Customer Experience Management Determinants of Air Flying Experience With Reference To Lcc s

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1 Customer Experience Management Determinants of Air Flying Experience With Reference To Lcc s Sathish Arumbi Saravanan,Associate Professor, VIT Business School,VIT University ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to study the Customers Air Flying Experience flying through the Low Cost Air Lines in India. This paper examines some of the issues concerned with the conspicuous marketing activity as airlines are actively engaged in the development of branding strategies to integrate their services, establish identities, create and engage delightful experiences and brand images. This study looked into factors like website and information, flight booking agent, sales office, service providers in the airport, gate management, and cabin on board services, internal/external environment of the airport and location of the airport with a five point likert scale. In many ways current marketing activity of airlines is following traditional and well-tried methods which reflect decisions regarding the product/service provision of routes, seat allocation and types, in-flight and terminal support services, the price structure, distribution channels and promotional activities. The marketing environment, however, is becoming more competitive and leverages on the experiences that are derived by the customers. Keywords: Customer experience, air flying experience, low cost carriers (LCC s) INTRODUCTION The aviation industry in India is one of those sectors that saw a constant pace of growth among the other industries in the world over the past many years. The open sky policy of the government has helped a lot of overseas players entering the aviation market in India. From then, it has only been growing in terms of players and the number of aircrafts. The Indian aviation industry is one of the fastest growing aviation industries in the world with private airlines accounting for more than 75 per cent of the sector of the domestic aviation market (as of 2006). The market witnessed around 150 million travelers passing through its airports, and if Indians begin to travel with the same pace and frequency as Westerners, then within few years market shall boom beyond the two billion mark. Market reports emphasize, by 2020 traffic at Indian airports is expected to reach 450 million, making it the third-largest aviation market in the world. Domestic passenger numbers are expected to rise from 1.72 billion in 2011 to 2.21 billion in 2016, a 494 million increase reflecting a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.2 per cent. The numbers of passengers travelled by domestic airlines were 53.4 million during the period from January-November Airline service quality and the role it plays in a business strategy of differentiation, has assumed greater importance in recent years. Service Quality is viewed, not only as an important part of competitive strategy, but a key resource for building competitive advantage over its rivals (Siobhan Tiernan et al., 2008). Competition among different players in the market place and continuous expansion gives very choice available to customers and to organizations a limited means of distinguishing. Airline Industry is not an exception to this phenomenon. The potential is enormous. The aviation sector in India holds huge potential for growth, the reasons being, it receives great impetus from the booming tourism industry driven by higher disposable incomes and favourable demographics. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE Traditionally airline service quality was assessed with respect to industry and managerial variables such as flight frequency, load factors, transit times and aircraft type etc. the provision of superior service quality has been accepted as an important source of customer retention and loyalty, which may ultimately lead to superior competitive. Within service research, customer experience is treated as embedded in service quality and is measured by comparing expectations before and predictions after the experience, or perceptions only, different predetermined service attributes. Consequently service > RJEBS: Volume: 02, Number: 09, July-2013 Page 53

