. 2016). Hence, warm customer relation is the prime aspect of leading business success. However, high level of customer relation always requires upgraded skills and knowledge on the part of employees. The objectivity of training and development and its continued learning process is directed towards enhancing the skills and knowledge of the employees (Navimipour and Soltani 2016). The upgraded educational policies in the training and development method help the employees to meet the dynamically changing expectation o the customers leading to positive customer relation. Hence, most of the reputed airline companies have given high level of focus on its training and development programs for upgrading the skills and knowledge level of the employees.
Training and development programs foster better understanding of the job responsibilities among the employees. Such programs make the employees competent enough to provide excellent customer service exceeding their expectations. Competent employees always remain at the top of the changing industry standard to provide highly standard customer service (Deery and Jago 2015). Hence, effective training and development programs are always positively associated with customer relation. However, the employers of Virgin Atlantic often found training and development expensive for their organization (Kang, Gatling and Kim 2015). Hence, they are giving less focus on enhancing the skills level of the employees. The organization is not also offering proper career development opportunities to the employees, which is discouraging them to provide satisfactory customer service. It is ultimately hampering the customer relation of the organization, as the employees are being incapable of showing positive behaviour and providing excellent customer service.
The focus of this research paper is on the exploration of the impact of training and development in organizational customer relation. Furthermore, the research has been focused specifically on Virgin Atlantic Airline for narrow down the research topic. Hence, the research is extremely significant for assessing the importance of training and development on the customer relation of airline organizations. It research paper will perfectly link the upgraded knowledge and skills of the employees with the satisfactory customer service of an organization. Effective training and development programs foster creative learning among the employees, which help them to add value in the customer service. Such value added customer service becomes the foundation of loyal customer relation for any organization. Hence, this research paper is extremely important for the contemporary business organization towards leading affirmative customer relation.
What is the research issue?
Training and development is extremely important for developing and upgrading the knowledge and skills level of the employees towards providing satisfactory customer service. Such highly competent employees are capable enough to exceed the expectation level of the customers, which foster loyal customer relation. However, the employers of Virgin Atlantic Airline consider training and development highly expensive for their overall business operation. Hence, such employers are giving less importance on their training and development programs. It is being quite difficult for the employees to provide satisfactory customer service within having upgraded training and development (Inkinen 2016).
How is it going to be explored?
This research has been conducted for resolving the current issue of Virgin Atlantic Airline. Moreover, the research study has investigated the current training and development practice of the organization. Furthermore, the research paper will identify several issues related to the training and development of the organization. The research paper will also suggest more useful training and development for leading positive customer relationship.
The shade light of the research paper will be on covering the current issues associated with the training and development program of Virgin Atlantic. The suggestions provided in this research would improve the customer relation of the organization.
The aim of the project research is to discuss the usefulness of training and development in Virgin Airline customer service.
Chapter 1: Introduction: This chapter will be associated with framing effective research objectives and research questions for gathering authentic research information. The chapter will also evaluate the significance and rationale of the research.
Chapter 2: Literature Review: This section will be associated with examination of previous studies related to the research topic. The chapter will also provide theoretical underpinning related to the research topic.
Chapter 3: Research Methodology: This chapter will choose most suitable research methodology appropriate for assessing authentic research information. Moreover, this section will be associated with explanation of appropriate research approach, research design, research strategy, data collection method and data analysis method.
Chapter 4: Finding and Data Analysis: This section will be associated with collection of wide range of secondary information. Such data will lead to accurate research result.
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendation: This chapter will provide brief conclusion of the overall research paper. Apart from that, this section will also link the research objectives with data analysis section and provide suitable recommendation for overcoming the research problem.
Training and development is the continuous learning program in an organization, which is intended towards enhancing the skills and knowledge level of the employees as per business requirement. According to Sung and Choi (2014), the learning action of training and development is strategic in nature that fosters knowledge sharing among the employees towards improving business horizon and customer service. Effective training and development upgrades the KSA (knowledge, skills and abilities) of the employees to align their customer service level with the changing requirement of the customers. Hence, highly trained and developed employees are always competent to provide excellent customer service that exceeds customer expectation. On the other hand, Dhar (2015) opined that excellent training and development programs enhance the communication power of the employees, which ultimately improve the level of communication of the employees with the customers. Hence, competent and trained employees of airline companies can provide compassionate customer service to the customers for fostering better customer relation.
