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State organizations' customer service



Executive Summary

The current research paper describes the theoretical background of the CRM or customer relationship marketing and the implications of approach in case of Olympic Air. Last period of time the Balkan region countries are periodically criticized for the overload amount of state-owned companies and the bureaucracy administration and management of companies. From the secondary research identified a lot sources that identified the over-employment issues in the state-owned companies, but in other hand the performance of companies is very low comparing with the rest countries-members of European Union. The state-owned companies usually do not have capabilities to adapt the application of CRM strategy due to the inefficiency. Also, where identified issues in the state administration of state-owned companies with lack of satisfaction and trust from the customer side. The state-owned companies are anymore efficient in term of management and profitability. The economic results of Olympic Air during the state administration justify the inefficiency of state-owned companies. CRM and the customer-centric approach is the effective tool for the companies to succeed in the customer-centric world. For the justification of the CRM benefits and the challenges was introduced marketing research. The survey involved customers with experience of perceived service by Olympic Air. The survey was conducted in order to identify the dimensions like brand image, loyalty , switching costs, service quality and reputation and their impact on relationship marketing tactics.

Keywords: CRM, airline industry, customer-centric approach, customer-oriented philosophy, state-owned companies, Olympic Airline, CRM tactics, relationship marketing



Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Problem Statement

1.1 Problem Discussion

1.2 Purpose of the research

2. Brief organization background in case of Olympic Air

3. Theoretical Background with practical justification by Olympic Air

3.1 Relationship marketing definition

3.2 Relationship Marketing Tactics

3.3 CRM implication by Airline Companies

4. Methodology: Data collection and Sampling

5. Discussion of findings

6. Strategic CRM Plan and recommendations

Conclusion

Reference List

Appendices



Introduction

The globalization lead to the increase of competition in the global market, but also the local markets faced the competition. The competitive environment becomes more turbulent and Balkan region faces it also in an extent level. The companies more and more identify that the most important issues to survive in nowadays is to shift from traditional marketing to relationship marketing. The past approach of providing good quality products and services is not enough and companies need also to keep loyal customers in order to achieve the long-term relationship and profitability to company (Tseng, 2007). The companies need to focus on relationship marketing at the same level with traditional and forced to look beyond the marketing strategy of 4Ps which the last period time does not enough in developing the competitive advantage (Peng and Wang, 2006).

The aim of the research paper is to identify the insufficient customer-oriented culture in the state-owned companies. The Balkan region and especially the Greek business environment is described analytically in order to identify the challenges which faces the state-owned companies in achieving the effectiveness in administration and performance. During the recession the Greek state-owned companies identified the challenges and weaknesses in front of them in management strategies. According to Shleifer and Vishny(1986), the government intervention in the business environment lies through the political objectives. The Greek state-owned companies have a political motive and follow the political goals like over-employment even in the competitive market as a Greek market. The over-employment leads the state-owned companies to ineffective performance with large cost of production, but in other hand the politicians awarded the over-employment due to political cost. Most of the critics suggest the privatization of state-owned companies, but the Greek business environment delayed it due to high political price of two major political parties in Greece like PASOK (Social Party) and “New Democracy” (Nea Dimokratia). The political protection of state workers costs a lot of money for the Greek Government, but it lies through the elections in Greece and price for politicians is not be elected (Cassidy, 2011). The assumption of this statement is clear in the thesis of Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis about over-employment in the Olympic Air:

"The main aims of the government are to ensure the rights of (the airline's) workers, the subsidy of flights to the islands... healthy competition and a viable solution"(BBC News, 2005).

Also, the Greek state-owned companies stay alive due to regularly receiving subsidies from government. In order to maintain the over-employment government subsidies regularly the company, on other hand not giving attention to insufficient management and administration of company. Also, in the Balkan region is established the philosophy of zero-sum and identified the lack of “win-win” philosophy. Usually, in the business environment the ones person goals are overtaken of the other partner. Second, in the Greek job market identified the culture of distrust where most of the Greeks citizens have a relationship with government. According to statistical reports, 1-of-4 Greeks is dependent from the government by working in a state-owned company and dependent on the bureaucracy for their livelihood (Kristal Alley, 2012).

Considering the above statements, the Olympic Air need to take into consideration the importance of relationship marketing and how the relationship marketing affect the performance of company by influencing the long-term relationship and customer loyalty. This research paper is aimed to analyze the tactics of relationship marketing in practice and the results are analyzed from the marketing research run for the current research paper.



