Training & Development Course Project

Contents Introduction/ Company Overview 3 Learning Style 3 Training Objectives 5 Analysis 7 Conclusion 8 References 9

Southwest Airline was established on June 18, 1971 with three Boeing 737. It provided its services to San Antonio, Dallas, and Texas-Houston. It is in 1989 that the company attained its first billion-dollar income form the flight services and thus became among the major airlines. Since then, the airline company has realized more revenue and expanded its operations to serve and offer more locations of travel. The company later merged with the AirTran Airways which made it among the biggest companies offering flight services both locally and transnationally. The acquirement of the AirTran Airways will result in a total of 47,000 staffs to “serve more than 100 million customers yearly” (Southwest, 2015) the operations and the number of flights per day will increase to 94 destinations domestically and 3,600 flights per day. Also, there will be other destinations outside the United States such as Belize City, Belize. Southwest Airlines Company encounters a negative customer perception due to the pending court cases which are associated with the customers and the customer service and hence damages the company image in the airline industry. Most of these lawsuits are based on passenger complaints which continually affect its image in the airline industry. As a result, there is a training need which should be focused on the in-flight attendants to improve customer service.

Their various ways in skills may be taught to different people and most times may vary depending on the individual. There are four basic learning styles which include; using visual aids, verbal lectures, through social interactions and by reading useful texts. Other learning styles include; kinesthetic where one learns by physical interaction with tasks, learning of patterns and use of logic thinking. All these are useful ways to impact knowledge and pass down skills.

As a way to pass on skills to the intended audience, there are various learning styles that can be incorporated to achieve the set objectives. When it comes to learning, the styles to be used in the training program should be identified to get the best results. As a way to learn, the trainee should be directly involved in the learning process. Trainees should be allowed to set their own aspired goals and objectives so that they can each have an obligation to towards meeting them. Additionally, employees should as well be allowed to choose a learning style they feel they can understand the changes and the new skills to be taught for the best of their understanding. This way, involving them becomes essential and helps in towards a collective goal to achieve good results. The chosen learning styles ought to convey intellectual skills, knowledge as well as making trainees to individually realize and have a better understanding of their abilities.

Training should include as much practical work just as there are theoretical sessions. The employees will be directed on how to apply the new skills in the place of work through demonstrations as well as have supervision during training as a way to enhance their understanding on different practices at work. Trainees in this case being flight attendants have the privilege to acquire skills which the can incorporated into their daily activities as they strive to improve their quality of their service to customers. Therefore, they have to work to improve their performance by learning new skills which are brought about to address and reduce the frequency of customer complaints to improve the overall performance.

Goal orientation has been found to have quite a significant influence on the amount of the efforts exerted by those attendants in expanding their learning skills (“Training Needs Assessment Survey”, (n.d)). Trainees with advanced levels of learning orientation will then be able to focus on their devotion to the task beforehand. Moreover, learning orientation will ensure that goals are set around the learning as well as the experiment aspects that concern new skills to enable flight attendants to provide customer service effectively to travelers.

The training will also involve on-going feedback through discussions and supervision. The employees will discuss and assist one another in the implementation of their newly acquired skills in supporting and addressing customers’ needs and concerns. The discussions may also be held regularly as a way to follow through on the performance cycle to ensure the effectiveness of the training program. Supervisors will be key facilitators to the process as their role will be to oversee the work done by the attendants. They will additionally be required to report on any changes in the staffs’ performance as well as address the issues and/or areas that may require urgent redress or improvement.

Outcomes: Improve the knowledge and acquire skills to better serve their customers.

Criterion of performance: the attendants will be in a position to listen to their customers’ concerns attentively and attend to their needs in a friendly and polite manner to provide solutions.

Condition: the attendants have to maintain professionalism when attending to customers in a personable way.

Training Objective 1: The attendants will be in a position to seek an understanding with their customers while maintaining professionalism by making use of skills and knowledge acquired from the training.

Outcome desired: Provide an assurance to passengers for their security that they are in capable hands

Criterion: The attendants will ensure proper communication of security instructions to the passengers before take-off to and also ensure the customers’ satisfaction is maintained.

Condition: This will have to happen every time before a plane takes off.

Training Objective 2: The communication of the safety instructions is done before a plane takes off and the passengers are assured of security in case there are security threats.

Outcome desired: Attendants to seek assistance when needed.

Criterion: Incase a customer’s concern is not solved within 10minutes, a senior attendant can be involved for assistance.

Condition: A higher ranking attendant can be involved in the event a flight attendant is not able to address a customer’s concern.

Training objective 3: The in-flight attendants will be in a position to identify difficult passengers and seek senior assistance if the concern takes more than 10 minutes to address.

Outcome desired: Flight attendants be polite and involve the next immediate higher ranking official on the flight

Criterion: Try and politely reason with the passenger to arrive to a solution

Condition: The attendant should remain calm and polite while addressing the customer and involve the most immediate supervising officer on the plane.

The above name and discussed objective mentioned in this paper have the following characteristics;

Specific : The first training objective is specific in terms of customer service in that the attendants are supposed to be attentive keen to establish passengers’ concerns as well as provide solutions in a personable, friendly and professional manner.

Measurable : The objectives contain a measurable aspect of 10 minutes assigned to serve each passenger upon which if exceeded an attendant should seek assistance from a senior attendant. If the concerns will exceed the timeframe without seeking assistance, then it will indicate that the training objectives are not achieved.

Attainable : Each object has been carefully deliberated and decided upon to establish the success of the training procedure for the flight attendants. Each object has overly ambitious hence likely to provide the required drive towards the success of the airline as a service provider to its clients.

Realistic : The objective has been drafted in a way to provide an accommodating aspect for all its clients. It approves the factors that all its passengers are perfectly human hence there may be certain difference that may likely vary depending on the individual.

Timely : With the time frame set for the training which is three to five weeks, the achievement of the goals will be assessed. The effectiveness of the training after the objectives are attained is to provide the improved customer care services to the passengers throughout.

As a result, the training goals include:

i. Train the attendants to pay attention to customer concerns and provide solutions hence more satisfied customers.

ii. In-flight attendants must build a level of trust in their customers that proper security measures are been looked into for the sake of the customers before flight and any resulting concerns and issues can be addressed.

iii. Encourage job sharing where new attendants may ask questions form the experienced or senior attendants.

iv. They should also be in a position to recognize difficult customers and how to calmly solve any arising issues.

v. To equip staff and senior management on how to settle the issue without affecting the relationship between the client and the airline.

Southwest Airlines have a training gap on the quality of the customer service provided. Training which is aimed to enhance their skills and knowledge may help in the overall productivity as well as increasing the revenue through attracting new passengers through the customer service provided. The employees will need to undergo training on the necessary skills required for quality service through the appropriate learning styles which best fits for their understanding applicable at the workplace. This will ensure safety as well as high levels of productivity. The learning styles to be employed will help to ensure that the set objectives are well understood and achieved by all of the Southwest airline staffs.