Customer relations define the level of connection and relationship between organization and its customers. According to Ellinger and Ellinger (2014), customer relationship is the process of developing an ongoing connection between organization and its customers. The level of customer relationship is mostly measured through the degree of customer satisfaction through buying cycle and subsequent receipt of products and services. The goal of customer relations is to retain the existing customers and gain new customers through excellent customer service. On the other hand, Saks and Burke?Smalley (2014) opined that customer relation is the way in which the employees of an organization deal with its customers to provide excellent customer service. The success of Virgin Atlantic Airline is highly dependent on its level of customer relations. Hence, the organization gives extreme focus on enhancing the level of customer relations through providing excellent customer service. De Vos, De Hauw and Willemse (2015) opined that excellent customer relation establishes the goodwill between the service oriented organization and its customers.
Reactive approach is the traditional approach used in initiating training and development for the employees of an organization. Manuti et al. (2015) pointed out that reactive approach recognizes the training needs after a problem has occurred in an organization. Reactive approach implements new policies and procedures in response to the issues raised. On the other hand, Aragón, Jiménez and Valle (2014) argued that the problematic symptoms of an organization can become overwhelming for the employees and business in reactive approach because of its delayed nature.
Proactive approach aligns learning activities with corporate business strategies, which is highly focused in developing competencies among the employees. According to Lauer et al. (2014), proactive training approach is highly strategic in nature and it is planned carefully without any definite problem as its focus. Moreover, it is used for delivering new techniques and processes to the employees to strengthen existing expectation.
In active learning approach, the trainees of an organization play leading role in learning through exploring their issues and situational problems under the guidance of the trainers. Oladapo (2014) stated that active learning approach has lasting impact on the learning process of the employees, which helps in fining better solution to the challenging situation.
Cognitive theory focuses of training process, which leads to semi-permanent change in the mental processes or association. According to Chaudhuri and Bartlett (2014), cognitive theory is based in the concept that the employees process the information they receive rather that merely responding to the stimuli. The information processing in cognitive learning process is based on the thought process behind behaviour. On the other hand, Maynard and Gilson (2014) opined that in cognitive theory, changes in behaviour is observed, but it is only the indicator of what is going on in their brain. Cognitive training is used in the areas, where learners play important role in understanding and processing the information they receive and relate it to the information already existing in their memory
As per constructive learning theory, the employees of an organization actively involve themselves in their own learning and development. The employees bring their past work experience, personality and cultural background to their current job roles. Jundt, Shoss and Huang (2015) pointed out that in constructive learning is associated with constructing new concepts and ideas of the employees based on their previous knowledge and experience. It is simply the process of adjusting the mental models for accommodating with the new experience. On the other hand, Suleiman et al. (2015) opined that constructive learning always encourages the employees towards adapting new knowledge as per the dynamic business requirements.
Connectivism learning theory in digital age emphasizes on the role of cultural and social context on the learning process. According to Lau et al. (2017), Connectivism theory has recognized that learning is the process of connecting diverse information, opinions and resources. Social networking technology has expanded the ability of the employees to make connection with other proper around the globe for learning about stimulating topic. On the other hand, Robertson et al. (2015) opined that connectivism learning simply does not simply occur within an individual, but within and across the network. Hence, such learning develops diverse set of knowledge among the employees of an organization.
The IDIC Model has been developed to emphasize on building one-to-one relationship with the customers. The organizations can use this model to collect information regarding customer needs through their lifetime. Khodakarami and Chan (2014 opined that in organizations should first identify the customers and build deep understating with them. The customers represent different levels of values to the organizations and their needs are radically not equal from the organization. Jundt, Shoss and Huang (2015) pointed out that differentiation allows the organizations to devise and implement customer specific strategies for satisfying the individually different customer needs. It is the way of indentifying the top customers, non-profitable customers and large customers. Moreover, such actions help organizations to segment the customers properly for serving those segments properly. In this way, the organizations can provide customized and highly valued customer service to the customers to foster high level of competitive advantage.
