By creating 'personas,' airlines can determine how and where customers want to engage, and customize offers that secure loyalty and elevate brand reputation.
2015 Understanding the Needs and Experiences of the Premium Business TravelerInnovations2Solutions
Premium business travelers have come to expect certain amenities and services when traveling, yet they still face many obstacles and deal with unique stressors during their journey. Overbooked flights, spotty Internet connectivity, frequent changes in airline policies, and diminished benefits of airline loyalty programs are some of the challenges facing today’s business travelers. As a result, they may experience many feelings, from anxiety to relief, over the course of a business trip. Before we examine the needs, preferences, and stressors of the premium business traveler, we first need to understand the unique demographic and psychographic characteristics of this segment.
2015 Understanding the Needs and Experiences of the Premium Business TravelerInnovations2Solutions
Premium business travelers have come to expect certain amenities and services when traveling, yet they still face many obstacles and deal with unique stressors during their journey. Overbooked flights, spotty Internet connectivity, frequent changes in airline policies, and diminished benefits of airline loyalty programs are some of the challenges facing today’s business travelers. As a result, they may experience many feelings, from anxiety to relief, over the course of a business trip. Before we examine the needs, preferences, and stressors of the premium business traveler, we first need to understand the unique demographic and psychographic characteristics of this segment.
How can airlines improve the customer experience, revive brand loyalty and undo the effects of years of cost-cutting?
Read more and watch videos>> http://bit.ly/FoAT
White Paper: 5 Ways Airports Can Drive Non-Aviation RevenueGigya
With airlines now accounting for just 38% of airport revenues, maximizing non-aviation earnings has never been more necessary. This white paper takes a look at how airports can drive non-aviation revenue by leveraging customer identities to create personal experiences across five key areas:
- Parking
- Retail and concessions
- Food and beverage
- Loyalty programs
- Advertising
The Future of Travel Management SolutionsSAP Concur
The reality is more travel technology players are building direct relationships with traveling employees (e.g. Uber, AirBnB). The question is--how do travel managers keep up, while retaining control and visibility to ensure travel compliance?
Great customer experiences are planned, designed and actively managed. Companies that consistently deliver, and improve upon, positive experiences have three things in common: customer insight, a customer culture, and a “designed” customer experience. The paper advocates how organizations must deliver a rich, personalized cross-channel experience with seamless integration across all touch points
Social Listening for the Travel & Hospitality IndustryBrandwatch
This report details the changes, challenges and opportunities facing the travel and hospitality industry, including:
- How airlines can justify price premiums and boost brand reputation
- What leading hotel and booking brands are doing to better understand and respond to user reviews
- Which metrics marketers can use to measure their campaigns and ROI
More info available here: http://www.brandwatch.com/report-travel-2014/
Running Head: IN-FLIGHT SERVICES 1
IN-FLIGHT SERVICES 2
In-flight Services:
Course:
Instructor:
Institution:
Date:
Introduction
The aviation airline industry is a constant changing industry thriving to gain competitive advantage through strategy and innovation. The main focus is for an airline industry to stand out and attract customers. The customers are the reason why companies such as Virgin, Jet Blue, AirTran, Delta and Hawaiian airlines are at the top of the food chain. Providing unique customer experience is one of the many ways that organizations exploit to gain competitive advantage. Customer experience while using organization products or services has been transformed into an art within the business environment (Saha & Theingi, 2009). The art of customer experience aims at establishing the best customer satisfaction. Airline industries are not spared by the new art of establishing the best customer satisfaction. In fact Airline industry is one of the many industries that embrace the art of customer satisfaction since it deals with actual handling of customers. Every unit of the airline organization must be well interlinked so as customer satisfaction remain a priority at all the time.
Every airline organization should focus on ways that provide the safest, dependable and pleasurable air transport. Achieving the objective would ensure that the airline becomes a unique organization of choice for many either locally or internationally. Airline industries have divergent areas that must be considered in effort to achieve the desired level of customer satisfaction (Zeithaml, Bitner, & Gremler, 2009). The different areas can be categorised into three main phases. The three main phase include, pre-flit, in-flight and post-flit. This paper will explore on various ways that airlines can exploit to improve on in-flit customer satisfaction.
