Airlines are increasingly focusing on customer centricity and improving the customer experience. However, airlines still lack comprehensive knowledge of their customers due to data being siloed across different departments. The SabreSonic Customer Data Hub allows airlines to create a single customer profile by integrating data from all touchpoints. This enables airlines to better understand customer preferences and behaviors in order to personalize offerings. The Customer Data Hub aims to transform airlines from being reactive to proactive in serving customers throughout their entire journey.

1. CUSTOMER CENTRICITY
ON THE RISE
In today’s customer-centric airline, accumulation and better analysis
of data are driving development of ever-more-specific customer-based
factors, which can be quantified and better dealt with as complementary
collections of data outside traditional business silos, in personal data
profiles. The Customer Data Hub enables better handling of customer
data, essentially prompting an airline to offer its customers a truly supe-
rior customer experience.
By Hamid Herzai | Ascend Contributor
Data As The Driving Force Behind Deeper Airline
Customer Analysis
CUSTOMER CENTRICITY
ON THE RISE
In today’s customer-centric airline, accumulation and better analysis
of data are driving development of ever-more-specific customer-based
factors, which can be quantified and better dealt with as complementary
collections of data outside traditional business silos, in personal data
profiles. The Customer Data Hub enables better handling of customer
data, essentially prompting an airline to offer its customers a truly supe-
rior customer experience.
By Hamid Herzai | Ascend Contributor
Data As The Driving Force Behind Deeper Airline
Customer Analysis

2. n recent years, airlines have taken major
steps to focus on customers, and to
improve customer journey. However,
these improvements are not translating
to overall customer satisfaction.
The major problem all airlines face
today is that they are behind other industries
in knowing their customers, and thereby in
knowing their customers’ preferences, habits,
likes and dislikes.
For airlines, every trip the customer
takes essentially belongs to a “new” indi-
vidual, because assembly and analysis of
extensive customer profiles have simply not
been achieved to most carriers’ full capability.
Airlines are trying to bridge some of these
gaps by introducing loyalty programs with
various means to attract and retain their cus-
tomers. This provides them the opportunity to
learn about their frequent flyers, and to design
strategies targeting that segment.
Nonetheless, there is a large segment of
the flying public that does not belong to a
loyalty program.
That means carriers are missing the oppor-
tunity to know those travelers and satisfy their
needs. Studies show that major airlines may
have up to 80 percent of their customers not
participating in their loyalty program, with a
significant number of those customers being
repeat travelers.
Knowledge Issues
What are some of the key factors that
contribute to the overall customer frustration?
One of the problems is a phenomenon
described by organizational researchers as
“the data silo effect,” which results from a
severe lack of cross-departmental and team
communication, with teams essentially work-
ing by themselves in their own self-created
“data silos” and not sharing information with
others in their own company.
Just as in many other types of large organi-
zations, the silo effect can be observed in an
airline’s data and data-analytics strategy.
The expansive growth of customers’ data
in an airline varies from internal and external
channels, and forces the carrier to accumulate
vast amounts of that information.
Data expansion inflates the data silo
effect, and it becomes difficult for airlines to
track their customers across many channels
and integrate those customers’ data from
multiple sources. Each customer leaves a
digital footprint through each channel via vari-
ous interactions, transactions and browsing
histories.
The challenge for airlines is to create a
single view of their customers by answering
several extremely important questions:
Who are my customers?
What actions have they taken in the past?
What are their preferences, likes and dis-
likes?
I
ASCEND I SPECIAL SECTION
Standard Data Profile Data from operational and external systems is fed into the Customer Data
Hub. Within the solution, profile and analytical data stores the data to minimize duplication and create
a standard data profile.
Enriched Customer Data The root of a successful end-to-end customer experience is the “KISS” or
“know, identify, serve, sell” strategy, whereby airlines know their customers, identify them at each
touchpoint, service them at every step of the journey, and sell to them at the right time, price and
place. The Customer Data Hub trolls through all of the transactional customer data that airlines store
and tie it to a customer profile. The data can then be enriched with external data such as demograph-
ic data or social media data, giving airlines the ability to know customer patterns and preferences.