Furthermore, frequent interaction with the customer ensures that the organizations have properly understood the expectation level of the customer and their relationship with brands. Organizations must improve level of interaction with the customers for leading better understating with the customer. Each successive interaction with the customers should be taken place in the context of their previous interaction. Moreover, the conversation should pick up the context of the previous conversation. Effective interaction with the customers provides better insights regarding the needs of the customers. Hence, the organizations can provide highly customized service as per the core needs of the customers. On the other hand, Chaudhuri and Bartlett (2014) opined that customizing the communication and offerings ensures that the expectations of the customer are met successfully and effectively. Moreover, the organizations should adapt some of its behaviour and offerings for satisfying the expressed needs of the customers. The mass customization process and tailored offerings would lead the organizations to gain high level of customer satisfaction.
Every profitable aviation organizations that compete at highest level, requires inculcating the significance of customer service and customer relation. The customer relation of aviation industry is highly dependent on providing customized and differentiated customer service. Likewise, the prime focus of Virgin Atlantic is to provide excellent customer service that exceeds the level of customer expectation. However, such excellent service is highly dependent on the competence level of the employees to perform their jobs excellently, which results in excellent customer service (De Vos, De Hauw and Willemse 2015). In this extent, training and development programs of an organization have a lot to do with improving the employee skills and knowledge to provide value added customer service.
Deery and Jago (2015) pointed out that most of training and development programs of aviation sectors are directed towards ensuring high level of security for the customers. There is no such difference between the training of pilots, workers of navigation service and airport and airline mechanics. Such training improves the traffic operation, save times and offer convenience to the passengers. However, while considering the training and development programs of Virgin Atlantic, the trainers of the organization mostly adopt traditional training and development program for the employees. Hence, such airline employees are not often able to provide convenient customer services to the customers, which ultimately lead to disappointment for the customers. On the other hand, Navimipour and Soltani (2016) opined that training and development programs ensure the customers are self-sufficient at all the time and have creative and autonomous skills to provide excellent customer service. It empowers the conventional skills level of the employees and ensures their self-maturity, courage and belief to positively deal with the customers. As per Inkinen (2016), mature and self reliant cabin crew employees are highly capable of meeting the instant needs and demands of the customer within the flight. However, the employers of Virgin Airline give less focus on improving the skills and confidence level of the employees. Hence, such employees often failed to provide instant service delivery and get delayed in providing required service. In this way, the organization is gradually hampering their customer relationship with the most valuable customers.
Apart from safety, security and convenience, airline organizations are also highly concerned about provide excellent service at the ground level for giving an overwhelming customer service. Maynard and Gilson (2014) pointed out that excellent training and development programs keep the ground staffs updated with all updated information regarding the flights. Hence, such ground staffs can provide all up-to-date information to the customers about the flights. In this way, the customers get a positive customer service from the organization, which ultimately leads to high level of customer relation. Furthermore, Jundt, Shoss and Huang (2015) opined that training and development program facilitate the flight attendants to provide excellent assistance to the customers inside the flight. However, with lack of adequate training and development, the flight attendants sometimes failed to provide proper direction and assistance to the customers inside the flights. Hence, the organization is recently facing lack of positive customer relationship with the customers.
Training and development programs are associated with several issues, which ultimately reduce their overall effectiveness of the programs. According to Stokoe (2014), organizations often face the failure of identifying the specific needs and weak areas of the employees. Hence, the trainers become incapable of providing specific training and development session for improving the specific key areas of the employees. On other hand, Oladapo (2014) opined that the trainers oftentimes face difficulties in providing upgraded training and development session for upgrading the knowledge and skills level of millennial employees. Moreover, traditional training methods may be ineffective to improve the knowledge and skills level of the employees as per contemporary customer needs.
Hassan et al. (2015) stated that most of the trainers face the difficulties of quantifying the effectiveness of the training and development session. In this way, the trainers get failed in adjusting with future training based on the current training result. The organizations often get failed in providing consistent training as per the changing business requirements. In such situation, it becomes difficult for the trainers to get the attendance of the trainees and their active participation. The trainers often have lack of upgraded knowledge to be provided to the employees for dealing the different types of changes in the customer needs.
