Ryan Air- Perhaps the Customer Really is King!

Arrogant airline entrepreneur Michael O'Leary has long been an individual I have haboured admiration and disdain for in equal measures. His business model clearly works, and he has built an incredibly successful business which has brought benefits to millions of people, facilitating cheap flights to many locations around the world.

However he is also an grumpy git who has never held back, telling his customers if they wanted to complain, they were welcome to fly with someone else. So I did. Unless there was absolutely no other option, I fly with Easyjet, or Aer Lingus when travelling to Ireland West. Anywhere else in Europe I use Easyjet. I loathe bad customer service and refuse to accept Ryan Air's attitude to its customers, which is stress-ridden and surly and leaves you wired to the moon by the time you arrive.

It seems the message of the importance of happy customers has finally got through to Mr. O'Leary. Perhaps it was the fact that the way the public identified with his brand was this, that finally forced him to change his attitude?

Whatever the reason, I saw this today about the way Ryan Air will change in 2014 and I thought "Well did Mr. O'Leary". The most important thing about any business is that you have happy and satisfied customers at the end of the day. We live or die by our reputation. Because of a unique product, Mr. O'Leary may have been able to get away with treating customers acerbically up to now, but it seems even he has to admit that the customer really is king!

I don't know if it is a sad indictment, or very amusing that I was pretty convinced this was a hoax at first! He still has some work to do I'd say!