Customer Experience in the Clouds: A Look at Today s Air Traveler Expectations. September 2017 Prepared by LaunchSquad

Transcription

1 Customer Experience in the Clouds: A Look at Today s Air Traveler Expectations September 2017 Prepared by LaunchSquad

2 Customer Experience in the Clouds: A Look at Today s Air Traveler Expectations September 2017 Prepared by LaunchSquad Contents Overview + methodology 3 Travelers want to feel heard Above all, attitude matters most. 5 It s time to improve digital feedback channels Many travelers have no airline preference All customers should be treated equally About Clarabridge Clarabridge. All rights reserved. 2

3 Overview + methodology Whether it s in the sky or at the airport, travelers have high expectations about how their entire travel journey should unfold. There s a lot that can go wrong that s out of an airline s control when it comes to taking care of their customers from poor weather conditions to long lines at security and tensions can run as high as 30,000 feet. There s a lot to be learned from consumers travel habits and preferences that airlines can use to improve their overall customer experience from the minute the customer arrives at the airport to the moment they make it to their final destination. Clarabridge conducted an international study intended to uncover consumers true behaviors and expectations around air travel so that airlines can identify actionable takeaways for improving the customer experience. When one bad interaction has the power to make international headlines, it s crucial for airlines to take stock of what their customers are saying and implement that feedback to not only create a more pleasant travel experience for their customers, but to save countless dollars when it comes to addressing customer issues and preventing a PR crisis before it arises. Methodology: In August, Clarabridge conducted two surveys of more than 1,200 consumers in the United States and United Kingdom respectively. For both surveys, respondents were between the ages of 18 and 60. Additionally, Clarabridge analyzed more than 750,000 online ratings/reviews and mentions shared on public forums from Facebook, Airline Quality and Trip Advisor. Clarabridge. All rights reserved. 3

4 Travelers want to feel heard. 69% of American consumers have never submitted a complaint or feedback to an airline company and shockingly that number climbs even higher in the UK with 73% of respondents never submitting a complaint about an air travel experience. More than a third of customers who have not submitted feedback said it was because they don t believe that airlines are listening. This is likely because feedback often goes unanswered a whopping 46% of US consumers report that their complaints have gone unrecognized and unaddressed. Advice to Airlines: It s likely that your airline is taking this customer feedback seriously, but that needs to be communicated back to the consumer so that they feel heard and therefore more satisfied. If you re not already paying attention to this feedback, consider investing in a platform that lets you automatically analyze all your customer feedback data in real-time. This will help you hone the actionable insights your customers are already providing, ensuring that no valuable feedback on how to improve the customer experience is slipping through the cracks. 69% of American consumers have never submitted a complaint or feedback to an airline 73% of UK consumers have never submitted a complaint or feedback to an airline Clarabridge. All rights reserved. 4

5 Above all, attitude matters most. While it s no surprise that the price of a flight drives a great deal of consumer purchasing decisions, across the board more consumers rate friendliness of the flight staff and crew as the number one reason they are loyal to a particular airline. 38% of American travelers, and 41% of British travelers are in agreement that staff attitude is most important. Online reviews show the same, with staff friendliness having the highest correlation to a good overall rating on the review itself. 85% of American travelers who would recommend a particular airline cite staff attitude as the number one reason why. Similarly, detractors mention lack of friendliness in staff as reason for not recommending an airline. Advice to Airlines: These findings underscore that it is imperative for an airline to encourage staff friendliness and a positive attitude through the entire organization to ensure that customers have only pleasant interactions with their brand. Airlines need to use the Voice of the Customer to ensure that all policies, procedures and staff training embody an attitude of friendliness, which will set them apart from their competitors, and enforce brand loyalty. 38% 41% of American travelers feel staff attitude is most important of British travelers feel staff attitude is most important Clarabridge. All rights reserved. 5