In on the job training method, the new and less experienced employees are given some kinds of advices and instructions on their job floor from their supervisors and special instructors. According to Aragón, Jiménez and Valle (2014), on the job training method provides learning to the employees based on actual job condition rather than artificial job condition. However, Dhar (2015) argued that job the job training from the experience trainers may hamper the overall effectiveness of the training programs. In case of Virgin Atlantic, the organization offers such training to the employees, but the trainers do not have adequate experience to provide excellent learning to the employees.
Conference is carried out as meeting with the employees, where certain plan about the work is discussed with the employees. Such discussion helps the employees to gain practical knowledge regarding their job areas. Dhar (2015) pointed out that the employees can share their knowledge among each other by getting job experience from the conference method. British Airways mostly uses conference method for providing new ideas and skills to the employees regarding their new job requirements. Such training helps the trainers of the organizations to understand the individual problems of the employees. It helps the trainers to resolve the individual issues of the employees perfectly.
Apprenticeship Training is an effective combination of on-the-job training and classroom training, where employees earn while learning skills required performing any particular job. According to Chathoth et al. (2016), apprenticeship training is mostly provided to the technical staffs like electricians, welders, mechanics, craftsman and others under their expertise for each filed. While considering the evidence from EasyJet, it can be seen that the organization uses apprenticeship training for provide practical and expertise job knowledge the flight mechanics, electricians, pilots and others. However, Kang, Gatling and Kim (2015) opined that most of the employees are unwilling to adopt apprenticeship training, as have to go in some external training place for learning the job skills.
Vestibule Training is provided to the technical staffs, who mostly deal with technical equipments. In such training job education is provide to the employees in the workplace other than the main production plant. Deery and Jago (2015) pointed out that vestibule training is a kind of job education, where educational facilities are surrounded with real working condition and equipped mostly with actual production machineries. Virgin Atlantic uses vestibule training for the flight mechanics, where less than ten employees are supervised by one skilled trainer. However, the managers of the organization are reluctant about the proper arrangement of the training session because of its costly nature.
The literature review of the research has covered lots of areas regarding the topic of the research. However, there are still some areas, which are still underexplored. The literature review may have the issue of critical penetration in certain areas of training and development. On the other hand, the literature review has also face lack of adequate secondary sources, which can hamper the authenticity of the secondary information. On the other hand, the unexplored areas of the research can open the space for new research.
Research philosophy is the most effective method of collecting authentic information regarding the research topic. It mostly deals with the source, nature and knowledge development of the research. Most commonly used research philosophies are like positivism, interpretivism and realism philosophy. Positivism philosophy most gathers factual data regarding the research topic. Such factual information is highly trustworthy and authentic that can lead to authentic research result (Lewis 2015). On the other hand, Interpretivism philosophy collects social constructed data, which is mostly associated with the reality of the research. Such information facilitates in understanding the research topic properly (Choy 2014). Furthermore, realism is the mixed approach of positivism and interpretivism philosophy. Hence, this philosophy collects authentic information along with relevant factual information. This research paper has applied positivism philosophy, as it helps in gathering most authentic information about research area. Such philosophy has also helped in gathering more factual information towards enhancing the quality of the research result.
Research approach is the most useful method of collecting relevant and accurate information about the research areas. There are mostly two commonly used research approach used in the research, which are inductive approach and deductive approach. Inductive approach allows in framing new and innovative theories and models for gathering most relevant research information (Dumay and Cai 2015). It generalizes the collected research information from specific to general. On the other hand, deductive approach allows the application of previous theories and models for collecting most relevant and authentic information about the research areas (McCusker and Gunaydin 2015). Such approach actually generalizes the collected information from general to specific. This research paper has selected deductive approach for collected most useful research information. Such approach saves the time and budget of the research through application of previous theories and models. Furthermore, such approach has also facilitated in evaluating the research objectives and questions properly for reaching at accurate research result.
