LONDON – Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair has announced today significant measures aimed at improving its customer service, the highlight of which is fast-refund times.
The airline believes that this will be key to hitting its target of handling 225 million passengers per year by 2026.
Ryanair’s new improvements are as a result of the first customer panel meeting that was hosted back in September, as it aims to make “radical improvements to its customer service”.
The improvements are as follows:
| ‘Day of Travel App’ | + Live videos & webcasts from Ryanair’s ops center during major disruptions + Live updates on new departure times/re-routings during disruptions. + Live updates on the airport, terminal, flight, and gate information via the app. + Easy app access to boarding passes, certifications, and other travel documents. |
| Digital Self-Service Hub | + Self-serve online without contacting the Customer Service team. + Improved chat, FAQs, and new self-help videos. + Track updates on guest claims and interactions with Customer Service. |
| myRyanair Wallet | + Quick access to book flights using wallet balance. + Real-time status updates on refunds with one-click access. + Updated myRyanair account allowing storage of all travel docs in one place. |
| Refund Commitment | + Refund requests paid to original form of payment within five working days. + Confirmation and access to refunds in myRyanair within 24 hours of the request. |
| Customer Panel | + Dedicated 6-person customer advisory panel, meets twice per annum. + In-depth feedback to continually drive customer improvements. + Recommendations for future customer-led initiatives. |
The most important aspect of these improvements is the refund process, especially with Ryanair having quite a negative reputation surrounding the time it takes for refunds to be processed and approved.
The five-day commitment is a reduction, compared to it previously being seven days. However, many customers of the carrier have expressed complaints over waiting for months for the refunds.
Commenting on these improvements was Ryanair’s Director of Marketing, Dara Brady who believes that this will enhance the travel experience of its guests:
“We are pleased to launch these innovative customer improvements which will enhance the travel experience of our guests. Driven by customer panel input, these improvements allow our guests to self-serve online when changing flight dates or passengers’ names, updating contact info, or adding bags/seats.”
“For customers who need extra assistance, they can now track their interactions with Ryanair across calls/email/chat/social and receive live status updates online.”
“Ryanair delivers the best customer service with the lowest fares and best on-time performance and now our new Day of Travel Assistant (within the Ryanair app) will make travel easier and hassle-free with live updates on departure times, terminals, and specific gate info for boarding.”
“In the small number of cases where we suffer disruption, customers will receive regular updates including live video and webcasts from our Ops Centre, ensuring they are kept as up to date as possible with what’s happening and how their disruption will be resolved.”
“In rare cases of cancellations, customers who request a refund will now get confirmation and access to it within 24hrs in myRyanair and will be refunded to the original form of payment within 5 working days.”
“Our first-ever Customer Panel meeting in Sep was instrumental in driving these service improvements and we look forward to receiving further panel feedback at our 2nd meeting in early 2022, to help us develop more ways to improve our customers experience while we lower airfares post-Covid and grow to carry 225m passengers p.a.”
What remains clear is that Ryanair is thinking about the future. As it has been previously known for poor customer service, it is looking to fix that in order to take on more passenger-based capacity going into the future.