2 quality measures the outcome of service processes perceived by customers within a given context. The focus of research about customer experience has been customer s cognitive based perception of predetermined attribute dimensions that measures the outcome of service processes. Customer experiences encompasses every aspect of a company s offering the quality of customer care, of course, but also advertising, packaging, product and service features, ease of use, and reliability. Customer satisfaction is essentially the culmination of series of customer experiences or even one could say the net result of the good ones minus the bad ones. Customer experience is the internal and subjective response customers have to have any direct or indirect contact with a company. A successful brand shapes customer s experiences by embedding the fundamental value proposition offering s every feature. More recently, marketing managers have shifted their emphasis to creating value for their customers (Clutterbuck and Goldsmith, 1998; Fudenberg, 2000 and McAlexander et al., 2002). The current trend in marketing is to create engaging and lasting experiences for the customers (Macmillan and McGrath, 1997; Carbone, 1998; Pine and Gilmore, 1998; Rowley, 1999; Wyner, 2000; Calhoun, 2001; Arussy, 2002; Berry et al., 2002; Gilmore and Pine, 2002 and Lamperes, 2002). Delivering Total Customer Experience (TCE) goes beyond mere customer satisfaction and is a relatively new concept since satisfied customers could still defect (Jones and Sasser, 1995). The provision of superior service quality has been accepted as an important source of customer retention and loyalty, which may ultimately lead to superior competitive performance (see Parasurman et al., 1985, 1988, 1991a; Zeithaml et al., 1996; Dawkins and Reichheld, 1990; Reichheld and Sasser, 1990; Berry and Parasurman, 1994). According to Parasurman et al. (1991b) customer loyalty can be achieved by organisations that display consistency, reliability and fairness in the provision of their service. They further argue organisations making realistic promises about delivery are more likely to capitalize on superior service delivery. The literature of services marketing and the service experience has been concerned to identify the way in which customers experience different service environments, a key concept is the service encounter. Shostack (1985) defines the service encounter to be: ``a period of time during which a customer directly interacts with a service'' (Shostock, 1985). Experiences are private intangible events that occur in response to some stimulation. Customer experience is not an incidental value but an essential and intrinsic value where the products and services are understood from the customer s point of view and to interpret their consumption by appealing to their senses and feelings in the process. Customer experience management hits on the customer s psychology and emotional satisfaction and appeals. Thus creates totally a new customer value that influence customer s life styles. Customer Experiences are private events that occur in response to some stimulation. Experiences involve the entire living being. They often result from direct observation and /or participation in events whether they are real, dreamlike or virtual (Holbrook and Hirschmann (1982), Berry, Schmitt (1999), Carbone and Haeckel (2002), Spiller and Noci (2007), Meyer and Schwager (2007), Naylor et al., (2008), Ailawadi et al (2009). Sara Sandstorm et al (2008) describes value in use through service experience in technology based services and suggests that service experience is the total functional and emotional value of consumed service. Peter C. Verhoef et al (2009) provide a holistic portrayal of the customer experience construct; propose a conceptual model delineating its determinants. Also argue that prior customer experiences will influence future customer experience. There were numerous studies supporting the aspects of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.( Beatty et al (1996), Cronin et al (2000), Parasuraman et al (1988), de Ruyter, K and Bloemer, J (1999), Day (1969), Dick and Basu (1994), Jarvis and Wilcox (1977), Pritchandand (CR) & Howard (1997), Kotler (1984), Kotler and Singh (1981). Though companies started recognizing the need to create economic value for their valuable customers in the form of wonderful experiences, there is lack of research designed to identify and measure the dimensions that completely depicts the customer experience, which the study made by Verhoef et al (2009) clearly points out that researchers and practitioners need to understand the dimensions of a consumer experience as a separate construct. Customer experience has not been treated as a separate construct nor has been explored in depth from a theoretical perspective. It is necessary that an empirical research needs to be done to test the various dimensions of the customer experience. > RJEBS: Volume: 02, Number: 09, July-2013 Page 54

3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES: To understand the demographic details of the respondents who travel regularly by flight. To identify the factors that contributes to air flying experience of customers. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This study employs a causal research design and convenient sampling methods to be applied. The target population of this study is the travellers who travelled during the study. A self administered questionnaire which included both structured and open-ended questions was used. The questionnaire contained variables measuring air flying experience with reference to LCC. The items were measured on a 5 point likert scale ranging from 5 as strongly agree to 1 as strongly disagree. A total of 220 samples were designed but only 207 samples were valid samples and recorded. Respondents flying from Chennai airport and all landing passengers constituted the sample. Finally factor analysis was done to explore the various dimensions of customer experience. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION Table 1: Demographic Details Gender Marital Status Age Educational Qualification Family Type Profession Of Family Head Family Income(Monthly) No of Respondents Percentage Male Female Unmarried Married Above School Under Graduate Post Graduate Doctoral Nuclear Joint Own Business Private Employees Govt. Employees Others Less Than Rs Rs Rs Rs Rs Rs Rs Rs Rs Above Rs How Many Times You Fly In A Month? 1-2 Times Times Times And Above > RJEBS: Volume: 02, Number: 09, July-2013 Page 55