Knowing High-Value Customers To Enable
Personalization
KISS: Know, Identify, Serve, Sell
n recent years, airlines have taken major
steps to focus on customers, and to
improve customer journey. However,
these improvements are not translating
to overall customer satisfaction.
The major problem all airlines face
today is that they are behind other industries
in knowing their customers, and thereby in
knowing their customers’ preferences, habits,
likes and dislikes.
For airlines, every trip the customer
takes essentially belongs to a “new” indi-
vidual, because assembly and analysis of
extensive customer profiles have simply not
been achieved to most carriers’ full capability.
Airlines are trying to bridge some of these
gaps by introducing loyalty programs with
various means to attract and retain their cus-
tomers. This provides them the opportunity to
learn about their frequent flyers, and to design
strategies targeting that segment.
Nonetheless, there is a large segment of
the flying public that does not belong to a
loyalty program.
That means carriers are missing the oppor-
tunity to know those travelers and satisfy their
needs. Studies show that major airlines may
have up to 80 percent of their customers not
participating in their loyalty program, with a
significant number of those customers being
repeat travelers.
Knowledge Issues
What are some of the key factors that
contribute to the overall customer frustration?
One of the problems is a phenomenon
described by organizational researchers as
“the data silo effect,” which results from a
severe lack of cross-departmental and team
communication, with teams essentially work-
ing by themselves in their own self-created
“data silos” and not sharing information with
others in their own company.
Just as in many other types of large organi-
zations, the silo effect can be observed in an
airline’s data and data-analytics strategy.
The expansive growth of customers’ data
in an airline varies from internal and external
channels, and forces the carrier to accumulate
vast amounts of that information.
Data expansion inflates the data silo
effect, and it becomes difficult for airlines to
track their customers across many channels
and integrate those customers’ data from
multiple sources. Each customer leaves a
digital footprint through each channel via vari-
ous interactions, transactions and browsing
histories.
The challenge for airlines is to create a
single view of their customers by answering
several extremely important questions:
Who are my customers?
What actions have they taken in the past?
What are their preferences, likes and dis-
likes?
I
ASCEND I SPECIAL SECTION
Standard Data Profile Data from operational and external systems is fed into the Customer Data
Hub. Within the solution, profile and analytical data stores the data to minimize duplication and create
a standard data profile.
Enriched Customer Data The root of a successful end-to-end customer experience is the “KISS” or
“know, identify, serve, sell” strategy, whereby airlines know their customers, identify them at each
touchpoint, service them at every step of the journey, and sell to them at the right time, price and
place. The Customer Data Hub trolls through all of the transactional customer data that airlines store
and tie it to a customer profile. The data can then be enriched with external data such as demograph-
ic data or social media data, giving airlines the ability to know customer patterns and preferences.
Knowing High-Value Customers To Enable
PersonalizationPersonalization
KISS: Know, Identify, Serve, Sell
ascend50

3. What can the airline expect from them in
the future?
How does the carrier approach them, and
influence their decisions?
A Changing Reference Point
A second extremely vital consideration
involves the fact that the customer reference
point has changed.
The increase of digital content and tech-
nology has enabled companies in various
industries to analyze customer data and
implement means to learn about every single
individual’s experience and behaviors.
This information, in turn, has enabled those
companies to target and personalize to each
individual, guiding and advising that person,
thus providing a better end-to-end customer
journey.
Customers are comparing their experiences
with those companies.
In effect, those customers are in the driv-
er’s seat, so to speak, which can essentially
justify demanding the same or better levels
of service and overall experience from other
companies with which they are interacting.
Airlines are scrambling to follow the trends
in identification of customers and their behav-
iors through each channel, and being able to
use that information to increase the levels of
customer service and satisfaction.