In-flit situation
Before exploring any form of customer satisfaction, airline management must first appreciate that the diversity of needs for their customers. The needs in this case involve the motivations that forces one into using air transport instead of other modes of transport. The diversity remains a major challenge for majority of airlines seeking to achieve best level customer experience and satisfaction. Different people have different reasons behind them using air transport. The various reasons may be categorised into three main groups (Atilgan, Akinci, & S. Aksoy, 2008). First category involves those travelling for pleasure and status. Travellers in this group always use air transport as way of achieving personal pleasures. The second group involves individuals who travel for business or work related activities. This group of travellers have unique preferences that airline organizations must meet so as to make them fully satisfied.
The ...
Digital readiness for customer experience in the airline industry - AccentureAccenture ASEAN
Most airlines have a clear vision for using digital technology to improve customer experience. But they lack the know-how and talent to bring the vision to life.
This Accenture report examines the disruptive impact of digital technology on the airline industry with a focus on customer experience.
The findings are based on in-depth interviews with 25 airline senior executives throughout the world.
Using Adaptive Scrum to Tame Process Reverse Engineering in Data Analytics Pr...Cognizant
Organizations rely on analytics to make intelligent decisions and improve business performance, which sometimes requires reproducing business processes from a legacy application to a digital-native state to reduce the functional, technical and operational debts. Adaptive Scrum can reduce the complexity of the reproduction process iteratively as well as provide transparency in data analytics porojects.
How can airlines improve the customer experience, revive brand loyalty and undo the effects of years of cost-cutting?
Read more and watch videos>> http://bit.ly/FoAT
White Paper: 5 Ways Airports Can Drive Non-Aviation RevenueGigya
With airlines now accounting for just 38% of airport revenues, maximizing non-aviation earnings has never been more necessary. This white paper takes a look at how airports can drive non-aviation revenue by leveraging customer identities to create personal experiences across five key areas:
- Parking
- Retail and concessions
- Food and beverage
- Loyalty programs
- Advertising
The Future of Travel Management SolutionsSAP Concur
The reality is more travel technology players are building direct relationships with traveling employees (e.g. Uber, AirBnB). The question is--how do travel managers keep up, while retaining control and visibility to ensure travel compliance?
Great customer experiences are planned, designed and actively managed. Companies that consistently deliver, and improve upon, positive experiences have three things in common: customer insight, a customer culture, and a “designed” customer experience. The paper advocates how organizations must deliver a rich, personalized cross-channel experience with seamless integration across all touch points
Social Listening for the Travel & Hospitality IndustryBrandwatch
This report details the changes, challenges and opportunities facing the travel and hospitality industry, including:
- How airlines can justify price premiums and boost brand reputation
- What leading hotel and booking brands are doing to better understand and respond to user reviews
- Which metrics marketers can use to measure their campaigns and ROI
More info available here: http://www.brandwatch.com/report-travel-2014/
Running Head: IN-FLIGHT SERVICES 1
IN-FLIGHT SERVICES 2
In-flight Services:
Course:
Instructor:
Institution:
Date:
Introduction
The aviation airline industry is a constant changing industry thriving to gain competitive advantage through strategy and innovation. The main focus is for an airline industry to stand out and attract customers. The customers are the reason why companies such as Virgin, Jet Blue, AirTran, Delta and Hawaiian airlines are at the top of the food chain. Providing unique customer experience is one of the many ways that organizations exploit to gain competitive advantage. Customer experience while using organization products or services has been transformed into an art within the business environment (Saha & Theingi, 2009). The art of customer experience aims at establishing the best customer satisfaction. Airline industries are not spared by the new art of establishing the best customer satisfaction. In fact Airline industry is one of the many industries that embrace the art of customer satisfaction since it deals with actual handling of customers. Every unit of the airline organization must be well interlinked so as customer satisfaction remain a priority at all the time.
Every airline organization should focus on ways that provide the safest, dependable and pleasurable air transport. Achieving the objective would ensure that the airline becomes a unique organization of choice for many either locally or internationally. Airline industries have divergent areas that must be considered in effort to achieve the desired level of customer satisfaction (Zeithaml, Bitner, & Gremler, 2009). The different areas can be categorised into three main phases. The three main phase include, pre-flit, in-flight and post-flit. This paper will explore on various ways that airlines can exploit to improve on in-flit customer satisfaction.
