LAX RECOGNIZES TOP-PERFORMING GUIDES AND AMBASSADORS FOR USING N.I.C.E. SKILLS TO IMPROVE AIRPORT TRAVEL EXPERIENCE
(Los Angeles, California – April 22, 2010) Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) area hotels today recognized seven top-performing LAX Guides and Ambassadors who used N.I.C.E (“Neutralize Irritations (during) Customers’ Experience”) skills to improve travelers’ airport experience as part of “Resilience Edge,” a customer service training program for employees that was launched at LAX.
Two hundred-fifty employees participated in the program that taught them productivity tools through role-playing around four key resiliency traits – adaptability, engagement, optimism and pro-action – to take control of pressure-packed situations and remain focused on passengers’ needs.
Over 90 stories of exemplary customer service to travelers were logged on the program’s website at www.resiliencyedge.com and from those seven winners were chosen. All of the stories are available athttp://www.reclaimingthesky.com/resiliency/lax/.
Award recipients include: an employee who used her imagination to find a family with small children with a seven hour layover a stroller at Lost and Found since airports do not typically sell strollers; an employee who saved a family’s vacation to the “Happiest Place on Earth” by tracking their Disneyland passes and hotel vouchers at their originating airport in Canada and shipping them to their hotel in Los Angeles;
and an employee who assisted an elderly Vietnamese woman who could not speak English and needed a wheelchair with her connecting flight that was located in another terminal.
“Today, we are recognizing those Ambassadors and Guides who have gone above-and-beyond in providing customer service to travelers that pass through LAX everyday,” said Gina Marie Lindsey, LAWA executive director. “This is an important step toward an overall goal for LAWA to improve customer service, particularly as we continue to build new facilities. We need to match the expectation for world-class facilities with world-class service, and this training is part of what will get us there.”
Resiliency Edge is offered nationally through a partnership between the Human Resiliency Institute at FordhamUniversity and the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE). In 2008, Resiliency Edge was introduced at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), LaGuardia Airport (LGA), and Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR). LAX is the first airport on the West Coast to participate in such training.
For more information about the program and the partnership between AAAE and FordhamUniversity, please visit: www.humanresiliency.com.
The awards were sponsored by Daniels Bistro + Bar, LAX’s newest full-service restaurant in the Tom Bradley International Terminal and by area hotels: Radisson, Sheraton Gateway LAX, Holiday Inn, Courtyard by Marriott, Border Grill, Embassy Suites, Westin, and Paparrazi Restaurant, all supplying awards through Gateway to LA.
LAX, the sixth busiest airport in the world, offers more than 565 daily flights to 81 destinations in the U.S. and over 1,000 weekly non-stop flights to 65 international destinations.