Reactive, Not Proactive
A third fundamental observation is that
airlines are generally “reactive,” and not really
“proactive” in relation to the customer’s end-
to-end journey.
Traditionally, airlines have focused on
delivering individual products and services,
not taking into consideration individual prefer-
ences and desires of their customers.
Flight scheduling, capacity planning, fare
management, ancillary selection and prices
are driven by airlines’ interests (and they are
driven from the carriers’ point of view, not
from their customers’ points of view).
Lack of personal knowledge of customer
behavior, in effect, forces airlines to generalize
and miss the opportunity to target individual
travelers with personalized offerings, product
bundles and applicable discounts at the right
time through the right channel.
This reactive strategy to the customer jour-
ney keeps airline brands in a disadvantageous
posture, and can adversely affect customer
loyalty and retention, in turn leading to less
efficiency for the airline.
The Future: SabreSonic Customer
Data Hub
Airline executives understand the urgency,
and they’re making every effort to shift their
companies’ focus to be more customer-centric.
In this process, Sabre is aiding airlines
in transforming their organizations from
“reactive” to “proactive” by creating best-
in-class traveler experiences at every stage
of the customer journey, thus enhancing
loyalty, increasing profitability and improving
satisfaction.
While Sabre’s customer-service strategy
primarily revolves around the customer, it is
even more so focused around the customer’s
end-to-end journey.
The first step in this strategy is to know
and identify each customer who travels with
an airline. SabreSonic Customer Data Hub
provides “a single source of the truth” for
all customer data by integrating data from
multiple touchpoints.
These touchpoints include structured
reservations, check-in and ticketing, shop-
ping analytics, buying behavior patterns and
social media (all of this information as it has
accumulated in multiple data silos), and they
all comprise critical elements of the master
customer profile for each individual customer.
The Customer Data Hub empowers an air-
line to identify qualified customers throughout
their journey, from the planning phase to the
post-trip phase, and to collect and process
information in real time with every customer
interaction.
It enables an airline to proactively address,
adjust and adopt an individual approach to
every person at the right time with the right
offering through the right channel.
The Customer Data Hub also features scor-
ing and segmentation based on the customer’s
previous interactions with the airline, and by
building the right facilities for long-term reten-
tion of passengers.
It achieves these absolutely critical results
by creating differentiation through personaliza-
tion across all points of sales and service, and
that personalization is the key factor in provid-
ing offerings customized for the individual in
any situation throughout the individual’s own
journey.
Burgeoning Customer Experience
Personalizing customer profiles that con-
tinue to be constructed and modified over time
whenever the customer travels is the future of
the airline industry.
Then it’s all accumulated and made readily
available at the Customer Data Hub, which
is more evolutionary than revolutionary in
the context of the travel industry and the
customers whose data are being continually
accumulated and evaluated.
However, its effects can definitely be char-
acterized as “revolutionary” in nature, placing
the customer’s wants and needs first to better
serve that customer at every step of every
future journey, and shaping airlines’ interac-
tions with the customers they should always
know best. a
Hamid Herzai is a principal
product manager for Sabre Airline
Solutions. He can be contacted
at hamid.herzai@sabre.com.
Master Customer Profile Customer Data Hub creates a master customer profile for real-time deci-
sion-making. Airlines use the solution to identify and offer customer-specific products and services at
the very time individual customers are willing to make additional purchases based on data captured in
their master customer profile.
Customer Data Hub User Interface
ASCEND I SPECIAL SECTION
What can the airline expect from them inWhat can the airline expect from them in
the future?
How does the carrier approach them, andHow does the carrier approach them, and
influence their decisions?
A Changing Reference Point
A second extremely vital consideration
involves the fact that the customer reference
point has changed.
The increase of digital content and tech-
nology has enabled companies in various
industries to analyze customer data and
implement means to learn about every single
individual’s experience and behaviors.
