LOS ANGELES WORLD AIRPORT RECOGNIZES LAX’s “N.I.C.E” WINNERS OF THE YEAR

 (Los Angeles, California – March 9, 2011) Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) is giving travelers what they tell researchers they want most – someone who is N.I.C.E. (Neutralize Irritations Customers Experience.) on March 9 at Daniels Bistro + Bar on the Lower/Arrivals Level of Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), LAWA will recognize the airport’s 14 N.I.C.E. winners from 2010, all of whom distinguished themselves by showing travelers they know how to care at a very high level.

Research at Harvard reveals that the secret to satisfying customers is to give them trained employees who know how to step up and solve problems as they occur, or in the case of LAX, give them airport staff who know how to be N.I.C.E.

The N.I.C.E. incentive program is offered by LAWA as a follow up to “Resiliency Edge” customer service training employees receive. N.I.C.E. is designed to recognize top performing employees who apply the lessons from the training and become active N.I.C.E. problem solvers.

The program was introduced in 2010 for 650 employees from several LAWA departments, including Operations, staff from Customer Service and the Airport Response Coordination Center, Airside Bus and the Police Security Badging divisions. More than nine out of 10 participants rated the “tools” they received in training helpful, while the incentive recorded more than 200 examples of problem-solving N.I.C.E. stories on the program’s N.I.C.E. story page at http://www.resiliencyedge.com/.

            The program has worked so well, and attracted such strong positive attention for LAX locally and nationally that LAWA will expand the program in 2011 to additional LAWA divisions, beginning with police who direct traffic and the airport’s volunteers.  The goal is to create a solid foundation for the program with LAWA staff, then expand the training and incentives to all of the airport’s employees by working through airport stakeholders.

The Resiliency Edge training and N.I.C.E. incentive are offered for LAWA by the Human Resiliency Institute at Fordham University in partnership with the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE) as part of a national program to enhance airport customer service. LAX is the first airport on the west coast to introduce the program.