In-flit situation
Before exploring any form of customer satisfaction, airline management must first appreciate that the diversity of needs for their customers. The needs in this case involve the motivations that forces one into using air transport instead of other modes of transport. The diversity remains a major challenge for majority of airlines seeking to achieve best level customer experience and satisfaction. Different people have different reasons behind them using air transport. The various reasons may be categorised into three main groups (Atilgan, Akinci, & S. Aksoy, 2008). First category involves those travelling for pleasure and status. Travellers in this group always use air transport as way of achieving personal pleasures. The second group involves individuals who travel for business or work related activities. This group of travellers have unique preferences that airline organizations must meet so as to make them fully satisfied.
The ...
Digital readiness for customer experience in the airline industry - AccentureAccenture ASEAN
Most airlines have a clear vision for using digital technology to improve customer experience. But they lack the know-how and talent to bring the vision to life.
This Accenture report examines the disruptive impact of digital technology on the airline industry with a focus on customer experience.
The findings are based on in-depth interviews with 25 airline senior executives throughout the world.
Similar to How Airlines Can Deliver a Personalized Customer Experience During Operational Disruptions (20)
Using Adaptive Scrum to Tame Process Reverse Engineering in Data Analytics Pr...Cognizant
Organizations rely on analytics to make intelligent decisions and improve business performance, which sometimes requires reproducing business processes from a legacy application to a digital-native state to reduce the functional, technical and operational debts. Adaptive Scrum can reduce the complexity of the reproduction process iteratively as well as provide transparency in data analytics porojects.
It Takes an Ecosystem: How Technology Companies Deliver Exceptional ExperiencesCognizant
Experience is evolving into a strategy that reaches across technology companies. We offer guidance on the rise of experience and its role in business modernization, with details on how orgnizations can build the ecosystem to support it.
The Work Ahead: Transportation and Logistics Delivering on the Digital-Physic...Cognizant
The T&L industry appears poised to accelerate its long-overdue modernization drive, as the pandemic spurs an increased need for agility and resilience, according to our study.
Enhancing Desirability: Five Considerations for Winning Digital InitiativesCognizant
To be a modern digital business in the post-COVID era, organizations must be fanatical about the experiences they deliver to an increasingly savvy and expectant user community. Getting there requires a mastery of human-design thinking, compelling user interface and interaction design, and a focus on functional and nonfunctional capabilities that drive business differentiation and results.
The Work Ahead in Manufacturing: Fulfilling the Agility MandateCognizant
According to our research, manufacturers are well ahead of other industries in their IoT deployments but need to marshal the investment required to meet today’s intensified demands for business resilience.
The Work Ahead in Higher Education: Repaving the Road for the Employees of To...Cognizant
Higher-ed institutions expect pandemic-driven disruption to continue, especially as hyperconnectivity, analytics and AI drive personalized education models over the lifetime of the learner, according to our recent research.
Engineering the Next-Gen Digital Claims Organisation for Australian General I...Cognizant
In recent years, insurers have invested in technology platforms and process improvements to improve
claims outcomes. Leaders will build on this foundation across the claims landscape, spanning experience,
operations, customer service and the overall supply chain with market-differentiating capabilities to
achieve sustainable results.
Profitability in the Direct-to-Consumer Marketplace: A Playbook for Media and...Cognizant
Amid constant change, industry leaders need an upgraded IT infrastructure capable of adapting to audience expectations while proactively anticipating ever-evolving business requirements.
Green Rush: The Economic Imperative for SustainabilityCognizant
Green business is good business, according to our recent research, whether for companies monetizing tech tools used for sustainability or for those that see the impact of these initiatives on business goals.
Policy Administration Modernization: Four Paths for InsurersCognizant
The pivot to digital is fraught with numerous obstacles but with proper planning and execution, legacy carriers can update their core systems and keep pace with the competition, while proactively addressing customer needs.
The Work Ahead in Utilities: Powering a Sustainable Future with DigitalCognizant
Utilities are starting to adopt digital technologies to eliminate slow processes, elevate customer experience and boost sustainability, according to our recent study.
AI in Media & Entertainment: Starting the Journey to ValueCognizant
Up to now, the global media & entertainment industry (M&E) has been lagging most other sectors in its adoption of artificial intelligence (AI). But our research shows that M&E companies are set to close the gap over the coming three years, as they ramp up their investments in AI and reap rising returns. The first steps? Getting a firm grip on data – the foundation of any successful AI strategy – and balancing technology spend with investments in AI skills.