This information, in turn, has enabled those
companies to target and personalize to each
individual, guiding and advising that person,
thus providing a better end-to-end customer
journey.
Customers are comparing their experiences
with those companies.
In effect, those customers are in the driv-
er’s seat, so to speak, which can essentially
justify demanding the same or better levels
of service and overall experience from other
companies with which they are interacting.
Airlines are scrambling to follow the trends
in identification of customers and their behav-
iors through each channel, and being able to
use that information to increase the levels of
customer service and satisfaction.
Reactive, Not Proactive
A third fundamental observation is that
airlines are generally “reactive,” and not really
“proactive” in relation to the customer’s end-
to-end journey.
Traditionally, airlines have focused on
delivering individual products and services,
not taking into consideration individual prefer-
ences and desires of their customers.
Flight scheduling, capacity planning, fare
management, ancillary selection and prices
are driven by airlines’ interests (and they are
driven from the carriers’ point of view, not
from their customers’ points of view).
Lack of personal knowledge of customer
behavior, in effect, forces airlines to generalize
and miss the opportunity to target individual
travelers with personalized offerings, product
bundles and applicable discounts at the right
time through the right channel.
This reactive strategy to the customer jour-
ney keeps airline brands in a disadvantageous
posture, and can adversely affect customer
loyalty and retention, in turn leading to less
efficiency for the airline.
The Future: SabreSonic Customer
Data Hub
Airline executives understand the urgency,
and they’re making every effort to shift their
companies’ focus to be more customer-centric.
In this process, Sabre is aiding airlines
in transforming their organizations from
“reactive” to “proactive” by creating best-
in-class traveler experiences at every stage
of the customer journey, thus enhancing
loyalty, increasing profitability and improving
satisfaction.
While Sabre’s customer-service strategy
primarily revolves around the customer, it is
even more so focused around the customer’s
end-to-end journey.
The first step in this strategy is to know
and identify each customer who travels with
an airline. SabreSonic Customer Data Hub
provides “a single source of the truth” for
all customer data by integrating data from
multiple touchpoints.
These touchpoints include structured
reservations, check-in and ticketing, shop-
ping analytics, buying behavior patterns and
social media (all of this information as it has
accumulated in multiple data silos), and they
all comprise critical elements of the master
customer profile for each individual customer.
The Customer Data Hub empowers an air-
line to identify qualified customers throughout
their journey, from the planning phase to the
post-trip phase, and to collect and process
information in real time with every customer
interaction.
It enables an airline to proactively address,
adjust and adopt an individual approach to
every person at the right time with the right
offering through the right channel.
The Customer Data Hub also features scor-
ing and segmentation based on the customer’s
previous interactions with the airline, and by
building the right facilities for long-term reten-
tion of passengers.
It achieves these absolutely critical results
by creating differentiation through personaliza-
tion across all points of sales and service, and
that personalization is the key factor in provid-
ing offerings customized for the individual in
any situation throughout the individual’s own
journey.
Burgeoning Customer Experience
Personalizing customer profiles that con-
tinue to be constructed and modified over time
whenever the customer travels is the future of
the airline industry.
Then it’s all accumulated and made readily
available at the Customer Data Hub, which
is more evolutionary than revolutionary in
the context of the travel industry and the
customers whose data are being continually
accumulated and evaluated.
However, its effects can definitely be char-
acterized as “revolutionary” in nature, placing
the customer’s wants and needs first to better
serve that customer at every step of every
future journey, and shaping airlines’ interac-
tions with the customers they should always
know best. aa
Hamid Herzai is a principal
product manager for Sabre Airline
Solutions. He can be contacted
at hamid.herzai@sabre.com.
Master Customer Profile Customer Data Hub creates a master customer profile for real-time deci-
sion-making. Airlines use the solution to identify and offer customer-specific products and services at
the very time individual customers are willing to make additional purchases based on data captured in
their master customer profile.
Customer Data Hub User Interface
ASCEND I SPECIAL SECTION
ascend 51