4 Out of 207 respondents, 108 respondents belonged to male gender (52.2 percent) and rest of 99 respondents belonged to female gender (47.8 percent). Out of 207 respondents, 90 respondents are unmarried (43.5 percent) and rests of 117 respondents were married category (56.5 percent). Out of 207 respondents, 58 respondents are Under Graduates which occupies first position in the survey (41.1 percent) followed by Post Graduates. Majority of the respondents belong to nuclear family type (75.4 percent) and the rest pf the respondents belong to joint family (24.6 percent). Out of 207 respondents, 87 respondents are business people followed by 80 respondents working in private sector (38.6 percent). The survey identified 68 respondents belonging to Rs income level category (32.9 percent)which occupies first position in the survey followed by 53 respondents belonging to income level category. This analysis on the demographic details of the respondents revealed that Income level and the profession the respondents plays a vital role in choosing flight as their mode of travel.. Factor Analysis Factor analysis was carried out to identify the underlying factors under customer s flying experience. But before proceeding on with factor analysis, few preliminary tests like Kaiser Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling Adequacy (.875) was done to justify that factor analysis is an appropriate tool for the present study. Kaiser (1974) recommends accepting values greater than 0.5 as acceptable. Table 2 KMO and Bartlett's Test KMO and Bartlett's Test Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy..785 Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square Df 78 Sig..000 Table 3 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. FACTOR Items Loaded Item Loadings Factor Alpha Factor Mean USER FRIENDLY AND I feel the transactions through the INFORMATIVE WEBSITE website is trust worthy The website is ease of use.739 Website provides you a.724 comparative prices of different service providers It is easy to find information about.690 various flights Website provides information about.678 the safety standards followed by the service providers The website provides information.659 about the do s and don ts at the airport and on the board The website is colourful and.635 attractive Website provides damage claims > RJEBS: Volume: 02, Number: 09, July-2013 Page 56

5 for the respective luggage s if damaged Website Navigation is simple and meets your expectations I prefer booking tickets through websites or online BOOKING AND RELIABLE AGENT Security of payments Agent provides me the.817 best deals rather than a website Complete information are.752 provided by the Agent / travel websites 24 X 7 service from the.714 agent / travel website The agent gives me the.643 best possible choice of flight with a competitive price Provides me the seat.607 blocking facility The agent updates me with the new offers from the service providers.572 SALES OFFICE Flight delays are.929 communicated by SMS.625 Sales staff approach is.876 courteous. Efficiency of Sales staff.822 is appreciable. Friendliness of Staff is.819 encouraging. Connectivity flight.589 details are communicated through SMS well in advance. Queue Time at Sales.534 counter is acceptable. CHECK IN SERVICES Security efficiency of check- in staff is appreciable Boarding announcement.794 is audible. Refund for the damaged.724 baggage is provided Arrival Assistance is.705 provided Staff handles the luggage.656 properly Adequate number of > RJEBS: Volume: 02, Number: 09, July-2013 Page 57

6 check-in counters was provided. Adequate information is.638 provided for the lost and found baggage. Baggage condition is.537 maintained properly ON BOARD SERVICES Cabin Staff Announcements / demonstration skills The staff on board were.661 professional in their approach Pilot Announcement was.600 clear. Availability of.506 Magazines & Catalogues Proper Announcements.437 on Cabin CABIN ATMOSPHERE Seating Arrangement Cabin Staff Grooming / Appearance is neat.742 Food & Beverage.734 Variants were interesting Cabin Temperature is.653 well maintained Comfort with the.515 Ambience It smells good inside the.449 CABIN CLEANLINESS AND SUPPORT SERVICES cabin Cabin Staff Attentiveness is pleasing Cleanliness of Rest Rooms is intact Proper Assistance is provided in the Cabin by the staff On board doctors were available in case of emergency Cleanliness of Cabin is appreciable FACTOR 1 Ten items like transactions through the website, ease of use, good service, fare details, informative, attractive, simple navigation were loaded under Factor one with loading range from to.529. The alpha value for the first factor is.762 and the mean value is 2.68 which indicate that there is a strong level of agreement among the respondents for factor one. The items loaded under factor one emphasise the importance of website for customers. Hence the factor one is named as User friendly and Informative Website > RJEBS: Volume: 02, Number: 09, July-2013 Page 58