Operations Workforce Management: A Data-Informed, Digital-First ApproachCognizant
As #WorkFromAnywhere becomes the rule rather than the exception, organizations face an important question: How can they increase their digital quotient to engage and enable a remote operations workforce to work collaboratively to deliver onclient requirements and contractual commitments?
Five Priorities for Quality Engineering When Taking Banking to the CloudCognizant
As banks move to cloud-based banking platforms for lower costs and greater agility, they must seamlessly integrate technologies and workflows while ensuring security, performance and an enhanced user experience. Here are five ways cloud-focused quality assurance helps banks maximize the benefits.
Getting Ahead With AI: How APAC Companies Replicate Success by Remaining FocusedCognizant
Changing market dynamics are propelling Asia-Pacific businesses to take a highly disciplined and focused approach to ensuring that their AI initiatives rapidly scale and quickly generate heightened business impact.
The Work Ahead in Intelligent Automation: Coping with Complexity in a Post-Pa...Cognizant
Intelligent automation continues to be a top driver of the future of work, according to our recent study. To reap the full advantages, businesses need to move from isolated to widespread deployment.
The Work Ahead in Intelligent Automation: Coping with Complexity in a Post-Pa...
How Airlines Can Deliver a Personalized Customer Experience During Operational Disruptions
1. How Airlines Can Deliver a
Personalized Customer Experience
During Operational Disruptions
By distilling and applying meaning from the digital data that
surrounds people, processes, organizations and devices, airlines
can create “personas” that reveal how and where customers want
to engage, and customize offers that secure customer loyalty and
elevate brand reputation.
Executive Summary
Your flight has been canceled, you’re stranded at
the airport, and the corrective action offered by
the airline does not suit your purpose. Sounds all
too familiar, right?
Welcome to the 21st century world of airline
travel. With increased air traffic, airports are
hard-pressed to overcome complex operational
challenges, from flight scheduling and terminal
operations, to passenger communication and
retail and maintenance planning. As a result, what
the industry once called a “disruption” is now the
new normal.1
In a continuous attempt to preserve brand equity,
passenger airlines are trying to institute the best
possible service recovery measures, keeping in
mind the expectations of their tech-savvy cus-
tomers, who have a plethora of information, often
more than the airport itself, at their fingertips.
Simultaneously, they are fighting to retain custom-
ers, who today are often afforded greater air travel
options and alternate modes of transport.
Add to this the move by some airlines to offer
a personalized experience rather than mere
transport, and it becomes clear that competi-
tion in the travel industry has become more
intense than ever before. Every dimension of the
traveler’s journey is being questioned, including
the experience during “non-normal” operations,
such as delays.
In response, airlines must look to personalize
the customer experience during disruptions.
Because customers cannot be fully understood
when categorized in traditional ways, based on
geographic location, intent and psychographics,
airlines should create segmentations based on
“personas” — a complex combination of factors,
based on event, time and behavior – in order to
drive intended outcomes.
cognizant 20-20 insights | november 2015
• Cognizant 20-20 Insights
2. Interest Gap
Airlines currently approach
disruption-handling using
standard operating
procedures, with no
imminent solution to
resolving traveler pain.
Action Gap
No operational process
exists for delivering
customized/personalized
messages during
disruption-handling.
Content Gap
There appears to
be no clear direction
on the type of content
that could be personalized
via algorithmic and heuristic
approaches during
non-normal operations.
2cognizant 20-20 insights
This white paper examines how passenger airlines
can leverage non-discrete and bounded customer
personastodeliveramorepersonalizedexperience
during airline disruptions. Doing so involves what
we call Code HaloTM
thinking,2
a discipline in which
meaning is made and applied from the metadata
generated by the connected and online behaviors
of people, processes, organizations and devices.
We also present recommendations based on
primary research that we conducted through a
survey of 200 consumers to understand their
behavior during airline disruptions.3
Current State of Airline Industry
Competition
To fully grasp the challenges facing passenger
airlines today, it is necessary to understand the
business landscape. All airlines today have well-
established standard operating procedures for
handling customers during disruptions, including
e-mail notifications, rebooking options, refunds
and special offers, such as coupons and vouchers
to be used during periods of latency.
