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BA ask buyers: How are we doing?

FIVE HUNDRED business travel buyers have been asked for their views on how British Airways deals with them in a far-reaching review by the airline BA carried out the survey of UK buyers last month (August) to get feedback on the quality of its account management and anticipates doing the same thing with overseas buyers at a later stage.

"Based on this, we will adjust our processes and the way the sales force looks," said Richard Tams, BA's general manager, UK and global corporate sales.

He said the survey was the first the airline had carried out in such a structured way since it launched a programme two years ago aimed at making its sales force of 60 business account managers and 30 leisure sales executives more effective. "We have probably done this in a rather haphazard way before," he said. "Hopefully the survey will effect a marked improvement and show us how we can be best in class." Tams said he was optimistic that TMCs and buyers had already seen considerable improvements.

"We want to maximise revenue, but also to maximise relevancy and value to the client. At the end of the year, we look at work done versus revenue increase, but to judge a sales person purely on revenue is unfair - we will take a holistic view." Tams said BA was always under pressure to cut costs to TMCs, but claimed: "Our argument to them is that if you want us to continue offering the depth and breadth of schedule that we offer, then we have to cover our costs."