Research purpose assists in having a deep understanding regarding the different research variables. Moreover, it facilitates in having proper understanding regarding the topic of the research. Most frequently used research purposes are like explanatory, exploratory and descriptive purpose. Explanatory purpose identifies the relationship and links among different research variables (Fletcher 2017). It links the research variables with each other. On the other hand, exploratory purpose assists in recognizing the social causes behind the research topic. Furthermore, this purpose also helps in identifying the current issues associated with the research topic (Clandinin, Cave and Berendonk 2017). Descriptive purpose assists in providing actual explanation regarding the research topic. This research paper has selected descriptive purpose for conducting research. It has given a proper understanding regarding the topic of the research. Such purpose has facilitated in framing effective research objectives and question towards collecting most authentic and relevant research information. Hence, such purpose has definitely contributed in the quality of the research paper.
Research strategies are extremely significant in gathering most useful information about the research areas. The commonly used research strategies are focus group, case study, survey and interview. Survey and interview strategies are mostly used in primary researches. In survey method, survey questionnaires are distributed among the selected respondents of the research. On the other hand, interview strategy is associated with arranging effective interview session with the organizational heads of the concerned organization mentioned in the research (Vamsi Krishna Jasti and Kodali 2014). Focus group strategy collects information from the sources, which can be categorized into same category in terms of research topic. However, this research has used case study strategy for collecting secondary information. In case study method, different types of cases regarding the research topic have been investigated to gather most relevant information. Hence, this strategy has become extremely important for enhancing the quality of ultimate research result through collection of most authentic data sources.
Data collection is the most significant method of assembling the most authentic and reliable research information. There are two types of data collection methods for conducting research, which are primary method and secondary method. In primary method, quantitative and qualitative techniques are used for collecting authentic information. In quantitative technique, survey questionnaires are distributed among the selected respondents of the research. On the other hand, in qualitative technique interviews are arranged with the organizational heads of the concerned organization (Munn et al. 2014). However, this research paper is based on secondary method of data collection, where information about the research topic has been collected from various secondary sources. The research paper has mostly used authentic journals, websites, books, company in-house data and others from the secondary sources.
This research has been basically based on secondary method of data collection. Hence, the research paper has used secondary sources for collecting most authentic and useful information regarding the topic of the research. Moreover, the research study has used authentic journals, websites, books, company in-house data and others from the secondary sources for collecting different authentic secondary information relevant to the research topic.
Unlike statistical analysis, this research paper has used thematic data analysis method for evaluating the collected data in effective manner. In such analysis, different themes have been framed related to various research objectives and questions. The collected data from the secondary sources have been divided into different types of themes towards evaluating them properly and reaching at accurate research result.
The research can be completed successfully only through the compliance with the ethical standards. In case of this research, it was ensured that falsification of secondary data has been prevented for reaching at accurate research result. It has also been ensured that the collected data is only for the use of personal purpose and not for any commercial purpose. The collected data has been protected from any kind of unauthentic usage. Furthermore, the permission for the accessibility of secondary data has been ensured properly.
Virgin Atlantic is extremely conscious about enhancing its level of customer satisfaction. Hence, the most of the business activities of the organization is directed towards establishing positive customer relationship with the customers. Training and development method of Virgin Atlantic is also an extremely important part of the organization that contributes in the customer relation. The organization is highly effective on providing induction training towards the maturity of the new employees. The e-Learning culture of Virgin intranet provide consistent training to air pilot, air mechanics, airport staffs and others as per the changing customer requirements. However, for the existing employees, the organization mostly uses on-the-job training method for providing practical job knowledge and skills to the employees (Karatepe and Vatankhah 2014). Moreover, the organization uses different training methods for different types of employees for better developing their skills and knowledge.
From the above figure, it can be seen that Virgin Atlantic mostly provides on-the-job training to most of the employees. Moreover, the organization uses this training and development method for most of the ground staff members towards providing high level of customer welcome. On the other hand, the organization applies apprenticeship training method on 25% employees, who are mostly cabin crew employees. Such training is provided to the employees with an intension to provide efficient and prompt service to the customers within the flights. Furthermore, the organization also uses demonstration as the part of training and development program to provide practical job knowledge to the employees. However, the training is provided to very less percentage of employees, who are mostly pilots of flights. In such training, the employees are provided with practical demonstration of a particular job. Such practical demonstration gives hands on experience to the employees for performing any specific job. Apart from that, Virgin Atlantic Airline offers vestibule training to the technical staffs and mechanics (Ford, Henderson and O’Hare 2014). However, very fewer percentages of employees are provided with such types of training. Moreover, 15% employees out of total employees are provided with such types of employees. Such training provides educational facilities to the employees based on actual working condition. Moreover, actual equipments are used for providing practical work experience to the employees based on real job condition. In this way, it can be assessed that Virgin Atlantic Airline mostly uses traditional method of training and development program.