1. Problem Statement

1.1 Problem Discussion

How it was mentioned above the large competition in the global and local market influence companies to refocus their strategies and plans. However, the consumers are bombarded by a large amount of marketing activities like sales tactics, telemarketing, direct mail, TV and radio advertisement, online promotion and loyalty programs (Peng and Wang, 2006). The establishment of relationship marketing strategy could be the competitive advantage and alone way to maintain customers and build customer loyalty. The development of discount airline companies increased more the competition in the airline service industry and Olympic Air has to attract more customers and to award and maintain the loyal customers. Also, the state-owned companies face the ineffective performance due to the government involvement. Also, the company needs to shift from the transactional marketing to relationship marketing which is difficult due to the Balkan insufficiency of customer-related culture.

1.2 Purpose of the research

The main goals and objectives of the current research paper is to analyze the relationship marketing tactics for the Olympic Air in order to increase the performance and customer service quality of the company and to develop long-term relationship with customers by increasing also the customer loyalty and satisfaction. The results and discussion section is analyzed and described from the primary and secondary research conducted through the students of the CITY COLLEGE and other respondents. The main hypothesizes mentioned in the primary and secondary research is published below in the Table1.



Table 1.

1. High service quality related to customer satisfaction.
2. High service quality perceived by customers is positively related to trust.
3. Positive brand image perceived by customers is related to customer 4. satisfaction
5. Positive brand image perceived by customers is positively related to customer trust.
6. The value offers perceived by customers is positively related to customer's satisfaction.
7. The value offers perceived by customers is positively related to customer's trust.
8. Customer trust is positively related to customer loyalty.
9. Customer satisfaction is positively related to customer loyalty.



2. Brief organization background in case of Olympic Air

Olympic Air
Industry: Transportation & Shipping Headquarters: Athens, Greece
Financial results for the 20012
2012 Revenue (Olympic Air): €216.3m 2012 Revenue (Olympic Handling): €44.7m 2012 Revenue (Olympic Engineering): €1.6m MIG Ownership: 100% Date of Investment: March 2009; October 2009 the official launch of New Olympic Air
Business processes and operations of Olympic Air
MIG acquired certain key assets of Olympic Air through a privatization process in mid-2009, the main areas of business: flight operations, ground handling services and maintenance, repair & overhaul. Olympic Air has one of the youngest fleets in Europe, consisting of 14 new turbo-prop aircrafts: 10 Bombardier Q400 and 4 Bombardier Dash-100. The company serves 37 destinations: 32 domestic and 5 direct international routes as well as 15 international routes via code-share agreements. In October 2012, MIG reached an agreement to sell 100% of Olympic Air to Aegean Airlines for a cash consideration of €72m. The transaction is pending regulatory approval of the European Competition Commission.

The financial statements and brief organization background of the company are published in the Appendix B, C, and D.



3. Theoretical Background with practical justification by Olympic Air

3.1 Relationship marketing definition

In nowadays the companies identified the importance of relationship marketing; on other hand they follow the usage of transactional marketing or mix of both approaches. According to Hougaard and Bjerre (2002), the relationship marketing is defined as the firms' behavior with the objectives of establishing, maintaining and developing profitable customer relationship in a long term with benefit for both parties. Also, it is important for the executives to pay attention to the objectives like:

· Initiation of customer relationships

· Maintenance and enhancement of relationships with existing customers

· Handling of relationship termination

Table 2 The main differences between Traditional and Relationship marketing:

Source: Groonros, 2000.

The relationship marketing vary from the traditional marketing and is more concerned about developing relationship with customers in order to achieve the win-win situation for both parties and the customers associated with partners ( Bowen and Shoemaker, 2003). The differences and characteristics of each approach is represented below in the Table2. The customer loyalty is one of the most important factors, due to the purpose of relationship marketing to gain the maximal value of a customer. The loyal customers are not so sensitive to price cut over time. Also, it is necessary to mention the customer-oriented culture or philosophy approach which is the major statement for current research. In the core of this philosophy is the need for long-term relationship with customers by improving customer service and customer satisfaction (Parasuraman et al., 2006). Customer-oriented philosophy is defined as a behavior directed toward the definition and understanding of target audience needs and adaptation of response to them by meeting their needs better than competitor, which lead to creation of a competitive advantage (Webster F.,2005).

