And the Cup goes to…
It seems like American Airlines has caught Super Bowl fever…
As part of an ever-growing effort to improve customer service, AA created the Customer Cup program which rewards outstanding regional teams, Super Bowl style.
Quarterly, 5 stations across the country are awarded an extravagant 2-foot gold cup in honour of improved customer service. Criteria is based on six primary customer touch points such as gate interactions, the boarding experience, delay management, and baggage handling. See for yourself how 2009 AA Cup winners describe their accomplishment: 
In the 3rd quarter of 2010, 11,000 AA employees at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport were the big winners of the Customer Cup. They celebrated their feat with a section-wide Super Bowl themed ceremony!
A reward system like this is a great way to built organizational culture. It promotes team collaboration and encourages healthy regional competition. Because the Customer Cup is built upon customer feedback, it facilitates fluid internal-internal/internal-external communication and also gives employees additional motivation to contribute ideas that will enhance the customer’s flying experience. In this way, the Customer Cup acts to decentralize company structure by encouraging constructive input from all levels. The metric system of the program is also a good balance of qualitative (ie. staff friendliness, positive feedback) and quantitative (ie. # of formal customer complaints, average response time to lost baggage).
Good game, AA!