Virgin Atlantic Airline is concerned about their training and development methods for enhancing the skills and knowledge level of the employees. The intension behind their concern is to provide excellent customer service and build positive customer relation with the customers. However, there are some issues associated with the training and development program of the organization. The employers of the organization consider training programs as highly costly for their organization (Franks, Hay and Mavin 2014). Hence, the employers are reluctant to adopt varieties of training and development methods for improving the skills and capabilities of the employees.
From the above table, it can be found that the business cost of Virgin Atlantic is being increased in year on year basis. Moreover, the business cost of the organization has been increased by £10 million from the year 2013 to 2017. The managers of the organization have considered the increased training cost for their increased business cost. Hence, the managers are being less focused on offering versatile training programs to the employees. On other hand, Virgin Atlantic is also incapable of incorporating adequate numbers of modern training and development methods for upgrading the knowledge and skills level of the employees for meeting the changing and updated needs and demands of the employees. Hence, the trainers of the organization are not capable of providing consistent and upgraded knowledge and skills as per the changing business requirements.
Virgin Atlantic has lack of highly efficient trainers, who have high level of industry knowledge. Hence, trainers often get failed to provide consistent training to the employees as per advanced industry knowledge (O’dea, O’connor and Keogh 2014). Hence, ultimate development of the employees gets hampered with the lack of the adequate knowledge of the trainers. Furthermore, the trainers of the organizations also face issues in proper measuring the training effectiveness for the employees. Hence, the it becomes difficult for the trainers to ensure ultimate skills and talent development of the employees even after completion of the training.
From the above figure, it has been found that every year the number of actually developed employees is quite less than the actual numbers of employees under training programs. Moreover, average 5% employees are not being fully developed through the training and development program. It indicates that the trainers are being incapable of measuring the training effectiveness for the employees. Ultimately, such partially developed employees are again facing difficulties in providing satisfactory and high level of customer service as previous even after completing their training and development course.
Theme 3: Comparison of Training and Development Programs of Virgin Atlantic with Other Airlines
While considering the excellent service quality of British Airways, it can be found that the customer satisfaction is mostly dependent on cabin crew service, ground staff service and online customer service. British Airways spends more than 5% of its annual revenue in training and development programs. On the other hand, EasyJet has been found to spend 3.67% of its annual revenue in staff training (Roessger 2015). Considering the programs, British Airways has been found to actualize a unified online learning portal especially for the cabin crew staff. This portal helps the staffs as a form of self-learning point through which active and latest skills required for excellent service is shared both in the form of media and presentations. EasyJet, on the other hand, has been found to carry out 130,000 days cabin crew training in the year 2016 (Rubinstein et al. 2016). This organization has set up separate resources for training volunteer cabin crew so that CAA standards are met. Both online and offline training programs are carried out each year.
Virgin Atlantic Future Flyers Program is the best pilot training school that grooms and creates new pilots. Virgin Care is also one of the well-known centers for staff training and development. However, it has been found that Virgin Atlantic spends only 3.12% of its revenue in training and development schemes (Cheng and Chen 2015). Most of the training modules and sessions are offline based. This consists of on-the-job training, practical assessment, project-based simulation modules and combination of other role-based trainings. Moreover, the organization lacks online eLearning portal and therefore it fails to provide real-time knowledge and skills for all its cabin crew.
From the above figure, it is prominent that the passenger load factor has not even reached at least 50% for the Little Red service. Therefore, it is evident that customer satisfaction is one of the main reasons, which is lacking in Virgin Atlantic. The service quality of the direct in-contact service delivery staffs such as the cabin crews might not be satisfactory enough for retaining customers.
The training and development activities of the organization can be considered as traditional in nature. It depends on offline training schooling with 80% of its on-board cabin crew training activities confined under the following:
Therefore, from the comparison, it is evident that Virgin Atlantic does invest enough in disruptive technology for human resource training and development.