3.2 Relationship Marketing Tactics

According to Bansal and Taylor (2005), the marketers have a lot of ways to implement relationship marketing tactics which can influence the customer retention and level of satisfaction. The relationship tactics could be implemented and executed through the service quality, price perception, value offer, brand image and other alternative attractiveness. The relationship marketing tactics as direct mail, rewards, interpersonal communication and membership increase the long-term relationship and lead to building of relationship satisfaction, commitment and trust (Tseng, 2007). The Olympic Air operates in the service sector which engages them to take high consideration these tactics due to their importance for service industry.

Service quality is subjectively perceived by customers from their experience and their judgment about company's excellence and superiority (Gronroos, 2000). Due to the nature of service, the evaluation of service quality is more complicated than the evaluation of product quality. The most useful model of measurement of service quality is the SERVQUAL model, which used to measure the service quality towards five dimensions (see Table 3.) High service quality is the most important factor in the achievement of customer satisfaction and trust on firm(Parasuraman et al.,1986; Aydin and Ozer.,2005; Ismail et al., 2006).

Table 3

Source: Marshall et al., (2001).

The relationship marketing approach lies in the service sector through the importance of one-to-one relationship between company and customers or brand with customer (O'Loughlin et al., 2004). The companies need to realize that the brand image is based on the series of contacts experienced and evaluated by customers and the level of brand image is a crucial issue for company. Also, customers likely use the inexperienced method of brand evaluation through word-of-mouth, public reputation and marketing communication (Gronroos,2000). As a result, the positive brand image lead to customer satisfaction and trust, which come out from the meet of customer expectations and offer benefits to customer.

The companies in the building long-term relationships base sometimes in the value offering. According to Ravald and Gronroos (1996), the customers identify the value of consumption in a different level by evaluating the benefits gained from services and the costs. Usually, the service companies offer superior values to customers through enhanced offers by increasing the customer benefit perceptions and reducing sacrifice of the customer retention. Moreover, the customers' met expectations at a high level lead customers to feelings of safety, credibility, security of the value in the relationship and enhance customer loyalty. The companies need to develop competitive advantage or to add values to the core product something that customer could find beneficial and unique value. The service companies like Olympic Air could offer something valuable for their customers like reward activities and promotional offers.

How it was mentioned above, the cost is one of the factors identified by customers as a value offering. According to Cheng et al. (2008), the price perception is measured by two factors such as reasonable price compared with competitors and value for money related to service quality in terms of price. Usually the high quality services and products are expected to cost more than low quality services (Chitty et al., 2007). Also, most of the customers change the companies due to the pricing issues like unfair or deceptive pricing practices. The price perception is identified as the influence factors of customer satisfaction and trust ((Oliver.,1997; Kim et al., 2008).

3.3 CRM implication by Airline Companies

Airline companies like the Olympic Air need to focus more on efficient operations rather than the cost reduction. The low-cost companies have acquired their niche in the air service market that lead the old-fashion companies like Olympic to determine their competitive advantages in front of competitors. One of the factors or strategies that can differentiate the Olympic Air and other airline companies in the current segment is turning the operations to the customer relationship management or relationship marketing. Most of the airline companies determine and implement CRM strategies as a competitive” catch up” and not giving enough attention to differentiation. In nowadays, the frequent flyer programs become a universal method that does not differentiate any company from competitor. Olympic Air for example in cooperation with Singular Logic introduced the system of frequent flyer in order better to implement the customer service and provide better service quality for the value-customers and loyal customers. The current system Oracle Siebel CRM (Loyalty, Call Center, and Marketing) for Olympic Air also includes the Partner Portal and Customer Portal (http://portal.singularlogic.eu/case-study/893/olympic-air-frequent-flyer). From the theoretical background and issue for the CRM strategy is the identification of customers in order better to identify their needs and desires with result to offer them customized and personalized offer or service which automatically differentiate the service from competitor. Some of airline companies pioneered with innovative ideas many years ago, that become very common program of CRM today such as kiosk check-in, flight notification, online ticketing and online self-service. The online ticketing becomes very common tool for reservation and purchase of ticketing. The Balkan region and the airline companies are not going behind and establish their services through the online service offering.



