British Airways Customer Service
British Airways
Main target Customers
The company mainly employs a multi-segment target market strategy. Therefore, it offers different service packages to its potential customers, including four levels: First class, executive, premium economy, and the economy packages. The four segments are created according to the needs, wants, and preferences of the target customers and the value for their money. At each level, the company strives to improve customer experience through creativity and innovation in service delivery.
Reasons why is it important to understand the needs wants, and preferences of the target customer
The main reason for understanding the needs wants, and preferences of customers are to offer quality service to its potential customers across the board. It is essential to understand the needs of the company’s prospective customers since they have different needs, wants, and preferences.
The other is that the factors that command or rather reflect the motivation, experience, needs, want, and one’s lifestyle. The customers in question employ their senses to touch, hear, smell, and decipher messages portrayed by the company. It, therefore, dramatically influences the choices such customers make. Knowing every aspect of the customers’ needs wants, and preferences are key in maintaining a positive relationship between the company and the potential customers.
It is also important to understand your customers fully since each person has their way of perceiving things around them, thus perceptual biases in unique approaches. The messages portrayed by the staff in terms of service provision may be changed to something very different from what it was intended. As a customer service provider, it is also essential to prepare for such anomalies.
What is customer engagement?
Customer engagement is viewed as an emotional connection between a brand and a customer. The positive connection can be made possible through the promotion of the brand by the company’s service providers. The newly employed staff in the company have the sole role of engaging with the customers of British Airways to produce positive outcomes in their endeavours.
What factors influence the drive customer engagement?
Handling customers is sometimes not as easy as it might seem on paper since you are dealing with diverse kinds of people. Understanding how to bring your customers on board is critical in maintaining a positive relationship.
One key factor in influencing the drive to customer engagement is by demonstrating an understanding of your customers’ expectations and needs. It will serve to build a relationship with your customers to the next level. Valuing your customers is also another way is to value your customers, and that includes their information. An excellent customer service experience in the line of the operations of the business can also increase customer loyalty to the brand. It is also essential to conduct follow-ups with customers to ensure that their needs are efficiently secured.
The need for customer feedback is also crucial in influencing customer engagement and is aimed at improving customer experience through an elaborate understanding of their expectations and needs.
Another factor that may influence engagement with customers is the need to maintain existing customers. It is often easy to maintain existing customers than bringing onboard new ones. Therefore, what company needs is to gain loyalty from customers. It can only be attracted through the provision of excellent service. The secret is to look at all the issues from the customer’s perspective.
The other factor is providing useful information to the prospective and potential customers via all the channels of communication. It is aimed at creating a personal touch between the customer and the company.
Onboard strategies
Airline services are highly competitive, and each company seeks a competitive advantage over the other in the same niche. The company, therefore, has strategies put place that is essential in bringing onboard and maintaining the customers.
Service level: A high-quality service is a unique tool in the company for bringing onboard new customers. As a service providing company, the British airways relies broadly on service provision. All employees are required to strive to provide quality services to customers.
Customer relations management is also another way of dealing with customer interests. It is considered difficult and expensive to bring onboard new customers to the company. Therefore, it is the role of customer service managers to supervise employees in the provision of quality service to maintain existing customers.
Different types of customers
Economy class: Great value fares. It is family-friendly. It has a long-haul.
Premium economy class: Fairly economical, it has wider seats and more extended legroom for customers. It has priority boarding with an extra bag that is checked.
Business-class: It is spacious for relaxing with access to the lounge.
First-class: Offers the most exceptional comfort for the customers. It has luxurious dining in a private suit. The class offers the most value for the customers’ money.
Task 2
Pre-purchase
During Purchase Post-purchase
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INTEREST SEARCH RESEARCH CONVERSION ADVOCACY
“Take my money.”
Figure 1: Customer experience map for British Airways
The modern customer experience journey takes place in five phases.
Pre-purchase experience
Phase 1: Interest. It is any form of advertising. It can be in the media, billboards. It is the first point where the prospective customer knows about the Airline. The company may use advertisement platforms to bring up the company’s best image and trigger interest in the prospective customer.
Phase 2: Search. The prospective customer then searches about the Airline in the google search engine to find more about the Airline’s products and services. After the customer’s interest is triggered, they will want to find out about the company using online search engines like google.