Comparing with the past, at present the organization is facing more than 11% increase in employee attrition. This might be because of the reason that employees are getting better exposure in other similar companies. Earlier, it has been found that the organization largely depends on traditional means of training provision and this might be the reason for poor employee relation. Employees are not getting advanced skill development training and this has resulted in poor customer service. The crisis management and contingency situation advanced skill development training programs are lacking in the organization. Eventually, the employees are failing to provide distinctive care to the customers.
Virgin Atlantic is still following mostly traditional training method instead of adopting modern training method. Moreover, the organization tries to reinforce the existing knowledge and skills of the employees through traditional training method. Hence, the airline staffs of the organization sometimes become failure to meet the dynamic and changing needs and demands of the customers. The organization offers on-the-job training to the ground staffs for providing warm and positive welcome to the customers at ground level. However, with the rashness of the training programs give the employee very less scope of gaining proper job knowledge. Over 1-year time period from 2014-2015, 25% customers of the organization have made complaints that they have received satisfactory flight information and ground assistance from the ground staffs (Cromie et al. 2015). In this way, such training method Virgin Atlantic is being ineffective towards leading positive customer satisfaction and customer satisfaction.
From the above figure, it can be seen that the passenger transport volume of Virgin Atlantic Airways is fluctuating quite a lot in every year. It indicates that the customers of this airline company are not getting satisfactory service from the airline staffs. It means that the organization is being failed to develop the knowledge and skills level of the employees to provide high valued airline service. The customer complaint mails the organization on the year 2016 have demonstrated that 30% customers are dissatisfied with the service provided by the cabin crew staffs (Telegraph.co.uk 2018). Moreover, the training and development of the organization is quite ineffective to provide satisfactory service delivery knowledge to the employers in terms of directing seats, delivering foods, safety of luggage and many more. In this way, the training and development methods of the organization are not well enough to foster positive customer relation.
From the above table, it can be assessed that the percentages of repeated customers are gradually decreasing over the years in Virgin Atlantic Airways. Despites of lower prices, lack of satisfactory service from the airline employees is discouraging the customers to repeatedly adopt the airline service of this organization. Hence, the ineffective training and development programs of the organization are directly linked with lower customer relationship.
The underperforming employees of Virgin Atlantic are not satisfied with the traditional training method followed by the trainer. Apart from that, the employees are not also satisfied with the quality level of their trainers, who provide them practical knowledge about their job. Hence, Virgin Atlantic should immediately adopt modern and contemporary training methods for providing consistent job knowledge regarding their specific jobs. Moreover, role playing can be an excellent modern training method, which can be applied for providing training to the ground staffs and cabin crew staffs. In such training, the ground staffs and cabin crew staffs of the airways would be assuming the roles and acting out the situation before they face the situation at their workplace. It would definitely enhance the interpersonal skills of the employees, which would help them to deal with the customers effectively and provide them satisfactory customer service (Lee and Hyun 2016).
The organization should continue with their Future Flyers Program training program for better developing the skills and knowledge level of the pilots. Such training program already is a modern training method for developing the skills and knowledge level of the pilots. It provides hands on experience to the pilots for better safety and security of the flights during flying. On the other hand, the organization can also conduct extensive training session for enhancing and developing the knowledge and skills level of the employees. The realistic job preview and psychometric employee section tools of this training would enhance the customer interaction skills of the employees. It would help the airline staffs to understand the needs and demands of the customers properly. It would also be a better scope for the employees to provide their suggestions towards performing their specific job in an innovative way (Bjerregaard, Haslam and Morton 2016). Hence, the airline staffs will be able to provide value added customer service to the customers. Apart from that, the organization should hire properly and experience trainer for conducting demonstration training. Proper job demonstration based on practical and specific job would lead turn the employees high efficient in providing values added customer service, which would ultimately foster positive customer relation.