4. Methodology: Data collection and Sampling

This research paper involves research of Olympic Air customers in Greece and abroad about their experience of perceived service and the service quality. The current research focuses on customer satisfaction, service quality and other dimensions like value offers, price perception, switching costs and loyalty. The purpose of the research was to identify their perceptions about the company and customer service offers by Olympic Air. The sampling size of the research is the 25 respondents of Olympic Air services especially in the domestic market, due to the respondents which in past perceived services from the company. The sampling method used in the survey is non-probability or non-random and especially convenience sampling. According to Mohr (1990), convenience sampling is the most useful method in service marketing and provides to use statistical inference techniques.

The questionnaires (See appendix A) are distributed mostly through the students of CITY COLLEGE (Thessaloniki) and the collection and distribution of questionnaires mostly was based through online tools and social media. The questionnaire design was created regarding the objectives of the research paper objectives and problem statement. The questionnaire includes two sections with mostly close-ended questions and some open-ended questions. The close ended questions are published by using Likert measurement scale with measurement method “Strongly Satisfied” as higher measure and “Strongly Dissatisfied” as lowest measure.



5. Discussion of findings

The analysis of the responses of the survey is the major part of each research with some limitations such as low response rate or small sampling size. The current research paper has the second issue as the common limitation. The small size of the sampling usually neither does nor gives clear response to the objectives of the survey. However, the analysis of responses identified some challenges that are faced in front of Olympic Air. Most of the respondents mentioned in the questionnaire section about the overall and the personal level of relationship with Olympic Air as medium or average. As result, the company needs to redesign their CRM strategy and more carefully overcome to the issues of customization and personalization of their services. Also, it is very important to mention about the importance of Internet services and their importance especially for the generation Y, due to the respondents age category 18-25. The company could include that young people more looking for customer service established in online sources. Most of the companies find their potential customers through internet and especially through social media that becomes most powerful tool for acquirement customers. The Table section in the questionnaire mostly based on dimensions like value offers, satisfaction, loyalty and service quality. The majority of respondents mentioned the “Neutral” and “Satisfied” which is mostly medium level of satisfaction. The Olympic Air in the whole set of dimensions has the need of improvements. The last section of the questionnaire was based on open-ended questions about the customers' experience, the satisfaction level with the company and the level of loyalty. Some of the respondents mentioned the high quality of operations by Olympic Air with no delays and the flight park of company. From this section only raised some issues about the price perception of customers and their dissatisfaction with the pricing tactics and policies of company in other words value-for-money. Also, it could be concluded from the statement of one respondent who mentioned “Quality very good, but nothing special”. The large competition in the airline market influences the companies to differentiate and in this way they can create competitive advantage. Also, it could be described from the statement of respondent who mentioned low-cost company Ryanair and price issues and expensive prices for domestic flights by Olympic Air ((All the results presented in the Appendix E).



6. Strategic CRM Plan and recommendations

Some airline companies describe the CRM strategy complicated and not applicable and in order to manage more effectively the all service processes, airline companies need to change their approach to the CRM for a follow reasons:

1. Customer segmentation.

2. CRM initiative development.

3. Organizational Design and management.

Usually the crucial elements of CRM strategy is the company ability to identify, segment, profile the customers based on their characteristics like profitability, cost of service, lifetime revenue potential, interests, buying habits and service requirements (Thakur et al.,2006). From the traditional marketing perspective the airline companies make the mileage-based segmentation which is not enough for the customer segmentation in the relationship marketing and not only. The value-based and needs-based segmentation could force the company in identification of high-value customers and will be the simple investment decisions for the new routes and flights.

