by Dan Perkins

Continental Airlines' Latinization Initiative warrants attention not because the airline values its Hispanic consumers, and would like to have its involvements recognized during Hispanic Heritage Month, but because it is an effective business tool - one that is enabling the airline to enjoy a degree of success few of its competitors can claim.

While nothing speaks as convincingly as success, it would be difficult to find anyone within Continental who speaks with greater passion about the company's Latinization Initiative than Pete Garcia, Continental's Staff Vice President for Latin America. Garcia is responsible for the airline's sales, marketing and city ticket offices in 63 cities, across the 24 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean where Continental operates.  He also has oversight of Continental's U.S. based Latin America Sales team, which is located in five cities.

"One of the things that Continental has done very well in the U.S. market is listen to its customers, and then come out with marketing programs and products," said Garcia.  "We found that speaking to our customers in their native language, whether they were bilingual or not, was what they preferred."

Continental had been a strong carrier in Mexico up until about 12 years ago, when the company decided to expand into Central and South America.  As it ventured into new Latin markets, it quickly discovered that simply communicating with its passengers in Spanish was not enough.

Mexico, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Honduras share a common language, but the cultures in those countries are quite different.  “I felt we needed to make some changes in our company to better serve our customers," said Garcia.

Continental responded by looking at the total travel experience of its customers whose first language was not English.  "It was more than language," said Garcia.  "We had to address the cultural differences amongst Latin Americans.” 

While Continental employs people from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Colombia, the company discovered that its Latin employees needed to have greater appreciation for the various cultures of its Latin customers.

The company decided to organize its increased attention to language and culture within an initiative, which it calls its Latinization Initiative.

"We provided training in the differences in cultures," said Garcia. "We had to make sure our employees of Mexican descent understood our customers from the Dominican Republic who have very different customs."

The job of increasing employees’ sensitivity to cultural differences fell to Continental's Human Relations Department.  The department developed a training course that taught company employees to look at customers beyond the four basic racial groups, and to consider cultural orientations and backgrounds.  "That meant considering such things as customers' attitudes towards time, money and women speaking for themselves at the ticket counter," said Pat Bissonnet, Director of Diversity and Fair Employment Practices at Continental Airlines.

Although the initial round of training helped to raise employee sensitivity, Bissonnet acknowledged a need for more. Next year, Continental will offer a program designed to increase employee sensitivity to behaviors that are rooted in culture.  One of the company's specific goals is to help employees better serve Muslim travelers.  The program will address a variety of topics such as personal space, food customs, and identifying which member of the family speaks for the family.

Continental's own market research showed that Latin customers like buying U.S. products, but they also like being serviced according to their customs. 

Houston and Newark are Continental's international gateways, and the company maintains a dedicated staff of approximately 150 agents at each location to service its international customers.  Many of the customers coming through Houston and Newark are Latin arrivals and departures.

Some of Continental's Latin destinations draw primarily business travelers, while others have heavy tourist traffic, and still others draw large numbers of travelers who are visiting family and relatives. Garcia noted that the latter group requires the most language-capable support from Continental's employees.

"Our major concern was that there was someone (to greet them) that not only spoke the language, but understood the culture," said Garcia.  For Continental, understanding the culture means recognizing that many Latin Americans have not embraced the notion of self-service.  "They like the personal touch," said Garcia. "The personal aspect is a major part of our Latinization effort."

Continental's Latinization Initiative covers the breadth of the travel experience, and is evident in the meals offered aboard international flights.  "We have a congress of chefs, and one of them is from Latin America.  He helps us design menus that have a Latin flavor," said Garcia.  Other amenities aimed at satisfying Latin preferences include Spanish-language movies, newspapers and magazines.  "We have reservations centers that are Spanish-speaking as well as Portuguese-speaking; we have automated in-flight information that's in Spanish; and our menus in first-class are bilingual," said Garcia as he ran off a series of innovations designed to satisfy Latin customers.

Garcia noted that the most important change for Latin customers was having flight attendants on board who spoke Spanish.  For safety reasons and for better customer service, having Spanish-speaking flight attendants has been a vital part of Continental's bid to gain greater acceptance among Latin Americans.

While Continental's Latinization Initiative has constitutes a major investment on the part of the airline, the pay off reportedly has been great.  Garcia said that since Continental began its Latinization Initiative in 1997, its revenues have increased ten-fold.  In addition, Garcia said customer-feedback has been very positive, and that flight attendants welcome the opportunity to have exchanges with customers that are more personal. 

The success of Continental's Latinization Initiative has prompted the airline to extend the initiative throughout its global operations. "We do the same thing now on our flights to Japan, China, and into Hong Kong.  We have the language, the meal service, and the entertainment," said Garcia.

"Latinization is not only speaking Spanish here (in the United States), but when we did Latinization we also made sure we had qualified, English-speaking agents (in overseas markets for our U.S. customers)," said Garcia who added that employees must be able to speak both languages at Berlitz-level. 

As Garcia described it, Latinization is simply another term for customer service. He said it is just as important to Continental to have its English-speaking customers greeted by someone who is extremely fluent in English when they travel to an international destination as it is for Spanish-speaking customers to have someone who is fluent in Spanish to greet them when they arrive in the United States. 

Continental put up bilingual signage in 20 U.S. airports, in addition to Houston and Newark, which have long had bilingual signage.  "We did the same thing in all of our airports in Latin America for our English speaking customers," said Garcia. 

"We call it Latinization, but it’s something our company does very well for all of our customers," continued Garcia.  To drive home his point, Garcia pointed to the fact that Continental still offers free meals at lunch time on all of its domestic flights.  "It's something our customers say they like and it's very different from what a lot
of other airlines are doing."

Addressing customers' needs is at the core of Continental's success, as is diversification. 

"Continental flies to more international destinations than any other airline," said Garcia.  It's a fact that's not widely known, but Garcia attributes much of Continental's current success to its global diversification strategy.  Continental Airlines is the world’s sixth-largest airline with more than 2,900 daily departures throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia.  "We feel that we have a very diversified portfolio in terms of our global coverage.  If things aren't going well in one place, we can push the airplanes around, and put our aircraft in other markets that are doing extremely well."  Garcia said the company's diversification helped it to deal with the downturn in the U.S. market following September 11, 2001.

The global diversification strategy succeeds because the Latinization Initiative supports it, and Latinization is working at Continental because it has internal support - from Continental's chairman and CEO, Gordon Bethune, down to the line agent at the check-in counter or gate.

"Everyone understands the concept of listening to our customers and providing quality service," said Garcia. "There are some who specialize in the Spanish product, the Japanese product, the Chinese product and the French product, but everyone understands we need to understand what the customer wants.  To understand what the customer wants, you have to be able to speak some of the language and understand some of the culture."

Garcia noted that Continental's Latinization Initiative involves constant monitoring and improvement.  "We try to add something to the Latinization program every year to better serve our customers."

With the commercial aviation industry in such turmoil, other carriers might do well to adopt Continental's customer focus.  It's a prescription that works, and it is one that Garcia likes to repeat, "Listen to your customers and provide them with something they want."

The End