European Airline | 2018
During my tenure at a top-tier management consultancy, I was assigned a project for an airline that aimed to enhance their customer experience and attain industry recognition through awards and nominations for airline customer service.
As an external consultant, I worked closely with the client's C-level and line management. I led the customer and competitors research and developed a comprehensive program for improving customer experience across all touchpoints and interactions with the airline, from ticket purchase to hotel transfer at the destination.
My role:
UX Research
UX Strategy
I have omitted and obfuscated confidential information in this case study to comply with my non-disclosure agreement.
The challenge
Our client was one of the largest airlines in the world, serving 30 million passengers annually. Their objective was to improve customer experience and achieve industry recognition through awards and nominations for airline customer service. One of the industry-recognized measures of customer experience is the Skytrax star rating, which our client aimed to enhance.
Skytrax is a UK-based consulting firm that specializes in rating and evaluating the quality of airline products and services. Skytrax has been conducting airline reviews since 1999 and is considered one of the most recognized and respected organizations in the airline industry. It evaluates the quality of airlines through expert audit teams, instead of solely relying on customer reviews. This complex evaluation involves a sequence of inspection, evaluation, and appraisal of standards, resulting in a unified global standard applied consistently across all regions. The evaluation criteria cover both the onboard and airport environments, including aspects such as seat comfort, onboard amenities, food and beverage, customer service, and overall experience. Skytrax assigns a star rating to each airline based on such evaluation, with five stars being the highest possible rating.
Skytrax ratings are important and recognized in the airline industry. Passengers rely on Skytrax ratings when choosing which airline to fly with, while airlines use Skytrax ratings as a benchmark for improving their own products and services. Thus, airlines that receive high ratings from Skytrax can use this recognition to differentiate themselves from their competitors and attract more passengers.
Goal: improve airline rating assigned by Skytrax
Skytrax is a UK-based consulting firm that evaluates the quality of airlines through extensive passenger surveys. It assigns a star rating to each airline based on factors such as seat comfort, amenities, food, and customer service. Skytrax ratings are recognized and used by passengers, airlines, and the industry as a benchmark for quality and customer experience.
The analysis
Analysis performed:
Customer interviews. Interviewed frequent travelers who use airlines regularly and have experience with various levels of comfort and user experiences.
Customer surveys. Conducted specific surveys on various aspects of customer experience and studied past data from NPS and marketing surveys.
Fleet age and spend benchmarking. Benchmarking was carried out to compare the fleet age and expenditure of major airlines on fleet upgrades, retrofits, and improvements.
Competitive analysis. Identified emerging trends and innovations in the airline industry, tracked competitor's activities in the customer experience improvement field.
Skytrax ratings database analysis. Analyzed Skytrax ratings database and determined which factors had most weight in the overall rating (e.g. onboard and airport environments, seat comfort, onboard amenities, food and beverage, customer service, and overall experience).
Analysis of other available industry ratings databases. Analyzed industry databases that contained customer ratings to identify prevalent topics and factors for both positive and negative feedback.
Airline personnel interviews. Conducting interviews with airline personnel was a valuable approach to gaining insights into customer experience improvement. The crew had firsthand knowledge of issues that often go unreported, as well as ideas for enhancing both customer and crew experiences onboard. Additionally, they provided valuable feedback on the feasibility of our ideas in the context of their daily work.
Airline databases analysis. Gathered, organized and systemized a wealth of data and customer feedback coming from sales, customer success and customer support teams.
Collaborative workshops. Organized workshops with the client to foster collaboration between the client and our team, and to leverage the collective expertise and insights of both groups.
Desk research. Identified key trends in on-board and airport customer experience improvement from industry reports.
The results
Deliverables included:
Comprehensive 5-year strategy for customer experience improvement with yearly breakdown by initiatives and budget.
A list of 100+ initiatives with detailed descriptions and rationales for implementation.
Preliminary budgets for each initiative.
Preliminary implementation plans for each initiative.
Mapping of all the departments to be involved in the implementation of each initiative.
I have omitted and obfuscated confidential information in this case study to comply with my non-disclosure agreement.
Some examples of the initiatives:
Introduction of a two-sided sleep mask that had "Do not disturb" on one side, and "Please wake me up for a meal service" on the other.
Introduction of baggage statuses in the airline mobile app (e.g. checked-in, processed, loaded on a plane, unloaded, at the belt, etc.)
Introduction of the self-service check-in at airports.
Mobile app user interface improvement.
Introduction of detailed airport maps for all destinations in the airline mobile app.