6 It s time to improve digital feedback channels. In both the United States and the United Kingdom, customers expressed a preference for providing their feedback to airlines through digital means. Of the customers who do frequently provide feedback, 42% and 46% (in the US and UK respectively) do so via , and 13% and 11% by social media. Across both regions, more than half of all customers utilize digital tools in some way to comment on their travel experiences. In the UK this is even more pronounced, with only one in ten complaints actually involving a direct person-to-person interaction. Advice to Airlines: This suggests that airlines need to improve their technical infrastructure to support customer complaints via digital means, be it on social media or in-app. It is much less expensive to service customer complaints digitally, so investing in this technology will not only improve the feedback process for customers to better fit their preferences, but save your company money in the long run. Clarabridge. All rights reserved. 6

7 Many travelers have no airline preference. A large portion of American travelers (31%) are agnostic when it comes to airline brand allegiance, and a quarter of consumers in the UK also report no specific airline loyalty. For consumers with no brand loyalty in the US, about 35% make their flight decisions based solely on price. In the UK, it s approximately 30% of consumers. Advice to Airlines: This presents a huge opportunity for airlines to stand out from competitors by truly listening to the Voice of the Customer. Airlines can get an edge on competition if they understand exactly what consumers want from their air travel experiences (hint: it s not always flashy amenities) so that they can provide the best possible service. By gaining a reputation for providing the best and friendliest travel experience, airlines can earn customer loyalty that travelers will be willing to pay the extra dollar for. 35% of Americans make their flight decisions based solely on price. 30% of UK travelers make their flight decisions based solely on price. Clarabridge. All rights reserved. 7

8 All customers should be treated equally. 67% of American travelers say that they detect that crew members treat first class travelers better than other passengers, and nearly ¾ of UK consumers (72%) detect the same. Although customers who prefer to fly first class have special amenities afforded to them that other travelers did not purchase, the difference should not be so striking to the average consumer beyond travel perks. The divide between the airline travel classes can sometimes cause tensions during an already stressful travel experience. Advice to Airlines: Customers from all travel classes should feel as though you are taking their needs into consideration, and that you are not providing preferential treatment in terms of the way you address customer concerns. Considering that we ve already uncovered that flight staff and crew attitude is paramount in determining airline loyalty, airlines have an opportunity to listen to the Voice of the Customer and improve staff and crew attitude towards all travelers. Clarabridge. All rights reserved. 8

9 At Clarabridge, our mission is to help businesses put customer feedback to work. Here s how we do it: Listen, Analyze, Act. The Clarabridge platform allows you to listen to your customers from everywhere they are talking, analyze their feedback with our proprietary bestin-class natural language processing (NLP), and act with real-time dashboards and alerts. Listen Analyze Act Survey Feedback Frontline Response Social Feedback Customer Experience Analytics Interaction Feedback Business Optimization Why Clarabridge? Clarabridge helps you listen to, analyze, and act on the customer feedback that is hidden in silos across your organization and in other public forums. Putting customer intelligence to work empowers your business to make big and small decisions and drive your customer experience management programs. Our platform analyzes all sources of customer feedback and detects emotion, context, and root causes, as well as predict future customer behaviors. When we say all, we re serious! Accurately interpret data from social media, online chat, call center recordings, agent notes, surveys, online review sites, and many other sources. See your feedback come to life in dashboards and reports that drive action with customer engagement, case management, and alerts. Clarabridge is the only solution that can analyze feedback data from all sources, all in one centralized hub and integration is a snap. Forrester Research recently ranked our text analytics technology as a leader. With the power of Clarabridge, your front-line team can quickly and easily respond to customers, and you can drive customer-centric optimization throughout your entire organization. Fast Facts SaaS provider of customer intelligence and analytics 850+ global brands served Founded in 2006 Headquartered in the Washington DC metro area with offices in San Francisco, London, Barcelona, and Singapore 300+ employees worldwide Offers the world s most comprehensive customer intelligence platform, powering customer experience management programs Serves customer experience professionals, marketers, customer care leaders, and operations managers Key clients include Capital One, G.E. Healthcare, United Airlines, Carnival Corp., Unilever, AARP, and Verizon 9 Clarabridge. All rights reserved.

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