V-Flyer

So after reading the thread about the app, it got me thinking. I am choosing my words very carefully here when I ask the question, "do you think anyone with real influence within VS reads v-flyer ?"

With no disrespect to the many employees who contribute great info but just wondered if people up the chain take time to read any of the threads ?

David

My thoughts are that senior management would almost certainly have lower level staff in place with responsibility for monitoring customer forums and reporting back on issues etc.
That said, I'm sure SRB would have the occasional glance.

I, too, wonder the same thing. I would imagine that someone with some influence might, as this is (I think anyway) the biggest forum "dedicated" for VS/VA etc.

Would be irresponsible not to keep an eye on what people were sayng/thinking on a site like this dedicated to a large existing customer base and also almost a first stop for prospective new clients.

Depends what is being discussed.

Sometimes V-Flyer posts can be really negative - rather than constructively critical.

It's a bit like the person you know who complains about everything - you just start filtering it out.

All bets are off when it comes to their IT department though

Silver Fox wrote:All bets are off when it comes to their IT department though

Not sure they'd know how to use a modern browser in order to view it. I have a feeling v-f doesn't look so good on IE6...

preiffer wrote:

Silver Fox wrote:All bets are off when it comes to their IT department though

Not sure they'd know how to use a modern browser in order to view it. I have a feeling v-f doesn't look so good on IE6...

You should see it on their Netscape test bed !

My understanding is they are currently negotiating with Sir Clive Sinclair and Sir Alan Sugar regarding supply of spare parts

I was sat opposite SRB on a flight to ANU in 2004 and asked him if he was aware of the site to which he replied yes. That said I am sure he did not personally look through the posts. Service on the flight was remarkably good as well :-)

Even if senior management do look, which I doubt (see below), they'll filter out lots of stuff where not all of us agree - seat reservation concerns, meals not up to scratch, CC not smiling all the time etc.
The one subject on which everyone on here agrees is the appalling website and that's what makes me think that no-one in a senior position, with clout to make anything happen, can possibly read V-Flyer.
Because naturally they never have to use the website themselves to book flights do they. They have minions to do that.
Think about it - some senior bod at Virgin wants to fly to wherever, no waiting for paint to dry while the website responds, no looking for Gs and not finding them, no bother with any of the crap that the website has. They just click their fingers and the seats are there.
We've seen from Ryosan's fantastic demonstration that the talent is out there, some of us have IT skills to a greater or lesser extent and know it can be done. But until someone in VS with the wit to examine the brand's first port of call for prospective customers sees how appalling it is, nothing will happen. Alas.

whiterose wrote:Even if senior management do look, which I doubt (see below), they'll filter out lots of stuff where not all of us agree - seat reservation concerns, meals not up to scratch, CC not smiling all the time etc.
The one subject on which everyone on here agrees is the appalling website and that's what makes me think that no-one in a senior position, with clout to make anything happen, can possibly read V-Flyer.
Because naturally they never have to use the website themselves to book flights do they. They have minions to do that.
Think about it - some senior bod at Virgin wants to fly to wherever, no waiting for paint to dry while the website responds, no looking for Gs and not finding them, no bother with any of the crap that the website has. They just click their fingers and the seats are there.
We've seen from Ryosan's fantastic demonstration that the talent is out there, some of us have IT skills to a greater or lesser extent and know it can be done. But until someone in VS with the wit to examine the brand's first port of call for prospective customers sees how appalling it is, nothing will happen. Alas.

Not all minions are competent though...

whiterose wrote:Even if senior management do look,(

VS senior managers do look, not obsessively, but do. I have my thoughts about why the site and digital service is so bad, which I'll keep to myself in case someone looks at this post and offers me the chance to fix it .

I agree with @whiterose.
If VS have a full time IT department then my question would be "what are they doing on a day to day basis?"
If you have a full time IT department then surely it doesnt cost any further money to get the website sorted out as you are already paying the very people who should be doing it?
I accept though that as an outsider I have no idea what it takes to run the IT department of a commercial airline. But does make me wonder sometimes.

Cap Ex

gfonk wrote:I agree with @whiterose.
If VS have a full time IT department then my question would be "what are they doing on a day to day basis?"
If you have a full time IT department then surely it doesnt cost any further money to get the website sorted out as you are already paying the very people who should be doing it?
I accept though that as an outsider I have no idea what it takes to run the IT department of a commercial airline. But does make me wonder sometimes.

Sadly, many corporate "full time IT departments" (indeed, arguably, *most*) are no longer made up of "do-ers". They're purely a group of controllers, project managers, "architects" (often a laughable title) and paper-pushers. The actual do-ers are found in the external companies, contractors and consultants they then need to find the money to pay for on top.

preiffer wrote:Sadly, many corporate "full time IT departments" (indeed, arguably, *most*) are no longer made up of "do-ers". They're purely a group of controllers, project managers, "architects" (often a laughable title) and paper-pushers. The actual do-ers are found in the external companies, contractors and consultants they then need to find the money to pay for on top.

Absolutely, and though I make my living in such an external company it still astonishes me how much money is effectively wasted by clients. Many would rather set up complex silo'd structures (data, solution architecture, application architecture, functional design, technical design, delivery, test....) with service level agreements between them and endless committees rather than simply put a bunch of people in a room with a target brief and an instruction to "build that"....

hunterdwmgzt wrote:My thoughts are that senior management would almost certainly have lower level staff in place with responsibility for monitoring customer forums and reporting back on issues etc.

I'm almost certain this will be case, although how much attention is paid to the data collated is anyone's guess. However, I am sure they have PR and/or CS teams to gather general opinions and keep an eye on trends. I do it for our small business and what we learn from forums, Facebook and other outlets is at once both invaluable, and also to be taken with a large dose of salt

I wouldn't have thought that VS (or indeed anyone) would take the postings on this site too seriously. The dedicated fans that post here probably don't provide the most valuable feedback (in the company's eyes) -- and you don't learn much either from reading the odd complaint about failures/problems which are essentially inevitable.

The only way in which I think such posting could be useful would be if it demonstrated very clear and significant trends. But even then, I doubt whether we are anywhere near being significant in a statistical sense.

Sealink wrote:Cap Ex

I'm not an accountant, but as I understand it, the costs of software development can be capitalised (i.e. transferred to the balance sheet as an asset) and then effectively spread over a number of years to reflect the depreciation of that software.

Certainly from my organisations's standpoint, it's a valid technique to prevent taking the financial 'hit' for building an asset (software app) up front when in reality it would have many years of use
Of course, this is to an extent an accounting trick, as the developers still want to be paid!

I wouldn't be surprised if VS completely outsourced their "new design," and that their idea of "IT" is the group that fixes their Windows XP machines when they can't find a G.

When so many of their consumers' first interactions with their company (think new DL people) is with their crummy website, and then compare it to the other airline, it's not even a contest.

preiffer wrote:

Silver Fox wrote:All bets are off when it comes to their IT department though

Not sure they'd know how to use a modern browser in order to view it. I have a feeling v-f doesn't look so good on IE6...

Have to laugh at myself for my Freudian mis-read of "modern" in your post - I read it as "...Not sure they'd know how to use a MODEM...." think I'm exactly right though!