Frontier Airlines Gives the Silent Treatment

What do you do when your merger with a competitor collapses, and you're levied a $224 million fine from the U.S. Department of Transportation for failing to refund customers' cancelled flights during the pandemic?

Of course, the only solution is to cut customer service! 

Frontier Airlines made that calculation last week, when they permanently pulled the plug on telephone customer support.

A call to their previously working toll-free help line now features a recorded message about how Frontier keeps fares low by NOT offering telephone support, encouraging customers to use a chat bot, WhatsApp, and social media instead.

Frontier probably thinks they are the vanguard on this. That the telephone is the hand-churned butter of customer contact mechanisms.

Frontier is wrong.

My new national study on business responsiveness - The Time to Win - uncovered this relevant finding:

74% of American consumers prefer telephone over all other contact methods when needing to communicate with a business.

I'm a proponent of alternative, tech-enabled customer communication channels. There's definitely a time and a place for chatbots, text messages, social media and beyond. 

But we cannot forget - as Frontier evidently has - that customers do not randomly select their contact mechanisms. They use the contact mechanism with which they are most comfortable, and with which they have the highest estimate of likely satisfaction.

My prior research found that when customers do NOT use phone or email, they tend to use several different contact mechanisms simultaneously in a "spray and pray" approach.

I suspect Frontier's internal analysis indicates a net savings by eliminating phone. But those savings will be frittered away by trying to tie together and act upon a bunch of WhatsApp messages and tweets, not to mention the cost of overall customer dissatisfaction. 

Sure, Frontier Airlines isn't a brand that seeks to use customer experience as a differentiator. It's about low cost, period. 

But The Time to Win found that 2/3 of customers say that speed and responsiveness is as important to them as price. 

You must communicate with customers in the channels THEY prefer, not the channels your business prefers.  

Note that in July-September of this year alone, Frontier turned a profit of $58 million, and currently have $674 million in cash on hand. 

Frontier is cutting off their phone to spite their face. 

THE BOOKS REPORT

I spend more time than ever on Instagram, as my desire to be on Facebook has waned, and my interest in being part of the maelstrom at Twitter is practically nil. 

Plus, I've built up a big following on my tequila-oriented Instagram account so I've been studying the ins and outs of IG quite a bit. 

If you want to improve results for you and/or your business on Instagram, get the all-new Instagram for Dummies book by my pal Jenn Herman. 

Make sure to get the 2022, 2nd edition (green cover) because a LOT has changed in the 18 months since the 1st edition published. 

Jay's Faves

As mentioned, I'm a big tequila guy. 

If you or someone you love is an agave fan, I created the ultimate gift guide for tequila lovers. Presents at all price points! 

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