Although airlines curently offer some form of mar-
keting-related personalization, such as custom-
ized food and beverage services or product and
service recommendations, such personalization
is completely missing from the service recovery
experience. Airlines currently have large stores of
customer data from which they could design algo-
rithmic- and heuristic-based personalized service
recovery experiences; however, they are hindered
by aging systems, a lack of omnichannel capabili-
ties and an inability to seamlessly coordinate the
activities of multiple partners in the value chain.
Software and service providers are starting to
move in the direction of personalized disruption
handling. For instance, online reservations
systems provider Amadeus recently partnered
with TAM Airlines to launch Personal Disruption
Companion,4
which provides personalized re-
accommodation options to passengers. While this
is a step in the right direction, the application
only provides rebooking of primary and ancillary
products based on the customer’s history and
fails to address the entire service disruption
experience.
A Three-Phased Approach
A cohesive and holistic approach to personalized
disruption-handling will require airlines to close
three gaps that exist today (see Figure 1).
The Non-Normal Operations Chasm
Figure 1
3. cognizant 20-20 insights 3
Airlines can bridge the content gap and the action
gap by taking a three-phased approach (see
Figure 2).
Phase 1: Define Code Halos
For every interaction a customer has with an
airline, an immense amount of data is generated,
whether it is explicitly captured or derived from
travelers’ online activities. This swirl of data (which
we call a Code Halo) can be used to create a series
of customer personas. Using this metadata (which
is based on an analysis of the airline’s customer
database, blended with an empirical understand-
ing of traveler behavior) airlines can devise a per-
sonalized disruption treatment experience. Such
metadata would include the following:
• Current Trip Data
>> Age: Customer response to non-normal op-
erations differs according to their age. Our
research reveals that travelers aged 18 to 24
are 34% more prone to requesting compen-
sation and refunds than other age groups.
>> Gender: Men and women vary in their pre-
ferred treatment, both during and after a
disruption. In our survey, women were about
10% more likely to ask for refunds and com-
pensation following a disruption.
>> Nationality and ethnicity: Passengers’ coun-
try of origin and ethnic background can also
help airlines predict their emotional state and
behavior. For instance, we correlated four di-
mensions of national cultures developed by
social psychologist Geert Hofstede (individu-
alism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance,
long-term orientation)5
with the elements of
situational response to disruptions. We con-
cluded that travelers with nationalities that
are highly individualistic, assertive/competi-
tive and tolerant of ambiguity/uncertainty
— and that value past- and present-related
virtues, such as national pride and tradition)
— are likely to be more vocal about request-
ing remedial measures such as service cor-
rections, compensation, refunds, etc. Travel-
ers from cultures that are more collectivist,
modest/caring, intolerant of uncertainty and
geared toward future-focused virtues, such
as persistence and adapting to changing
circumstances, are likely to be less adamant
about remedial measures. For example, a
customer from the U.S. would be far more
insistent on receiving these services than a
customer from India (see Figure 3).
Closing the Passenger Insight Gap
Country Comparison
The Hofstede Model scores countries across
several dimensions in order to visualize
culture differences and anticipate their
impact. The following is an example of how
India scores on four dimensions vs. the U.S.
Define
Code Halos
Develop
Personas
Develop
Insights &
Execute
Operational
Rollout
1 32
Reaction-basedRefund-based
Individualism Masculinity Uncertainty
Avoidance
Long-Term
Orientation
■ U.S.
■ India
0
20
40
60
80
100
Figure 2
Source: The Hofstede Centre
Figure 3
4. cognizant 20-20 insights 4
>> Travel purpose: Three common types of
travel include business, leisure and fam-
ily gatherings. While our study reveals little
variation in behavior across these three
categories in terms of refund requests,
travelers to family gatherings are somewhat
more likely to ask for an explanation of the
delay from the airline, and are much more
likely to request compensation (see Figure 4).
Airlines must understand travelers’ propensi-
ty for irritability based on their travel purpose
in order to deliver the most relevant experi-
ence when flights are delayed.
Irritability Index
Airline-Associated Travelers Demand Monetary Remediation
Ask for a refund Ask for an explaination
from the airline
Ask for compensation
■ Business
■ Leisure
■ Travel for family gatherings
0
20
40
60
80
Accept non-monetary
remediation
Reject offer/ask for
other treatment
■ Associated with airline/travel group
■ Not associated with airline/travel group
0
20
40
60
80
16
50
42
6
Source: Cognizant Primary Research
Figure 4
Source: Cognizant Primary Research
Figure 5
>> Association with airline or travel group:
People who are associated with an airline
or travel-related group are more inclined to
request compensation, refunds and explana-
tions than other traveler types (see Figure
5). In our study, 72% of people associated
with an airline or travel group reacted nega-
tively to “soft” forms of compensation and
instead asked for monetary types of refunds.
