The Long John Silver of Ryanair

The girls and I watched Disney's 1950 version of Treasure Island last night, and the final piece of this post about Ryanair fell into place for me.

Silver is a criminal of the lowest order, a cold-blooded killer, slippery trickster, and thief. There's really nothing redeeming about the man. But you can't help but love him. What a character!

He reminds me of Ryanair's driving force, Michael O'Leary, whom I hope you'll agree is an amusingly despicable monster.

O'Leary is the CEO who wants to charge passengers for using the restroom on flights; besides generating income, he says this will dissuade frivolous restroom visits, which will allow him to do away with all but one restroom per flight, making way for more seats.

If you've read Five-Star Customer Service, you know that I have an issue with companies that don't gladly share their restrooms with the public, stemming back to when Jane was pregnant with Ayla. You can read all about it under the heading, "We hate our customers." Thus, this one ambition of Ryanair's pretty much sums up their entire business model to me: treat customers like dirt, proudly!

...So why do I feel there's a place in the world for Ryanair and its ilk, including companies like Wal-Mart and IKEA,* which unabashedly put low cost before every single other consideration, including of course my beloved customer service?

I'll tell you why: Ryanair is honest. They have embraced what every other airline I know does: they skimp on service to compete on price. (Sorry Southwest. I still love ya!)

If you want to take a two-hour flight within Europe for as little as 5 pounds (about $7.50), it's Ryanair or nothing. And no, you won't get service with that - probably not even a smile, which last time I checked was free. But it's a valid choice that many people will make. Having lived on $25 a week for several years in college, I understand the appeal, I really do. So thank God the Ryanair option is there!

Enjoy this link from The New York Times on Ryanair's own modern-day Long John Silver. Then read my friend Birgit's email, which I've pasted below, and post a comment of your own. I'd love to hear what you think.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/01/world/europe/01oleary.html?_r=1


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From Birgit Pauli-Haack, a leader in web design (http://www.paulisystems.net/):

Every vendor-customer relationship has trade offs. It's only half a joke among developers when we say, "Cheap, Good, Fast: select two."

*If it's cheap & good it will not be finished fast.

*If it's good & fast, it will not be cheap.

*If it's fast & cheap, it will not be good.

You can make some general rules out of it, but the essence is just that. What you can do in customer service is push those boundaries as much as possible. How fast can you go with cheap and good? Can you out-do expectations? How low can you go with your price while staying good and fast? And can't you just be a little bit better while remaining fast and cheap?

In case of Ryan Air, O'Leary doesn't regard flying as a luxury anymore, he thinks of it more like riding a bus. You would never ask a bus ticket machine to refund your ticket because you only used one leg of it.

It's not a luxury anymore when a flight from Munich to Berlin of $39.90 is as cheap as a cab ride within the city of Munich and only half the price of a 90-minute train ride between Munich and Nuernberg.

Yes there is a big place in the heart of customers for people like O'Leary, as he has done plenty for the passenger of other airlines buy shifting the paradigms of the industry and bringing the prices down while still running a profitable business.

We need more entrepreneurs like O'Leary, as they are really beneficial to the customer's wants and needs.


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*There, I said it! I know what a beloved brand IKEA is, and I can see the appeal... kind of. But the company posts signs on its walls saying, to effect, "we don't employ enough staff to help you because we're keeping prices low." They are many things to many people, but they are not a customer service icon. Far from it.