We need to focus more on customer service — GACA president

THE Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) concluded the third session of its “Service Enhancement” workshop recently in Riyadh. Attended by Sulaiman Al-Hamdan, the Authority’s President, the workshop’s first two sessions were held in Jeddah on Jan. 25-26. The workshop saw participation from various government agencies, private businesses, and national and international airlines. Ron Kaufman, a world-renowned expert in developing and building customer service-based corporate cultures and internationally recognized speaker, presented his views at the workshop and shared his experiences and knowledge in the field, touching upon ways to raise standards and develop better ways to serve customers. At the workshop, Kaufman proposed a methodology that comprises a set of principles and rules for building a customer care-based culture, and a road map to implement it effectively in a way that suits the needs of all parties concerned with, or connected to, the civil aviation sector. In a speech at the workshop’s closing ceremony, Hamdan said that the Authority knows full well that the road towards developing the aviation sector and bolster the Kingdom’s status as a global influencer in the industry begins with raising customer service standards, based on the principle that all activities and services must put the customer first. “We consider ourselves to be directly responsible for raising the standards of service not only among [the Authority’s] staff, but also at all other concerned parties and our partners in the civil aviation sector,” said Hamdan. “In recent years, we achieved plenty of successes in all aspects, including the development or airports and privatization. It is about time we set our sights on the most important element: serving our customers and developing and enhancing the level of that service. This workshop is part of an ambitious program that we look forward to completing in order to achieve our objectives in this regard. The Kingdom’s airports are seeing a steady increase in traveler throughput, which certainly requires boosting our services appropriately.”