Chief Customer Experience Officer
Sue is Chief Customer Experience Officer and co-founder of Altura. She talks about crew as the commercial engine of onboard retail, the story behind Best Bar None, and what she has learned about people over a career built around them.
About Sue
How did you get into the aviation industry? I was looking for my next move having spent 2 years working in the Catering team at a private boys school and saw the position of Assistant Inflight Catering Manager advertised in the trade press. Went for an interview which lasted for about 3 hours and I was hooked.
What does your role as Chief Customer Experience Officer do, in your own words?
As with any position here at Altura my role covers a wide range of responsibilities from strategic workshops through customer meetings, coaching sessions with the wider team and keeping abreast of what is going on in the industry. I support our Retail, Crew training and HR experts in their day to day activity.
In everything that I do I try to consider the impact on the ‘customer’ be that customer an airline who has selected Altura to provide services, a passenger on a flight, a crew member or a member of our own team. Whether I’m looking at a new product, service opportunity or a problem that we are faced with I try to be the ‘voice’ of those customers.
What does a typical week look like for you?
There is not really a typical week !
The craft
Crew engagement is often talked about as a soft skill. Why is it a commercial lever?
Altura are completely reliant on the cabin crew to deliver the service that we have asked them to do, using the tools we have given them. Crew are not some amorphous body they are a group of individuals with different perspectives who can face a number of challenges in their working day. If we don’t think about the impact of what we are asking them to do and how it can ‘go wrong’ then we are failing in our responsibilities. If the crew workforce feels that their voice is heard then they are more likely to support us by delivering the service and giving us feedback regarding how we can improve.
Best Bar None became the aviation industry’s first alcohol responsibility training programme. What was the moment you knew it needed to exist?
Over my years of travelling I have observed the crew dealing with a variety of challenging situations with customers in flight. Fortunately these things do not happen often but this also means that crew, after their initial training, do not get the opportunity to practice how to best deescalate these situations. One we had developed LUZ our gamified training platform it was obvious that this would be an ideal platform to allow the crew to become more confident in dealing with situations caused by excess alcohol consumption.
What is the most rewarding part of the work you do with airline partners?
Having the opportunity to use my expertise and help them to ‘fix a problem’.
What is something about crew life that people on the outside don’t appreciate?
I have never worked as a cabin crew member so I am not best placed to answer this. One observation I would make is that the team of people that they fly alongside can change each time they operate, it’s not the same as a shop or office when you are largely working as part of the same team every day. This means that they are always having to get used to working with a different group of people particularly if they are in a large base.
Working at Altura
What’s the best part about working at Altura?
Every day is different, I often describe it as a bit like riding a roller coaster.
How would you describe the team culture?
Very open, supportive and flexible.
A project that’s stuck with you?
Professionalizing a buy on board programme for a customer in Europe, including a new operational design for the last mile provider, recruiting a local Account Exec and ‘teaching’ the customer how to measure and manage our performance.
Off the clock
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
A hotel manager – the hours soon changed my mind !
What are you into outside of work?
My family and other animals (horses, cats, dogs 😊), travel – to follow the sun and enjoy the food.
One piece of advice for someone starting out in aviation?
‘Aviation’ is a very broad term ……….. I don’t think I’m qualified to give advice. I was very lucky and found a role with a great teacher (Jenny Groom) with a great employer (Britannia Airways) that presented me with many opportunities for personal development, working with a fantastic team of people that enabled me to build a career that I have really enjoyed.
