Ryanair, 'worst' brand for customer service sees profits slump - WHY?

Ryanair, the low-cost airline, has the worst customer service out of Britain’s 100 biggest brands, according to the readers of Which? 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/10319838/Ryanair-worst-brand-for-customer-service.html

The magazine asked consumers to rate each company according to its staff’s knowledge, attitude and ability to deal with issues. Ryanair scored two stars (out of a possible five) for each category, producing an overall rating of 54 per cent, comfortably the lowest of all 100 firms – TalkTalk, the mobile phone provider, and NPower, the energy supplier, came joint 98th with 59 per cent.

“Passengers appear to agree with Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary’s open admission that price is a priority over customer service,” said the Which? report. “One said of his recent travel with Ryanair that he found it: ‘aggressive and hostile towards customers. Staff are rude and unpleasant’. Another flyer related their poor in-flight treatment, lamenting ‘rude air stewards who make you feel like a nuisance rather than a customer’. Others are unwilling to be treated badly, whatever the savings. ‘I now prefer to pay £50 extra for my flights and to be treated like a human being,’ concluded one of their experience.”

A Ryanair spokesman responded in typically dismissive fashion. "We surveyed over three million passengers on the Ryanair website last night," he said. "Only two of them had ever heard of Which? and none of them had ever bought it or read it."

"Ryanair’s survey conclusively proves that Which? magazine hasn’t got a clue about what air travel consumers actually do, because they’re too busy booking Ryanair’s low fare, on-time flights to waste time filling in Which? magazine’s tiny surveys.”

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Ryanair's O'Leary to end 'abrupt culture' says the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24177834

Ryanair is to reform its "abrupt culture", chief executive Michael O'Leary says.

Speaking to shareholders at its annual general meeting, Mr O'Leary said: "We should try to eliminate things that unnecessarily" annoy customers.

Europe's biggest budget airline warned earlier this month that profits for the year may miss forecasts.

Mr O'Leary was responding to shareholder concerns that customer service issues were hitting sales.

In the long run, “Bad Customer Service = Bad Profits”?