The CRM strategy involves seven steps processes in the development of CRM strategy. The first step is based on the priority of firm to be focused on the customer. In the practice is usually works as the top management assure that front-line employees have real feedback and information from the firms most value customers. The top managers apply this step and it could be identified in the check in posts or kiosk. According to Gordon (2001), the second step is based on the potential importance of each customer regarding the lifetime value of the customer. The Olympic air need to identify which customer is loyal to the firm and in the future will be engaged in a mutual relationship with the Olympic. From the surveys as the current survey we identified the loyal customers. The surveys are a useful tool for the identification of loyal customers like the selling history. The third step of the strategy plan is used to deliver values to the high value customers. The values usually defined from the customers experience that make each customer unique which affect company to customize and personalize for each segment of customer unique offers. Olympic Air need to identify which customer is monetary value or frequency value customer. Usually the companies avoid it due to the high costs. The Olympic mostly customize and segment their customers into two segments: economic and business class. The company also provides the Olympic airClub offers for the loyal customers. The fourth step in the strategic CRM plan involves the focus on strategic capabilities. Sometimes top managers ignore the planning process due to fear of plan to be the fast outdated. The Olympic Air has to be ready for any challenge or change in the domestic or global airline market. The Airline companies faced in times of recession and oil price fluctuations a lot of challenges and problems. Also, the strategic planning need to be developed in terms of resources the company has. After the identification of firms' capabilities the company shifts to the fifth step of the CRM plan that is based on the developing customer oriented strategies. At this level the company has to identify the win-win situations with customers. This step is important for the firms in a long term strategies. The Olympic Air could identify the customer needs and will anticipate them in a future perspective. The sixth step involves the software selection. Usually the companies choose the software in term of monetary capabilities or strategic capabilities as the Olympic Air cooperation with Singular Logic inside of the Marfin Investment Group. The last step in the CRM plan is the implementation stage. The main factors that force CRM strategy to succeed and understand better customer is the integration and balance of main elements like technology, process and human resources (Crosby 2002; Chen and Popovich 2003;Deck 2001). At this stage the Olympic Air need to take into consideration the training issues in term of communication and technological knowledge. The successful implementation of CRM strategy involves the involvement of employees in the customer-oriented philosophy. Olympic Air need to install a service mentality into employees and to offer them empowerment factors by giving specific attention on the customer needs (Thakur and Summey, 2005; Kale , 2003).



Conclusion

To sum up, the airline companies are based on service provision that makes the need to adapt the CRM strategy in order to achieve competitive advantage through the differentiation and profitability in the future perspective. From the theoretical background was defined that Olympic Air before the privatization faced some challenges being state-owned company and lack of capabilities to move to customer-centric philosophy. From the CRM plan and theoretical part of the current research paper described the main customer-oriented factors which are important for the achievement of objectives and profitability. Olympic Air has to identify the customer needs and values which would be addressed to the CRM strategies and the empowerment of employees gives also an advantage to the success of CRM strategy. The customer-centric firm pays special attention to the human factor and especially to empowerment issues as tools and knowledge needed to customers' response.



Reference List

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3. Chen, I. J and K. Popovich (2003),“Understanding Customer Relationship Management (CRM): People, Process and Technology,” Business Process Management Journal, 9(5), 672-88.

4. Cheng, T. C. E.; Lai, L. C. F. and Yeung, A. C. L. (2008), “The Driving Forces of Customer Loyalty: A Study of Internet Service Providers in Hong Kong”, International Journal of E-Business Research, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 26-42.

5. Chitty, Bill; Ward, Steven; and Chua, Christina (2007), “An application of the ECSI model as a predictor of satisfaction and loyalty for backpacker hostels”, Marketing Intelligence and Planning, Vol.25, No.6, pp.563-580.

6. Crosby, L.A. (2000), “What to Do Before Going 1-to-1,” Marketing Management, 9(4),pp.15-21.

7. Crosby, L.A. (2000), “What to Do Before Going 1-to-1,” Marketing Management, 9(4),pp.15-21.

8. Gordon, I. (2001), “CRM is a Strategy, Not a Tactic,” Ivey Business Journal, 66(2), 23-25.

9. Grцnroos, C. (2004). The Relationship Marketing Process: Communication, Interaction, Dialogue, Value, The Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 19 (2), pp.99-113.

10. Hayes, B. E. (2008). The True Test of Loyalty, Quality Progress, 41, 6, pp.20-26.

11. Hougaard, S. and Bjerre, M. (2002). Strategic Relationship Marketing, Samfundslitteratur Press. ISBN 87-593-0840-0.

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Appendices

Appendix A (Questionnaire Sample)

OLYMPIC AIR

Individual Characteristics

a) Your Gender: Male Female

b) Name:

c) Address:

d)Phone number:

e)Email:

1) Describe the overall relationship between you and Olympic Air .

A) Very Poor

B) Poor

C) Good

D) Excellent

2)Please rate the effect of customer service on reputation of Olympic Air.

A) Low

B) Medium

C) High

D) Very high

3) How important is the use of internet in establishing good customer relationship?

A) Very important

B) Important

C) Not so important

D) Can't say

4) How would you rate the customer relationship between you and the Olympic Air?

A) Not so good

B) Excellent

C) Average

D) Worst ever

5) How would you rate the customer satisfaction with Olympic Air?