>> Activity on social networking: Customers
express mixed feelings about sharing their
travel disruption experience on social chan-
nels. However, as all age groups become in-
creasingly focused on using social channels
for interaction and content consumption, this
is an important attribute for airlines to track.
>> Channel of service: More than half of re-
spondents said they would want to receive
service from airline staff during a disruption
(see Figure 6, next page). Although this find-
ing appears contrary to the trend toward self-
service technologies, we believe it is related
to the risk-averse attitude of customers dur-
ing a disruption, as they are focused on avoid-
ing further difficulties and don’t want to leave
resolution to chance.
>> Smart device usage: As consumers increas-
ingly use mobile devices to check trip status
5. cognizant 20-20 insights 5
and obtain real-time flight information, air-
lines should push disruption-related notifica-
tions to these channels in the form of SMS
and Whatsapp messages.
• Historical Data
>> Previous acceptance of flight re-booking:
By analyzing past response to rebooking an
alternate flight, airlines can target offers to
those customers who are most likely to ac-
cept such an offer.
>> Previous acceptance of alternative offers:
Because a high correlation exists between
customers who accept alternate offers (i.e.,
vouchers, transfers, etc.) and those who ap-
plaud the service recovery experience, air-
lines can use customers’ offer acceptance
history to target and improve their net pro-
moter score.
>> Previous acceptance of compensation: Our
research shows that customers with a strong
inclination toward asking for compensation,
and a tendency to not accept rebooking or
alternate offers, also tend to be neutral or
skeptical in terms of their level of brand ad-
vocacy. Airlines should consider such behav-
ioral tendencies when devising experiences
for each customer type.
>> Previous refund-seeking behavior: Our
study also reveals that customers with
strong refund-seeking behavior are net de-
fectors for an airline. Such customers must
be identified and given special treatment.
Phase 2: Develop Personas
By aggregating behaviors and time- and event-
based attributes, airlines can develop customer
personas. The following are typical clusters that
airlines can develop:
• Behavior-based: These clusters are based on
the behavior of customers toward offers made
by airlines during a disruption, in the form of
coupons, hotel stays, discounted next trips, etc.
>> Refund seeker.
>> Explanation finder.
>> Compensation hunter.
>> Apology acceptor.
>> Agreeable type (supersedes all
other clusters).
• Reaction-based. These clusters are based on
post-service-recovery reactions:
>> Applauders.
>> Stay neutrals.
>> Skeptics.
Preferred Service Channel
■ Airline staff
■ Self service
■ Assisted service
■ Not sure
52%
29%
4%
15%
Source: Cognizant Primary Research
Figure 6
Our study also reveals that
customers with strong refund-
seeking behavior are net defectors
for an airline. Such customers must
be identified and given special
treatment.
6. cognizant 20-20 insights 6
To develop accurate and useful traveler personas,
airlines should combine these two clusters, using
the matrix defined in Figure 7.
Phase 3: Developing Insights and Executing the
Operational Roll-Out
To achieve the envisioned operational excellence,
airlines should consider implementing a five-lay-
ered protocol:
1. A personalization engine informed by Code
Halo thinking that is capable of handling the
attributes highlighted throughout this white
paper, as well as their combinations and inter-
sections. Such an engine would help correlate
and ascribe meaning to passenger behavior
and events, in time to develop a compelling
recommendation for delivering an exceptional
customer experience. For example, an offer
could be sent to the mobile device of a business
traveler who is likely to desire an apology in the
event of a disruption and applaud the service
recovery experience if properly executed. Only
a robust implementation of both predictive
modeling and situational analysis can help an
airline bridge the action and content gaps and
move toward algorithmic-based personalization.
2. A channel of handling. With today’s blurring
of the physical and digital world, airlines need
to enable an omnichannel approach for posting
and sending notifications and information. This
requires:
>> Social network channels for communica-
tion and real-time flight information. Few
airlines today use social media as both a
channel for customer notifications and real-
time flight status. Given that this is a free
and much-used channel for communication,
airlines need to quickly develop a mature ca-
pability on this front.
