For years, online retailers have been pitching related products every time you purchase something from them (think Amazon.com). It’s their way of getting to get to know you better. Now the airlines are thinking that might not be a bad idea.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that airlines are getting closer to rolling out new technology that tells airport agents your ticket-buying and travel history, flags key customers to flight attendants and instructs them to offer personalized apologies, or sends you sales targeted to your vacation patterns.
Several airlines and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems say that keeping track of customer-related information is “crucial to retaining important customers in a declining economy and differentiating themselves from competitors.”
One such airline, according to the article, is Alaska Airlines. After elite-level flyers board, they are approached by flight attendants with their favorite drinks and a personal greeting, even if they’re flying in coach.
Airlines say that they are slow to adopt the customer-friendly services because they have multiple old computer systems that don’t share information well.
Airline agents at the ticket counters can see your itinerary and frequent flier status, but information about such things as canceled flights, mishandled baggage, missed connections, or how much you spent with the airline aren’t available to them.
Therein lies the problem, according to Tom Klein, president of Sabre Travel Network and Sabre Airline Solutions. “You can be the most-frequent flier and when you are with your family and sitting in the back of the airplane, there’s no recognition…It’s a service consistency problem.”
Add to the fact that many travelers are now using self-service kiosks, sometimes they have no interaction with airline employees until its time to board the airplane.
While it’s true that airlines have long sought to reward frequent fliers with perks once you reach the top tiers, but many say that it’s become “impersonal and widely available.”
Cam Marston, an elite-level frequent flier with Delta, American and US Airways, was impressed when he noticed the personal service given to certain passengers when he flew Alaska.
Marston said that “With the technology available today, it would seem easy to do to add personalized service. … I think there is huge opportunity.”
Steve Jarvis, vice president of sales and customer experience for Alaska said that they are still trying to make improvements to the CRM experience. “We’d like front-line employees to know we lost your bag last time you flew, but it’s just in different data sources right now.”
Most of the airlines’ focus is now on “improving responses to customers when things go wrong, from sending email alerts when bags aren’t loaded on the right plane (so a customer doesn’t wait at a baggage carousel for a bag that won’t show up) to instantly rebooking customers when flights are canceled or connections missed.”
Sabre’s Tom Klein said that CRM may help airlines figure out which services will excite customers. He said that “I think you’ll see a lot of experimentation.”