A) Excellent

B) Good

C) Average

D) Worst ever

For this section, please rate how strongly you agree or disagree with each of the following statements by putting tick where applicable.

	Strongly Disagree	Disagree	Neutral	Agree	Strongly Agree
6)Olympic air follows up in a timely manner your requests.
7)The employees of Olympic Air are always willing to help you.
8)The response to yours complaints are always taken quickly.
9)Olympic Air is consistent in providing good quality services.
10)Olympic Air offers personalized services to meet your need.
11)Olympic Air provides timely information when there are news services.
12) It was easy to get benefits from the promotional offers.
13)The proposed rewards from Olympic Air were what you wanted.
14)Olympic Air is reliable because it is mainly concerned with your interests.
15)The reputation of Olympic Air is trustworthy.
16)The service process provided by Olympic Air is secure.
17)You are comfortable about the relationship with Olympic Air.
18)You are willing to say positive things about Olympic Air to other people.
19)You are encourage friends and relatives to use the services offered by Olympic Air.

20) How would you define your experience with organization over the years? marketing communication customer relationship

Answer:

21)How do you find the quality of services and products of Olympic Air in comparison to the other competitors in market?

Answer:

22) Please give any suggestion or comment to improve our service quality. What else can we offer you to strengthen our relationship?

Answer:

Appendix B

Olympic Air was created in 1956 at the instigation of the Prime Minister Constantine Karamanlis towards billionaire Aristotle Onassis to create an airline that would be the national carrier to help in the tourist and economic development of the country. Thus, the Greek billionaire buys faltering TAE (the then national air carrier) and renames it to Olympic Airways. The first flight of the newly established air carrier is on April 6, 1957 from Athens to Thessaloniki. The newly established company consists of 15 turboprop aircraft and 835 staff officers. The new company developed rapidly. The business savvy of Onassis and the liquidity that had, and the international business prestige gave fast and safe option to purchase aircraft where proved profitable (http://www.directline-flights.co.uk/Olympic/Odyssey). OA has developed rapidly. The fleet growth was constant, the increase of the number of passengers rapidly, and the spread of lines and of the network very rapid.

However, Onassis suddenly changed attitude to his business. Due of the largest government-subsidies requested Onassis, especially in 1974 (even so far as to ask for $ 60 million subsidy per year, while the price of Olympic was 68 million) make the Karamanlis government proceed to nationalization of the company.

After hard negotiations Onassis agrees to cede the Olympic in state hands. During the period 80s-90s Olympic faced management problems, where instead to ensure the interests of the Olympic alone that they made was to inflate the debts and deficits of the carrier. Olympic Air employees were reached to a point to strike at the slightest provocation while ground handling went from bad to worse, because delays in departures and arrivals of company flights had become a daily occurrence. The state air carrier has meanwhile renamed Olympic Airlines passes October 2009 at the hands of Mr. Andreas Vgenopoulos. Who immediately after the acquisition began to reduce routes and destinations (www.olympicair.com/el/OlympicAir/Profile). Alongside transatlantic flights came out completely from the program and balance sheets show losses. Just one year after the acquisition by Vgenopoulos, Olympic Air started looking for ways to merge the company with Aegean Airlines and it can benefit two sides, but the European Commission had the opposite view.

26 January 2011, the European Commission has banned the first proposed merger of Olympic Air and Aegean Airlines. The main reasons for the ban is the competition problems in 10 Greek domestic routes departing from Athens, with a near monopoly in nine of them and loss of potential competition on a route. Furthermore, there are concerns that the transaction may as a result price increases and reduced service quality in several Greek domestic routes departing from Athens, in which the entity that would result from the merger would acquire a monopoly or strong market position(Naftemporiki 2013 23-April-2013). (http://www.naftemporiki.gr/finance/story/644195) After several attempts the Mr. Vgenopoulos (Manager of Olympic) and Mr. Vassilakis (manager of Aegean) in order to merge the two companies and reduce losses of balance sheets in October 2012 announced the granting of the volatile arm of Olympic AEGAN.

Appendix C

In the below table is represented the cost of production or maintenance of fleet park with profitability reports during the period of 2005-2007.

Appendix D

Appendix E

The appendix A contains the questionnaire answers from respondents.

Respondent N#1

OLYMPIC AIR

Individual Characteristics

a) Your Gender: Male X Female

b) Name: Christos Matziounis

c) Address: Kimonos Voga 34

d)Phone number: 6986 37 97 12

1) Describe the overall relationship between you and Olympic Air .