Phase 3: Research. The customer then goes ahead and tries to find more about online reviews of the company. Customers always want to travel using airlines they can trust. They can do this by checking on the ratings online. When the customer now gets to this point, it means that the company has the best short at bringing onboard new customers.
In the pre-purchase experience, the customer checks on the characteristics of the products offered by the company. The characteristics include the product brand, product variations, and product quality and product alternatives. The company uses various touchpoints to stay at the helm of competition. The pre-purchase phase is the most evident in creating business opportunities. It is at this point that businesses outshine the other businesses in the same line of operation. The type of impression that the business makes to the customer is important in completing sales. The reviews and online ratings are useful, and the company can rely on them to obtain new customers.
During purchase experience
Phase 4: Conversion. The fourth phase is about the conversion of the experience into a sale. It can be through walking through the front door or ticket sales online via the British Airways website. The customer now trusts the company, and they are ready to travel with British Airways for good reasons. It is at this phase that the customer acquires the brand experience. In this case, the brand is the purchase of the travel tickets and the travel experience using the Airline. The company can use this opportunity to build up a customer base. It is done through the service provision offered by the company. The company here provides different packages, the economy, premium economy, business, and first-class segments. The travel experience will be the ultimatum of the customer experience and will define the customer’s next course of action.
Post-purchase experience
Phase 5: Advocacy. An advocacy phase is a free form of digital marketing strategy. If the company offers great customer experience, it will accrue a ton of five-star reviews and increase trust from prospective customers. It can provide a great experience that the customer will remain to praise the company. It is the most powerful course of gaining sustainable, long-term, and profitable value drawn back to the company. The time after the purchase is a time to utilize the various touchpoints again for the longer commitment of the customer to the company. Customer satisfaction, at this point, guarantees the company loyalty from the customers. The company uses this stage to maintain existing customers.
British Airlines is committed to its customers’ welfare by all means. The services offered are targeted at helping all the customers to have a quality experience while traveling to various destinations.
Rights to cancel flights
The British Airline guarantees a full refund of the fare for canceled flights within 24 hours of directly booking the company. The cancelation may be as a result of booking errors that have occurred after the customer has already paid for it.
Transparency of service
The British Airline strives to provide the customers with relevant and as much information about the terms and policies of the airline services. It provides information that would greatly influence customers’ plans for travel. The information provided relates to fare, policies, name corrections, travel documents, checking in, seating, travel insurance, special meals.
Online help centers
The platform enables prospective customers to organize their bookings, changing flights, to refund, re-booking. The platform also links the customers to specific customer relations officers on stand bye. The company launched a new website to improve customer relations and engagements.
Figure 2: British Airline website segment for helping customers in information about delayed or canceled flights.
Skylights Virtual reality (VR) headsets
The British Airline has introduced and made use of virtual reality headsets for first-class customers traveling on selected flights. The service increases the customer experience in the first-class segment and provides value for their money.
Figure 3: Skylights virtual reality headsets for first-class flights.
In-flight Wi-Fi
The British Airline provides internet (Wi-Fi) to all segments for all flights. All customers are now able to experience internet services while onboard the plane. The service supports video streaming for customers.
Biometric boarding
The biometric enabled machines for self-boarding are already in place for UK domestic flights. The company has also made it possible for self-service bag drop.
Figure 4: Self-service bag drop and biometric boarding for domestic flights.
Special Meals
Figure 5: Special meals inspired by top chefs
The British Airline utilizes the services from some of the renowned chefs that provide a menu that combines both local and international flavours. The meals provided are of high quality and is served as a varied three main menu together with nutritious salads. The meals are served alongside old and new world wines and soft drinks.
Entertainment
Figure 6: 12’’ flat screen for hours of entertainment at 35,000 ft.
British Airways also provides the customer with a beautiful experience with hours of entertainment. The customer can be able to follow new releases. The customers are offered on-demand services for most of the flights.
Place to relax
Figure 7: Better night sleep in the business class.
The business class offers ample space for customers to relax while on board the plane. The customers can feel free from the boredom of seating for long hours while flying to various destinations abroad.
The customer experience is paramount in winning the trust and maintaining the potential customers for the British Airline. Therefore, the customer service department needs to focus much on providing high-quality services to the clients in question. The customers make their decisions to remain loyal to the Airline depending on their personal experiences while booking, boarding, and onboard the plane. The competition among the airline services around the region is stiff. To maintain a higher competitive edge in the market. The company has laid various strategies aimed at improving customer experience. It is the only way to win the customers over the other competitors in the airline service market.