7 FACTOR 2 Seven items like security of payments, best deals provided by agent, complete information are provided, 24 X 7 services, the best possible choice of flight provided, seat blocking facility, updating the details were loaded under Factor two with loading range from to.572. The alpha value for the second factor is.731 and the mean value is 2.38 which indicate that there is a strong level of agreement among the respondents for factor two. The items loaded under factor two emerged as the important aspect of booking agent for customers. Hence the factor two is named as Booking and Reliable Agent. FACTOR 3 Items like proper communication, Sales staff approach, efficiency, friendliness and queuing time at sales counter were loaded under Factor three with loading range from to.534. The alpha value for the third factor is.625 and the mean value is 3.46 which indicate that there is a strong level of agreement among the respondents for factor three. The items loaded under factor three gained the attention of sales office for customers. Hence the factor three is named as Sales Office. FACTOR 4 Items like security efficiency, boarding announcement is audible, customer baggage, arrival assistance, handling of luggage, and check-in counters were loaded under Factor four with loading range from to.537. The alpha value for the fourth factor is.555 and the mean value is 3.81 which indicate that there is a strong level of agreement among the respondents for factor four. The items loaded under factor four attained the importance of good check in service for the customers. Hence the factor four is named as Check-In-Service. FACTOR 5 Items like announcement by cabin staff, plot, approach of cabin staff and availability of catalogues in cabin were loaded under Factor five with loading range from to.437. The alpha value for the fifth factor is.688 and the mean value is 3.92 which indicate that there is a strong level of agreement among the respondents for factor five. The items loaded under factor five emphasise the importance of on board service for the customers. Hence the factor five is named as On Board Service. FACTOR 6 Items like comfortable ambience, seating, fragrance, appearance and temperature in cabin were loaded under Factor Six with loading range from to.449. The alpha value for the sixth factor is.604 and the mean value is 4.12 which indicate that there is a strong level of agreement among the respondents for factor six. The items loaded under factor six emphasise the importance of comfortable cabin for the customers. Hence the factor six is named as Cabin Atmosphere. FACTOR 7 Items like cleanliness of cabin and rest rooms and availability, attentiveness and assistance of cabin staff were loaded under Factor Seven with loading range from to.407. The alpha value for the seventh factor is.497 and the mean value is 4.27 which indicate that there is a strong level of agreement among the respondents for factor seven. The items loaded under factor seven gained the importance of neat cabin with good staff support for the customers. Hence the factor seven is named as Cabin Cleanliness and Support Services. MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS The study brings out a strong recommendation in assessing the dimensions that contribute in creating an experience in the context of airline and if replicated in the other services industry as well shall bring in lot more aspects related to experience creations. It is very much essential that a service organisation understands the dimensions that matter to create a delight and thus allows any organisation to put their > RJEBS: Volume: 02, Number: 09, July-2013 Page 59

8 resources to the best utilisation in creating the experience. The purpose of this research is to explore the best possible in bringing out the dimensions of customer experience particularly in the context of airlines, as these dimensions contributes directly on the approval or disapproval of the passengers, which becomes exceptionally important in the services industry. Secondly the purpose is to develop a scale that measures customer experience. CONCLUSION The study tried attempting to develop the factors contributing to customer experience in the context of air travel. The customer interacts in the dynamic process with the drivers of experience and vice versa as an active co-creator in the total process. For the service providers the study results shall indicate the value of investing a great deal of effort in understanding the complexity of interactions, especially between the customers and the drivers of such experiences shall really be an eye opener and thrive upon to provide the same as an USP for them to stand out from the competition. LIMITATIONS The sampling method is a limitation to the current study, as the sample represents a limited crosssection of the travelling population and thus may not represent the true and entire population. DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH The present study depicts the variables involved in the creation of experience for the customers travelling in an aircraft, relating to the airline industry. Further study could be attempted to develop the measurement device and the study of customer experience. REFERENCES Ailawadi et al., (2009). Customer Experience Management in Retailing: Communication and Promotion, Journal of Retailing, 85 (10). Arussy, L. (2002), Customer experience management: the heartbeat of your business, C@all Center CRM Solutions, Norwalk, CT available at: oe1000.htm Beatty et al., (1966), Customer-sales associate retail relationships, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 72 No.3, pp Berry, L. and Parasuraman, A. (1994), Improving service quality in America. Lessons learned, Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp Berry, L (2002), Managing the total customer experience, Sloan Management Review, Vol. 43 No. 3, pp Calhoun, J. (2001), Driving loyalty: by managing the total customer experience, Ivey Business Journal, Vol. 65 No. 6, pp Carbone, L.P. (1998), Total customer experience drives value, Management Review, Vol. 87 No. 7, p. 62. Clutterbuck, D. and Goldsmith, W. (1998), Customer care versus customer count, Managing Service Quality, Vol. 8 No. 5, pp Cronin, J.J. and Taylor, S.A. (1992), Measuring service quality: a reexamination and extension, Journal of Marketing, Vol.56, July pp Day. G.S. (1969), A two dimensional concept of brand loyalty, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol.9 No.3, pp De Ruyter, K and Bloemer, J. (1999), On the relationship between perceived service quality, service loyalty and switching costs, International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 9 No.5, pp Dick, S.A. and Basu, K. (1994), Customer loyalty: toward an integrated conceptual framework, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 22 No.2, pp Jarvis, L.P. and Wilcox, J.B. (1977), True Vendor loyalty or simply repeat purchase behavior?, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol.6, pp Dawkins, P. and Reichheld, F. (1990), Customer retention as a competitive weapon, Directors and Boards, Vol. 14, summer, pp > RJEBS: Volume: 02, Number: 09, July-2013 Page 60

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