A) Very Poor

B) Poor

C) Good

D) Excellent

2)Please rate the effect of customer service on reputation of Olympic Air.

A) Low

B) Medium

C) High

D) Very high

3) How important is the use of internet in establishing good customer relationship?

A) Very important

B) Important

C) Not so important

D) Can't say

4) How would you rate the customer relationship between you and the Olympic Air?

A) Not so good

B) Excellent

C) Average

D) Worst ever

5) How would you rate the customer satisfaction with Olympic Air?

A) Excellent

B) Good

C) Average

D) Worst ever

For this section, please rate how strongly you agree or disagree with each of the following statements by putting tick where applicable.

	Strongly Disagree	Disagree	Neutral	Agree	Strongly Agree
6)Olympic air follows up in a timely manner your requests.		X
7)The employees of Olympic Air are always willing to help you.				X
8)The response to yours complaints are always taken quickly.			X
9)Olympic Air is consistent in providing good quality services.			X
10)Olympic Air offers personalized services to meet your need.		X
11)Olympic Air provides timely information when there are news services.		X
12) It was easy to get benefits from the promotional offers.				X
13)The proposed rewards from Olympic Air were what you wanted.			X
14)Olympic Air is reliable because it is mainly concerned with your interests.		X
15)The reputation of Olympic Air is trustworthy.		X
16)The service process provided by Olympic Air is secure.				X
17)You are comfortable about the relationship with Olympic Air.			X
18)You are willing to say positive things about Olympic Air to other people.			X
19)You are encourage friends and relatives to use the services offered by Olympic Air.			X

20) How would you define your experience with organization over the years?

Answer:

21)How do you find the quality of services and products of Olympic Air in comparison to the other competitors in market?

Answer:

22) Please give any suggestion or comment to improve our service quality. What else can we offer you to strengthen our relationship?

Answer:

My experience with Olympic air is more or less good. Although some incidents happened in the past (mostly delays) which resulted in my preference to competitive to Olympic Air companies.

For flights in Greece I think that Olympic Airs offers the same services with its main competitor (Aegean). The quality is high but there is space for improvement. Compared to the competitors, I think that Olympic Air should provide more and faster information about its flights.

Lower prices, better airplanes (e.g: Thessaloniki-Heraklion), better after sales service.

Respondent N#2

OLYMPIC AIR

Individual Characteristics

a) Your Gender: Male Female

b) Name: Stefan Radosavlevjic

c) Address: Amvrosiou 6

d)Phone number: 69 761 32416

1) Describe the overall relationship between you and Olympic Air .

A) Very Poor

B) Poor

C) Good

D) Excellent

2)Please rate the effect of customer service on reputation of Olympic Air.

A) Low

B) Medium

C) High

D) Very high

3) How important is the use of internet in establishing good customer relationship?

A) Very important

B) Important

C) Not so important

D) Can't say

4) How would you rate the customer relationship between you and the Olympic Air?

A) Not so good

B) Excellent

C) Average

D) Worst ever

5) How would you rate the customer satisfaction with Olympic Air?

A) Excellent

B) Good

C) Average

D) Worst ever

For this section, please rate how strongly you agree or disagree with each of the following statements by putting tick where applicable.

	Strongly Disagree	Disagree	Neutral	Agree	Strongly Agree
6)Olympic air follows up in a timely manner your requests.				x
7)The employees of Olympic Air are always willing to help you.				x
8)The response to yours complaints are always taken quickly.		x
9)Olympic Air is consistent in providing good quality services.		x
10)Olympic Air offers personalized services to meet your need.			x
11)Olympic Air provides timely information when there are news services.		x
12) It was easy to get benefits from the promotional offers.			x
13)The proposed rewards from Olympic Air were what you wanted.			x
14)Olympic Air is reliable because it is mainly concerned with your interests.				x
15)The reputation of Olympic Air is trustworthy.			x
16)The service process provided by Olympic Air is secure.				x
17)You are comfortable about the relationship with Olympic Air.				x
18)You are willing to say positive things about Olympic Air to other people.				x
19)You are encourage friends and relatives to use the services offered by Olympic Air.			x

20) How would you define your experience with organization over the years?

Answer:

21)How do you find the quality of services and products of Olympic Air in comparison to the other competitors in market?

Answer:

22) Please give any suggestion or comment to improve our service quality. What else can we offer you to strengthen our relationship?