>> Enablement of personalized social mes-
saging channels, such as Facebook Messen-
ger and Whatsapp. By sending notifications
and sharing the right information at the right
time on the right device, airlines can greatly
diminish customer anxiety. Approximately
90% of travelers today say they know about
a disruption only when they have arrived at
the airport, which is the greatest cause of
dissatisfaction.
3. Resolving information asymmetry. With the
speed of information dissemination today, it
is important for airlines to understand that
asymmetry of information can quickly dilute
brand value. For example, when a customer
incorrectly believes that her flight has
been disrupted, she will develop a negative
perception of the experience. If airlines can col-
lectively inform passengers that a disruption
has occurred (say multiple airlines are facing
disruptions because of an airport operational
problem), travelers will be far less aggravated.
4. Enabling staff. Even as self-service prolifer-
ates, the majority of travelers still want disrup-
tion-handling to be carried out by the airline’s
staff, according to our research. Also, because
travelers increasingly want information on-the-
go,6
it is important to arm staff and contact
centers with the ability to enable context-spe-
cific and personalized information and service
during disruptions.
5. Predictive customer handling. Airlines such
as British Airways use predictive disruption
identification models, such as possible can-
cellation or disruption scenarios, to interact
with customers upfront before the disruption
occurs. This resonates with our finding that
many customers want to hear of disruptions or
possibilities on an a priori basis.
Making Sense of Personas
A cross-tabulation of personas enables a better understanding of them. For example,
‘applauders’ might seek explanations but not refunds.
Figure 7
Offer Acceptance
Reactions
Refund
Seeker
Explanation
Seeker
Compensation
Hunter
Apology
Acceptor
Applauding – √ – √
Neutral √ √ √ √
Skeptical √ √ √ √
7. cognizant 20-20 insights 7
Looking Ahead
Delivering a “segment of one” flight-disruption-
handling experience can boost customer loyalty
and increase brand value. However, successfully
completing such an intitiative requires a mindset
shift. A complex set of attributes, tasks and
values are required to bring about the necessary
changes in systems, business strategy and
attitudes. Making the transition to the Code Halo
paradigm for service recovery treatment requires
the following:
• Looking beyond day-to-day customer data.
Airlines must utilize data from social networks,
rich customer profiles, historical customer
behavior data and other sources. To do this,
they need to be adept at asking customers for
relevant data at various touchpoints across the
service purchase and servicing value chain.
For example, British Airways is now asking
passengers to specify if they are traveling for
leisure, business or to visit family and friends,
and it specifies upfront that this data will be
used to personalize offers.7
• Clearly understanding offer acceptance/
rejection behaviors. There is no one-size-fits-
all customer response to offers made during
delays, cancellations, etc.; rather, behavior is
dependent on situations and events that are
unique to an individual passenger or journey.
• Predictively modeling personas and events.
Once these models are devised, airlines can
assign the best and most relevant personalized
treatment to offer to customer segments.
Note: Code Halo is a trademark of Cognizant
Technology Solutions.
Footnotes
1 “Survey: Disruption in the Travel Industry Is the New Normal,” Tnooz, Aug. 18, 2014,
http://www.tnooz.com/article/survey-travel-industry-disruption-normal/.
2 For more on Code Halos, please see our white paper, “Code Rules: A Playbook for Managing at the
Crossroads,” http://www.cognizant.com/Futureofwork/Documents/code-rules.pdf, or our recently
published book, Code Halos: How the Digital Lives of People, Things and Organizations Are Changing the
Rules of Business, Wiley, April 2014, http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118862074.
html.
3 Cognizant conducted an online survey of 200 business and leisure travelers from the U.S., UK, Middle
East and India in August 2015.
4 “Amadeus Is Partnering with Brazil’s Tam Airlines,” Business Travel News, Nov. 25, 2014,
http://www.businesstravelnews.com/More-News/Amadeus-is-partnering-with-Brazil-s-Tam-Airlines-to-
launch-a-mobile-tool-that-handles-flight-disruptions/?ib=Airlines&a=trans.
5 Geert Hofstede, “Dimensions of National Cultures,” Geerthofstede.nl,
http://geerthofstede.nl/dimensions-of-national-cultures.
6 Think with Google website, www.thinkwithgoogle.com.
7 British Airways Web site, www.ba.com.