Cape Air, a regional airline headquartered in Massachusetts, has always been a customer-centric company. The company’s founder, Dan Wolf, dreamt that if he were to run an airline that would be good for passengers and employees, it would be achieved through MOCHA HAGoTDI: Making Our Customers Happy and Having a Good Time Doing It. The idea quickly took flight.

Tom Rocharz, Cape Air’s Director of Contact Centers, has been leading the efforts to develop and deliver optimized customer experiences (CX). His role is to oversee both customer service and internal helpdesk teams that provide support for not only Cape Air’s airport services personnel and reservations personnel, but also for airline partners and Cape Air employees.

A Customer Experience Change Agent Earns His Wings

Rocharz always knew he wanted to be involved in the management side of the airline operations industry. As a young kid, he would dress as a businessman for Halloween, collecting candy in his briefcase. In college, he attended a dispatch certification program in Dallas, Texas, and got licensed there before moving back to his hometown to work for Cape Air as a flight follower in their SOC (System Operations Control). He moved up the ranks in the Flight Operations Division and was a member of the Flight Ops Leadership Team for just shy of ten years before he transitioned over to the customer service side of the airline.

Expanding his experience level in the airline was the reason behind his transition. He wanted to have a well-rounded experience for the industry and take a step on a journey in airline management. He believed that to get into a more senior position with any airline, he needed a breadth of experience from across the different departments. He wanted to make sure he had customer-facing experience as well, which is why he moved to the contact center side.

Defining Customer Obsession

Rocharz defines customer-obsessed or customer-focused brands or people as those who put their customers at the center of their universe. He believes that such brands and people do everything in their power to ensure their customers are satisfied, and their expectations are exceeded. The customer is always the main focus for such brands, and they go above and beyond to meet their needs, even if it means going out of their way. Brands that are customer-obsessed are always looking for ways to improve their customer experience, and they take feedback seriously. They are willing to invest in tools and resources that can help them achieve their customer-focused goals.

Cape Air is a customer-obsessed company that believes in putting the customer first in everything they do. They understand that customers are the backbone of their business, and they make sure they take care of them every step of the way. Cape Air’s mission is to provide safe, reliable, and convenient air transportation to their passengers. They strive to make their travel experience as enjoyable as possible.

“Sometimes if you reach out to a travel agency or carrier, you have no choice but to work with an automated system or have to pay a surcharge fee to speak with a live agent. Cape Air has never done that. It's one of the things that sets us apart,” Rocharz said. “It takes a lot of resources and time to give that level of attention to everybody, but it's something that's very important to us.”

With AI the Sky’s the Limit on CX

Rocharz has been leading the efforts to develop and deliver optimized customer experiences, leveraging the 8x8 eXperience Communications Platform™ since 2022. To raise the bar on CX, Cape Air plans to deploy 8x8 Intelligent Customer Assistant (ICA). This tool is a powerful, user friendly conversational AI solution that enables businesses to create simple to complex self-service experiences across all channels.

The first phase of Cape Air’s deployment will focus on baggage resolution, speeding up the claims process for passengers who have delayed or missing bags. Another use case will integrate ICA with Cape Air’s Freshdesk CRM so customers can get faster, more personalized access to status updates regarding where claims are in the processing journey.

In conclusion, Cape Air’s commitment to their customers, and their experiences with the organization overall, is what makes them a customer-obsessed company. They will continue to prioritize their customers and their unique journeys in everything they do. The company understands that by investing in tools and resources that help them achieve their customer-focused goals, they will be able to make their customers happier and keep them coming back.

Read more about how 8x8 is helping organizations that are customer-obsessed deliver differentiated customer experiences. Click here.