The booking experience on the company’s website is favourable to prospective customers. The fact that the company offers refunds within 24 hours of booking, it develops improved customer relations. The customer will remain loyal to the company as far as the services remain favourabel to them. Offering value for the customers’ money through a state of the art facilities in the business and first-class segments is also at par with the customer expectations. The wealthy prospective customers will love the fact that the value for their money is provided through the exemplary services by the Airline. The company has maintained a state of the art facility for relaxing while waiting to board the plane. The various improved services in the British Airline flights are the main factor that is aimed at maintaining and bringing onboard new potential customers in the long run.
A2
Chatbots
Chatbots are the newest in the business platform. The chatbots are AI-powered and serve as customer assistants in service provision. The customers get instant services at any given time from the business. The machines are easy to employ in service provision through voice, instant messages, or website. The bots offer improved customer experience through its timely responses to customers’ queries.
Big customer data analytics
The company utilizes data provided by the customers to analyze the needs, wants, and preferences of the customers in question to improve their experience in the company. Personal information from customers is not an easy task to obtain, but by offering discounts and other personalized offers. The market today in service delivery, companies focus much on the customer and less about themselves. The ultimate prize is the customer’s willingness to remain loyal to the company. The data analytics come in handy in researching on the customers’ needs.
Artificial Intelligence
Companies that employ artificial intelligence have seen an enormous amount of profits. It has taken the business by storm (Cannella, 2018, 10). Companies use AI I automation that is targeted at improving the customers’ experience. The decision making processes within the organizations on service delivery has been made easy and possible. The AI provides responses that are actionable to the customers in a quick manner, therefore increasing customer satisfaction. The customers can chat over the mobile application with the AI machine set to pick up important information from customers and give a proactive response.
Virtual reality
It is one of the recent technologies to be used in transforming customer experiences. It has a high potential of altering the experiences of the customers of the company in question. An example of a company to have used Virtual reality is British Airways. It used skylights in the first-class segment for selected flights. The first-class customers were provided with valuable experience for their money.
Advantages of digital technology
Very few companies have diversified digital technology. Having a digital technology in the company may give a higher competitive edge to the company if it has unique digital technology features.
The digital technology approach reduces the budget of the company’s operation by great fold. It does not spend on human labour to respond to customers. The automated response bots serve many customers at a time and will not tire from working.
The digital technology application in the business gives the customer control over their needs. It improves customer satisfaction and hence profitability in the business.
Disadvantages of digital technology
The digital technological advancements such as the AI are prone to cyber terrorism, and personal information may be leaked. It, therefore, poses security threats.
The digital answering machine, the chatbots, may not understand the customers’ emotions and therefore provide unreliable feedback. Human beings understand each other and not machines.
How digital technology has impacted the way CRM operates
CRM greatly is key in obtaining and retaining prospective customers. It has been made possible through the application of digital technology advancement, such as AI software. The software has enabled increased customer experience and satisfaction in the business platform.
Advantage of using CRM
CRM integrates everything in the business operations together for effective management. It makes the data easily accessible by those who need it.
The CRM is scalable in terms of budget and can work with any budget. The budget only grows if the business in question grows too.
CRM data can be accessed remotely from any point around the world. It has reduced the globe to a city.
The disadvantage of using CRM
The records in the database may be lost. It, therefore, makes operations difficult when vital information is lost.
The human element is eliminated in the process of customer experience. The machines may not understand the emotions of human beings. Only human beings can understand.
A3
Most companies are on the verge of adopting a customer-centric approach in their operations in service provision. Most of the service industry companies agree that a customer-centric approach to service delivery is the hallmark of the companies in question (MacDonald, 2014, 1). Some believe that their customers would agree with the new strategy.
The advantage of using a customer-centric approach in service delivery for airlines is that it comes in handy for the companies that lack a proper system for profiling their customers. Busy companies with an overwhelming number of customers have a great deal of data. The strategy can also help companies with little or no capabilities to target the customers at personalized levels of communication and experiences.
The disadvantage of this strategy is that there is a barrier to the centricity of the customers. The barrier is a lack of a culture that promotes the customer-centricity in the operations of the business. Most companies in the industry remain sales-driven other than customer-driven. Customer centricity is only considered in specific areas, such as marketing only.