Answer:

Respondent N#3

OLYMPIC AIR

Individual Characteristics

a) Your Gender: Male Female

b) Name: Sidiropoulos Ioanni

c) Address: Thessaloniki

d)Phone number:

1) Describe the overall relationship between you and Olympic Air .

A) Very Poor

B) Poor

C) Good

D) Excellent

2)Please rate the effect of customer service on reputation of Olympic Air.

A) Low

B) Medium

C) High

D) Very high

3) How important is the use of internet in establishing good customer relationship?

A) Very important

B) Important

C) Not so important

D) Can't say

4) How would you rate the customer relationship between you and the Olympic Air?

A) Not so good

B) Excellent

C) Average

D) Worst ever

5) How would you rate the customer satisfaction with Olympic Air?

A) Excellent

B) Good

C) Average

D) Worst ever

For this section, please rate how strongly you agree or disagree with each of the following statements by putting tick where applicable.

	Strongly Disagree	Disagree	Neutral	Agree	Strongly Agree
6)Olympic air follows up in a timely manner your requests.			X
7)The employees of Olympic Air are always willing to help you.				X
8)The response to yours complaints are always taken quickly.			X
9)Olympic Air is consistent in providing good quality services.				X
10)Olympic Air offers personalized services to meet your need.			X
11)Olympic Air provides timely information when there are news services.				X
12) It was easy to get benefits from the promotional offers.				X
13)The proposed rewards from Olympic Air were what you wanted.			X
14)Olympic Air is reliable because it is mainly concerned with your interests.			X
15)The reputation of Olympic Air is trustworthy.				X
16)The service process provided by Olympic Air is secure.				X
17)You are comfortable about the relationship with Olympic Air.			X
18)You are willing to say positive things about Olympic Air to other people.				X
19)You are encourage friends and relatives to use the services offered by Olympic Air.			X

20) How would you define your experience with organization over the years?

Answer: Not much so I would be neutral up to my point of view.

21)How do you find the quality of services and products of Olympic Air in comparison to the other competitors in market?

Answer: Could be a lot better. Medium.

22) Please give any suggestion or comment to improve our service quality. What else can we offer you to strengthen our relationship?

Answer: Through these times that people are going through, better prices than other companies is big enough motive to gain trust and extend relationship.

RespondentN#4

OLYMPIC AIR

Individual Characteristics

a) Your Gender: Male Female

b) Name: Tsokos-Liapis Michail

c) Address:

d)Phone number: 00306989160671

1) Describe the overall relationship between you and Olympic Air .

A) Very Poor

B) Poor

ь C) Good

D) Excellent

2)Please rate the effect of customer service on reputation of Olympic Air.

A) Low

B) Medium

ь C) High

D) Very high

3) How important is the use of internet in establishing good customer relationship?

ь Very important

B) Important

C) Not so important

D) Can't say

4) How would you rate the customer relationship between you and the Olympic Air?

A) Not so good

B) Excellent

C) Average

D) Worst ever

5) How would you rate the customer satisfaction with Olympic Air?

A) Excellent

ь B) Good

C) Average

D) Worst ever

For this section, please rate how strongly you agree or disagree with each of the following statements by putting tick where applicable.

	Strongly Disagree	Disagree	Neutral	Agree	Strongly Agree
6)Olympic air follows up in a timely manner your requests.			ь
7)The employees of Olympic Air are always willing to help you.			ь
8)The response to yours complaints are always taken quickly.				ь
9)Olympic Air is consistent in providing good quality services.				ь
10)Olympic Air offers personalized services to meet your need.	ь
11)Olympic Air provides timely information when there are news services.			ь
12) It was easy to get benefits from the promotional offers.		ь
13)The proposed rewards from Olympic Air were what you wanted.		ь
14)Olympic Air is reliable because it is mainly concerned with your interests.			ь
15)The reputation of Olympic Air is trustworthy.				ь
16)The service process provided by Olympic Air is secure.					ь
17)You are comfortable about the relationship with Olympic Air.			ь
18)You are willing to say positive things about Olympic Air to other people.			ь
19)You are encourage friends and relatives to use the services offered by Olympic Air.				ь

20) How would you define your experience with organization over the years?

Answer:

21)How do you find the quality of services and products of Olympic Air in comparison to the other competitors in market?

Answer:

22) Please give any suggestion or comment to impr...