Ai Editorial: “Where is Palma de Mallorca?” the airline doesn’t know, Google knows it!
First Published on 25th April, 2017
By Ritesh Gupta, in Palma de Mallorca
The tag of “laggards” isn’t a nice one, but airlines aren’t willing to move on.
Whatever keeps this industry the same or changing at excruciating slow pace, the traveller wouldn’t care as carriers keep falling short on several counts. It isn’t even worth comparing - a human interaction at a touchpoint owned by the airline vis-à-vis a digital interaction that is initiated by an entity like Google, the latter winning you over for sheer timing, usefulness and the overall tendency to delight you time and again.
Travelling is fun – the joy of meeting new people, observing cultures/ local nuances, tasting food, exploring unique activities etc. Every touchpoint is an opportunity for airlines to augment the essence of travelling by understanding the intent, preferences, and this doesn’t always call for taking “heavy lifting associated with data”.
Let me cite an example.
I travelled from New Delhi to Palma de Mallorca via Frankfurt. A brief, one-minute interaction with the airline staff at the New Delhi airport as I embarked on my journey wasn’t thrilling. “Palma de Mallorca, where is this place?” Well, the lady, who knew both the languages that I speak, was pleasant, but few words that she muttered didn’t add any value. May be not many Indians travel to this Spanish destination via Lufthansa, but if your airline takes passengers there and if you decide to speak, make it worthwhile.
15 hours later, I check-into my room. A notification pops up on my mobile screen, not from Melia Hotels where I am booked. It is from Google Allo, enticing me to explore Palma! As I open it, the colors are vibrant, graphics are refreshing, the content is useful, and the timing isn’t bad either. The interaction was enough to leave a mark, unlike the useless interaction at the airport as I embarked on the journey. Even the hotel provides the free Wi-Fi access, but doesnt take it further as for enjoying the stay or exploring the place. Why hotels and airlines struggle to initiate a decent interaction - be it for the staff or the digital assets they own. Yes, the hotel home page opens when a user access the Internet, but that isnt enough!
There is plenty to learn from this simple experience, and airlines need to change fast:
Be prepared, understand travelling pattern with the brand: I travel Lufthansa quite often, from the same airport. I have searched itineraries a number of times from one IP address, same devices time and again. I have also left comments on Twitter, Facebook etc. about my experiences with the airline and the staff has even given me call from London in the past six months to understand and resurrect what went wrong! In an age when enterprises are talking of 1st party data, 2nd party data and 3rd party data, the sum of all interactions plus readiness to highlight the quality of your product (be it for human interaction or digital asset) needs to stand out. Otherwise major ecosystems such as Google will continue to find a way to understand me, and airlines despite owning the product, would only come across a mundane component of travel.
Be smart, go for real-time data: “Big airlines can do it, provided they are willing to do it (act on real-time data),” said a source, referring to the likes of KLM, Delta, British Airways, Lufthansa etc. Airlines have to ensure their “systems talk to each other”, a passenger’s request or any information obtained gets updated in real-time. For instance, if a passenger makes a request during the course of the journey, and the team responds on Facebook, then why can’t this request to be fulfilled?
Do away with business processes that are still based on the paper-based workflows that were developed and perfected over the 50 years before the digital revolution. We have ended up with digitalization of processes that are fundamentally unchanged from the analog process, which while does represent an improvement in efficiency, is still quite a way from optimization in the digital age. The reality is, there are just some things that the legacy systems cannot do because they were never designed to.
Be where a passenger is likely to be: Passengers are on Facebook, Whatsapp, WeChat etc. and these avenues are evolving. Leverage the power of APIs and find a way to serve passengers on these independent platforms. Yes, a move such as activation of search chatbot on Facebook Messenger is kind of presence that a brand needs. “Some of the airlines with the greatest ability in this area are the ones that run their own systems completely and can do whatever they want to do with it. The problem is, there are very few airlines in the world that either want to take that level of involvement or can afford to do it,” a source told me recently.
Airlines can’t ignore the fact entities like Google, Uber, Alibaba, etc. with massive valuations are already thriving on data. They might or might not own the actual product, but they are capable of driving experiences. They are becoming increasingly adept at that, and the simple reason is: ability to serve their offerings with outstanding accuracy, maximising their operations while engaging directly with and owning their consumers. They have leveraged technology to unify their end-to-end operations. Airlines have to fine their own niche, working on a blend of serving travellers via their own platforms and also 3rd party platforms via a collaborative approach (facilitated by ability to interoperate with other enterprise solutions regardless of technology or platform).
Airlines have their own set of challenges – regulatory, security, labor relations, etc., but change is mandatory now. If 3rd party ecosystems or apps know too much and airlines just can’t get the basics of digital world right then they will remain laggards in the race of experience optimization.
Can’t wait for discussions here at Palma de Mallorca to unfold!
Ai’s 11th edition of Ancillary Merchandising Conference in Spain this week.
Date: 25 Apr 2017 - 27 Apr 2017;
Location: Mallorca, Spain
For more info, click here
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