To build on the customer centricity, customer service providers should focus on the following:
The company should strive to operationalize customer empathy-the ability to pinpoint customers’ emotional needs and respond appropriately to them.
The company should hire for customer orientation to actualize the centricity of customers (Yohn, 2018, 1). From the very first interaction with new employees, the employees should be set with the notion of customer-centricity, the customer comes first.
Customer insights should also be democratized. All the employees of the organization should be able to understand the customers of the organization.
The company should enhance direct interaction with customers other than using machines to do all the donkey work.
The employee culture can be linked to the customer outcomes of the organization. The slogan of the employees should go like one cannot manage what they cannot measure.
The compensation program of the organization should also be tied to the customer. The Adobe system ties the employees to the customer for quality service provision.
Data-driven strategy
The companies in the airline service can use data provided on the internet to understand the behaviour of the customers. Customer behaviour is essential to understand customer logistics to know their needs and preferences. The customer behaviour in buying tickets for travel can help improve their experience. The different segments in the BA can be planned for if only the company knows about their loyal customers. It is, therefore, more comfortable to retain existing customers than to bring onboard new customers. It is recommended that the companies adopt a system of data-driven analysis of customer behaviour in terms of needs, wants, and preferences.
Innovative strategy
The companies in the airline industry are often in stiff competition. The best way of winning over the customers is by improving their travel experience. It can be done through innovations unique to the companies in question to attract new customers and retain loyal ones. The advantage is that the customers will identify with the company that offers the best innovative experience and, therefore, suitable for business. The disadvantage is that innovation requires enormous sums of money to set up and maintain. It may lead to losses if the customer base is not improved.
Companies in the airline industry are encouraged to use innovations to their fullest to counter the competition problems—recommendations for British Airways. The company should invest a lot in people who are capable of making everything right from the customer’s feedback or complaint. Not so many people or rather passengers would appreciate being handled by an automated machine. Advancements in technology are good, but to some extent, machines don’t understand emotion and, therefore, may not make a proper decision depending on the customer’s emotions. The first-class segment is dying out. The trending class is business class. Therefore, the company should invest much in additional business class seats to leapfrog competition from other airlines in the region. The company should use its innovative power in attracting customers through the use of art facilities that are not available in other airlines. The best form of competition is through differentiation. The company should not copy other airlines’ operational activities but rather do it differently, and the customers will be able to recognize the effort.
British Airlines should increase the frequency of flights and expand on networks to improve its delivery. As the company strives to increase its customer base, it should expand its services by increasing the frequency of flights and networks to various destinations.
Customer-centric strategy
Data-driven strategy
Innovative strategy
Figure 7: Graphical representation of the strategies for improvement of customer experience
The customer-centric strategy takes the giant share in terms of being the best of the three strategies. Customer experience is always considered optimum when it is centered around the customer. Companies that make decisions concerning how they will affect the customer are always ahead and successful. Companies that avoid or skip the customer end up struggling to maintain a positive relationship with their customers.
The data-driven strategy takes up second place. The company uses data obtained from online platforms about the needs, preferences. It uses the information to make decisions that would provide excellent services according to the customers’ needs.
From the graphical figure, the innovative strategy takes third place. It is also considered one of the best strategies in providing the best experience to customers. The company carries out research and create a new product that is not available in the market. It uses this to maintain a higher competitive edge in the airline industry in the region.
The strategies aimed at improving customer experiences involve a lot of research on the market. Understanding the market is crucial in ensuring that the company overcomes competitions through the application of effective strategies. The needs of customers are met through thorough research that strives to understand customer needs and preferences. Through this research, the company can retain loyal customers and bring onboard new and prospective customers.
References
Cannella, J., 2018. Artificial Intelligence in marketing. Unpublished Honors Thesis for Barrett, Arizona: The Honors College at Arizona State University.
Yohn, D.L., 2018. 6. Ways to Build a Customer-Centric Culture. Harvard Business Review,(October) https://hbr.org/2018/10/6-ways-to-build-a-customer-centric-culture
MacDonald, S., 2014. How to create a customer-centric strategy for your business. Retrieved from: https://www.superoffice.com/blog/how-to-create-a-customer-centric-strategy/