Conclusion
Virgin Atlantic has been found to deliver the best training and grooming sessions in the entire UK aviation industry just after British Airways. However, at present it lacks in delivering innovative skill development programs. Virgin Airways mostly follows traditional training and development, which is quite inconsistent to develop the employees as per contemporary industry standard. This has resulted in a gap between expected and actual customer satisfaction level. Service quality is the main factor that creates the market competition in the UK aviation industry. Virgin Atlantic offers lower price than its competitors, but the service quality is off-standard. Since the employees are not well-trained they are not able to differentiate their service. On the other hand, while considering the query resolving status queue, Virgin Atlantic is not being able to deliver prompt solution. The service elements such as catering service, hospitality service and ground staff service have not improved from the past. The points of dissatisfaction among the consumers are mostly related to service infrastructure and poor hospitality.
The customer satisfaction is largely affected due to poor service. The employees are not given training frequently. Therefore, they are not getting adequate idea regarding hospitality that is being followed in the industry. Moreover, the organization is not able to share training ideas though any online medium. This has resulted in dissatisfaction among most of the employee, as they are not able to get adequate raining in the required time frame. Therefore, overall it can be said that the training and development activities are poor in nature due to which they are employees are losing confidence. Moreover, since the employees are not satisfied or motivated, they are failing to deliver extraordinary service.
Objective 1: To evaluate the training and development policies in Virgin Atlantic
This objective has been perfectly linked with the data analysis section. Moreover, theme 1 and theme 2 of data analysis section has been linked with this particular data analysis section. The intension of the objective was to explore the training and development policies followed by the Virgin Atlantic Airways. From theme 1, it can be seen that Virgin Atlantic follows traditional training methods or policies instead of modern and contemporary training methods or policies. Theme 2 has assessed the issues of training and development policies Virgin Atlantic. Hence, the intension of the objective has been successfully achieved through these themes.
Objective 2: To establish the link between Virgin Atlantic training and development method and the company’s customer retention
Theme 3 and Theme 4 have been successfully linked with this objective. Theme 3 has compared the training and development policies of Virgin Atlantic with the other airlines like British Airways and EasyJet. From this analysis, it can be seen that the customers of competitor airlines are much more satisfied than the Virgin Atlantic with the service of highly trained and developed employees. On the hand, the theme 4 has directly assessed the impact of training and development of the Virgin Atlantic Airways on its customer relation. It has been found that the less trained and underdeveloped employees of this organization are not capable of providing value added customer service.
Objective 3: To recommend how Virgin Atlantic can use its employee training and development method to sustain and increase its market customer base
This objective has been perfectly linked with the data analysis section of the research. Theme 5 has suggested the training and development method to be adopted by the Virgin Atlantic in future. It has been found that the organization should adopt modern training and development methods for providing better customer service leading to positive customer relation.
From the research, it has been investigated that Virgin Atlantic Airways has been following traditional and conventional training methods for developing the skills and knowledge of the employees. However, such training methods are being incapable developing exact skills and knowledge of the employees to serve value added customer service. Hence, the organization should adopt modern training and development methods like role playing, demonstration, extensive training and others.
From the research, it can be seen that Virgin Atlantic Airways has lack of highly efficient trainer for providing efficient training to the employees. Hence, the organization should immediately hire highly experienced and efficient trainers towards developing the employees through proper training.
From the data analysis, it can be seen that the trainers of Virgin Atlantic is facing the issues of port training assessment for proper development of the employees. Hence, the organization should immediately adopt proper tools for post training assessment through proper tests. It will minimize the gaps of training among the employees.
The research is also indicating that the training and development methods of Virgin Atlantic Airways are quite inconsistent to meet the industry standards of airline industry. Hence, the organization should immediately focus on making their training programs consistent with the industry standard for adding high value in their customer service.
The final result of the research study could have been more authentic and accurate, if it was possible to get access to more numbers of secondary sources. The secondary data collection method was quite time consuming. Hence, the research faced the issues of time constraints. Moreover, it was not possible to access more numbers of secondary sources due to lack of time. Apart from that, the research has also faced the issues of budget constraints. It was quite difficult to get access to more authentic secondary sources due to budget limitation of the research.
The research paper can be an authentic secondary source for the further researchers. Moreover, the subsequent researchers can access huge secondary information from this research, if they conduct their research on same types of research topic. The suggestions provided in the research can also improve the training and development policies of Virgin Atlantic towards leading high level of positive customer relation.
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