How to create goodwill?

The relationship an organisation creates with its existing customers determines the 'goodwill' customers feel towards the company and hence the quality of its reputation.

Surveys shows that the human relations with customers are twice as important as operational factors. It also demonstrates that bad experiences can destroy goodwill more than positives add to it.

For example, in an airline industry, the main service arena which passengers experience is in flight, cabin crew, ground staff an others can also upset goodwill by unhelpful behaviour.
The main sources of gaining positive goodwill were:

• Making the best of the occasional and inevitable bad experience- eg: in line with delays, bad weather, running out of food, drinks or duty-free items, empathising with problems and turning them to advantage. The airline could generate more goodwill by dealing effectively with mishaps such as lost baggage, than it could if nothing had gone wrong in the first place.
• Showing and demonstrating concern for others-children, old people, the disabled and anxious. There is a vicarious satisfaction in seeing the quality of caring which is available even if not required personally. It is an unspoken reassurance to every passenger.
• Encouraging, reinforcing, wishing customers a 'good trip' or a 'good holiday'- even if it was recognised as 'automatic' like the American style 'Have a nice day'. There appears to be an almost magical value in a good wish quite out of proportion to its face value.
• Unsolicited 'giving' by the staff reinforces this further, through, for example, spontaneous talking, sitting next to a passenger and sharing conversation, unscheduled pilot comments, the appearance of the captain and visits to the flight deck.
• The closed confinement of the aircraft and the total lack of control of the passenger to affect what is happening plays heavily on major areas of human anxiety. This kind of atmosphere is a 'hot-bed' whereby small experiences, which in other contexts would be shrugged off, can blow up out of proportion.
• Problem-solving by he staff is important, particularly asking about the problem and showing empathy and understanding. 
• Giving factual information- actually offering solutions about connections, services, check-in queries, drinks available, seats, feeling unwell, etc, has a dual benefit. The rational content and the emotional message is that 'your problem counts'.  

The above demonstrated the way customers are handled by members of staff creates a lasting impression of the organisation. For airlines, therefore, personal service is a determining factor in creating goodwill among customers.